Getting a New PM-1054 Going

You will like this Mill. I love mine. I have the same one. I got mine in January.
 
Success! I think everything on this machine is A-okay. I have yet to test the DRO and power feeds.

I was able to finish the 2 plugs and 1 receptacle before I went to work yesterday.

First thing today, I called my Dad and asked him to bring over his Fluke. I have one, but he is still showing me how to test these things.

We had continuity on ground; this was between the terminal on the end of my power cord (plugged in at the running RPC, not plugged in at the milling machine) and a nut on the outside of the RPC.

For *two* distinct pairs of live terminals (placing the probes inside terminals of the receptacle), we had a consistent 120.1V. However, if you probed one terminal, it would start to climb to 120V, and then the meter said OL (overload). We checked that curiosity several times.

My Dad’s idea was to get into all of my plugs and receptacles and check my wiring, but I remembered that *one leg* was manufactured.

We checked all of the above again and again, and the phenomenon was 100% consistent; that is, one of the terminals would show OL. I told him that this *may be* a function of the one terminal being the wild leg. Once I said that, he said that was probably the case.
 
Before testing power on the machine, I very carefully checked that nothing was binding on the machine. I lubed the zerk for the back gears, topped off the way oil in the one-shot lube reservoir, put Velocite No. 10 in the spindle oil port. I will confess that I did not lube the quill. I am still deciding exactly what lube to use.

Long story short, I turned it on and everything was perfect. I learned that the gears may need to be adjusted a little before going from the back gears in to HI. I compare this to having to jog the spindle before engaging the speed (Low, Medium or High) on an engine lathe.
 
American Rotary AMP-10. It is on wheels. It is painfully expensive, but it is made in the USA and it is very quiet! I needed my RPC to be as quiet as possible because my neighbor is a crybaby.

The customer service from American Rotary is *stellar*. The one in the photo has three bays. I have a 20A circuit for my milling machine and a 30A circuit for my engine lathe. There is another circuit in there that I don’t think I will ever need.

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I like the fact that it is on wheels because I am a little OCD, and I need to be able to sweep and blow under there.
 
sr71xjet said:
Kind of looking at the same one but the 20amp and Tier 3
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Your only reservation should be if the cost would break you.

The customer service alone should be a huge consideration. If you can believe it, I was able to speak to an extremely knowledgeable tech person very late at night. You won’t find that at very many companies.

I tried unsuccessfully to get away with a 20A breaker for the engine lathe, and I had to increase that to a 30A. My electrical knowledge is about a 2 on a scale of one to 10. They made this upgrade go 100% smoothly.
 
erikmannie said:
Your only reservation should be if the cost would break you.

The customer service alone should be a huge consideration. If you can believe it, I was able to speak to an extremely knowledgeable tech person very late at night. You won’t find that at very many companies.
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Boy isnt that the truth...........
 
Speaking of stellar customer service, I had one question about the quill lock on the knee mill. I have always been able to phone up Precision Matthews and be on the phone with a tech guy in less than 2 minutes.

The problem was that I could not engage the quill lock on this new machine.

The PM tech guy explained that one (1) backs off the screw in order to be able to (2) pull out the quill lock handle, and (3) make adjustments to your liking. This is to be compared to the levers for locking an axis on a milling machine. You know how they have those levers that you (1) pull out, (2) swing around, (3) push back in, and (4) rotate clockwise in order to lock an axis?

With levers like this, there is often an issue with some casting, nut, saddle or milling machine table preventing being able to rotate the lever 360° or more.
 
erikmannie said:
Speaking of stellar customer service, I had one question about the quill lock on the knee mill. I have always been able to phone up Precision Matthews and be on the phone with a tech guy in less than 2 minutes.

The problem was that I could not engage the quill lock on this new machine.

The PM tech guy explained that one (1) backs off the screw in order to be able to (2) pull out the quill lock handle, and (3) make adjustments to your liking. This is to be compared to the levers for locking an axis on a milling machine. You know how they have those levers that you (1) pull out, (2) swing around, (3) push back in, and (4) rotate clockwise in order to lock an axis?
Click to expand...
Yes. Adjustable friction levers......
 
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