Imminent PM1340GT arrival

What would you rather do battle against?

  • One horse sized duck

    Votes: 3 50.0%
  • Fifty duck sized horses

    Votes: 3 50.0%

  • Total voters
    6
Yes, they are 1/2-12. Only place in the world where I still see a 1/2-12 thread still being used. (Ive tried to change it, but its one of those things where it was not worth the effort in explaining what they didn't understand) The machines are excellent and I have what really needed changed exactly how we want it, so I left that one alone.

I just want to say first off that you folks at QMT have been fantastic to deal with. From my bumbling first phone call with Matt to follow-up communications and order tweaks with Nicole and Greg, it's been nothing but a reassuring experience.

I completely understand having to pick one's battles with overseas vendors, I deal with them in my job from time to time too. It might be worth making a footnote on the stand's product page or a minor revision to the PDF manual about this quirky detail, just to get out in front of threads like these?

Again, thanks for the excellent customer service and support. Can't wait to get this baby going!
 
Bob, fortunately the stand for the PM lathe is not sheetmetal. The plate for the walls is 4 mm thick and the bars for the levellers are 9 mm plate. There's plenty of metal to chase the threads and fit a TECO style foot on it. Good feet have nuts on them as well. So it all works out quite well.

EDIT: you can see the thickness of the bottom bar in MonkMan's photo above.
Yes, I understand they are thicker. But still, 4 mm of mild steel is an exceedingly small thread depth to hold up 1500 pounds or so of lathe and work, sometimes shaking and jumping a bit. I left out that I would also have heavy washers on both sides of the cabinet sheet metal, er plate, and high strength, thick nuts above and below the washers, no cheap big box hardware. 4 mm of damaged threads from tapping them to a different pitch is a non starter.
 
not 4 Bob, 9 mm and there are 6 feet - 4 up front and 2 on the tail.
 
not 4 Bob, 9 mm and there are 6 feet - 4 up front and 2 on the tail.
Sorry Alan, did not catch the 9 mm bars in your post.

SAM_1700.JPG

Above are two of the four feet mounting the headstock end of my Kent 13x40 lathe. The 12 mm all thread is going through 13 mm thick bars on the bottom of the cabinet. All the hardware is 10.9 grade, including the all thread. All connections are locked tight after adjustment, no loose threads, no shaky lathe. The feet are 2 piece cast iron, and the upper part screws into the bottom part with a thread slightly different than the all thread, one screws in while the other screws out, differentially, making fine adjustment of leveling the lathe quite easy and predictable. The cabinet bottom bars are not threaded, that would just make the feet more difficult to adjust. Excuse the swarf and other detritus under the lathe...
SAM_1701.JPG

This is my Millrite mill. The all thread is 5/8" to fit the holes in the base. Again, all fasteners are locked down after leveling, no loose and shaky threads. All hardware is grade 8, including the all thread and washers. All nuts are extra thick. The base is not threaded, and that is an asset. This solid setup would be shaky without the extra nuts, washers, and strong fasteners all tightened down.
 
Here are the TECO style feet on my PM1340GT. I chased the Whitworth threads so I could install the feet in the most outboard position. Chasing the threads was a minor issue and would be less than a 5 minute job to remediate up front. I am quite pleased with the stand's fabrication detail and quality. It is stout and stable in this configuration.
I remember that I found many options out there for this style foot. I bought mine from McMaster. The feet have a capacity of 3450 pounds each, are easy to adjust when leveling the machine, and well made. You lock them at elevation with the jamb nut on the bottom. I personally did not see the need to put another nut on the top side. Of course this could easily be done if one feels the need. Here are a few photos.

McMaster drawing with model number:
McMaster feet.JPG


Feet as received:

feet ii.jpg


Feet installed:
headstock end.jpg Headstock end profile.jpg

lathe feet profile.jpg
 
I like that stand. Looks heavier gauge than the one that came with mine. :encourage:
 
Alan, I ended up buying these: link

They don't have any sort of vibration padding like yours, though. Would it be worth gluing some rubber shims to them?
 
While McMaster calls what I have cushioned on the description, I think the pads on mine are frictional pads to resist sliding and not for vibration isolation. The rubber discs are thin and really quite hard. (EDIT": McMaster calls them nonskid). I do not believe they would provide any significant dampening. BTW, I have not seen any significant vibration issues with my lathe. There are some natural frequency spots that show minimally from time to time in the lamp stalk vibrating a small amount but a small change in speed takes that out. I suspect that softer feet may even make that more pronounced by allowing more amplitude of movement.

I personally prefer something that is hard footed to gain what I believe is a benefit in leveling the lathe and getting it to stay there.

I set mine up initially with the factory supplied bolts, head down to get it going. They were far too slick and I was able to move the machine around by hand. That was good for installing control systems, DRO and the like. The ability to slide it a bit here and there for access was nice. But once that all was settled the feet went on. I considered making some pucks to go under the bolt heads but went with McMaster's as the quicker solution.

So if I had what you ordered, I'd put them on and not worry about it. I suspect they will be fine. If not, you can add some grip later.

Perhaps others that have installed what you bought or something similar can chime in and share their experience.
 
Alan, I ended up buying these: link

They don't have any sort of vibration padding like yours, though. Would it be worth gluing some rubber shims to them?

Those feet look great. Using something similar, I used a thin soft aluminum shim cut a bit larger than the foot to provide grip on the cement floor and prevent any sliding around like Alan mentioned in the above post.
The shims also allow you to feel if a foot gets lazy. To my mind, the four feet under the head end should always be evenly loaded for the best results.

I believe that relatively solid contact with the cement floor helps dampen vibration in the lathe. I avoid rubber because it compresses and deteriorates over time, from oil, etc.
 
Thanks for all of your feedback, folks. I made an appointment with UPS Freight for delivery on Thursday afternoon. It's going to be a good day! Once I wrap up the lathe setup project, finish building a workbench for a friend, and rebuild the wall cabinetry in my garage, I'll finally be able to park the vette inside again... :rolleyes:


I'm in the process of sourcing my initial tooling and I had another question: Are boring bars considered multitaskers, or are there specific boring bars for cutting internal threads?
 
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