Holy cow, my PM1236 shipped!

CraigS said:
My PM1236 arrived last Friday, been looking it over.

I discovered to my dismay that my machine is metric, metric compound and cross slide lead screws and a metric threading lead screw. Can someone confirm if these are metric or imperial. I have some literature that touts it having inch lead screws. What am I missing??????


Craig
Click to expand...

I got your PM but I'll just answer here as it's pretty much the same....

If I may ask, what gives you the impression that you have metric leadscrews? My PM1236 is imperial. I have confirmed that my carriage leadscrew is 8 TPI, same as the Grizzly 12x36s.

I'm assuming you held a scale up to your leadscrew? How many teeth per inch do you have?

Another way to confirm is to single point a thread. Don't need to do a full thread of course, just a scratch pass. The threading dial & chart are only good for imperial threads & won't work for metric. Confirm you have the 24T gear up top & the 48T gear on bottom, then do a 16, 24, 32 (etc /8) TPI scratch pass (& check the thread pitch if you want), disengage the half nut, bring the carriage back & do another cut engaging the halfnut at any position. If you do have an 8 TPI leadscrew you can engage the halfnut at any point (threading dial does not matter) & still line up with the thread. If you do in fact have a metric leadscrew, chances are you won't line up on that first scratch pass.
 
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I just saw a pic of ricsmall's lathe that he posted & I noticed this....

Hmm, why does it appear to have a thread dial chart for metric threads? What does the T - 0, 15, 16, 14 mean?

Craig, I assume yours has the same chart?


PM12365-2014Tchart.jpg
 
Will,
I just went out and measured the cross slide and main lead screw.
Cross Slide 5turn / 10mm = 2mm/turn or .5T/mm
Main lead screw 5turns/15mm = 3mm/turn or .33333t/mm

I didn't measure the compound slide screw directly but measured the slide movement with 360 degs of the hand wheel and its also clearly metric

The witness marks on the dials agree on being metric. The inch band there are only 79 ticks per revolution. (Acutal number would be 78.74016 if you do the math.

Yes I have the same chart, too late to try and figure it out.

I kind of think you will not be able to use the threading dial on imperial threads except possibly in a small number of cases.

Craig
 
All,

I'm working to get to the bottom of this...


Ray
 
Subscribed. I am interested in the response as well as the literature states "inch and metric dials", whereas on some models they specifically indicate an 8 threads per inch imperial leadscrew (.125" per revolution of handle).

Mike.
 
Help is on the way! Depending if you're an optimist or pessimist, you'll consider yourself either lucky or unlucky.

Four cargo containers of 1236 machines arrived and apparently, the last container was all metric machines. Matt had a special order for 1 metric machine and apparently that got lost in the translation to 1 cargo container.

Replacement parts and instruction sheet will be sent to all impacted customers which so far seems to be 8 people. The kit will be the standard factory changeover kit (which is normally available as an option that we don't normally advertise) consisting of a new leadscrew, compound screw and nut, crossfeed screw and nut, all associated dials and a new label with the proper threading charts. You can keep the old parts and furthermore, continue to use the machine as you wish.

Matt has done this conversion many times and it takes him about 30 minutes. A store credit is being offered to compensate for the troubles. FWIW, for the purpose of cleaning my machine, I've had all these parts removed and it is not hard. The machine remains totally intact and the various screws slide out after removing a couple bolts and roll pins. For the leadscrew, you just knock out a roll pin and it slides out the tailstock end. For the lead and compound screws, you remove the handles and a couple bolts that hold the thrust bearing plate and the respective screws come right out.

Right now, Matt is going through the orders to find the individual customers that may have received the metric machines. He's trying to determine if this can be done by serial number but doesn't know if this is possible. He found-out about this last night at 9PM and was on the phone with the factory until 4AM. If you have one of the metric machines, please call Matt or Nicole as only they can process this as my accounting system is not setup to handle factory issues.

We're sorry about the mixup. On the bright side, at the end of the ordeal, you'll have a machine that can be converted to/from US/Metric at will.


Ray
 
Guys, I just saw this as I've been on the road this am, without the machine running yet, I'm assuming by the chart on mine it is metric? Thanks for any info.

Richard
 
Judging by the pic of your lathe that Darkzero posted and its similarity to mine, I would guess yep. For your reference, here are some pics of my dials. Notice how they only go up to 80 on the inch scale (red). Also, here is a pic of my threading chart...same as yours.

From what Ray says, Matt is getting us squared away.

DSC08491.jpg
DSC08495.jpg
DSC08494.jpg

DSC08491.jpg DSC08495.jpg DSC08494.jpg
 
If it's any consolation, the kit that' being offered normally cost just under $500. It's coming to you free, postage paid and Matt is offering an additional store credit for tooling etc to compensate for your troubles...

You can keep all the original components and thus have the ability to convert completely over to metric. The kit is a standard option offered by the factory but Matt has never chosen to offer it.

FWIW, he tracked down 3 of the machines to a school. 3 of 6 machines they ordered were metric.


Ray
 
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