My new VM32 mill

Ben17484

Ben17484

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Hi All,

Just bought a ToolCo VM32 (same as the PM-30MV/Warco WM18/Weiss VM32).

45d600a10b1e829b4143ec827c8ff034.jpg


The potentiometer knob broke in transit, so I haven’t played with it yet really. The new pot should be through tomorrow though, so not long to wait.

Has anyone got a similar Mill with a cabinet? The cabinet doesn’t seem too sturdy and wobbles when moving the table. I know I’ve got some slightly spongy flooring down, so that probably doesn’t help, but I did have an older universal mill in the same spot before and didn’t have this issue. Maybe my old mills cabinet had a wider footprint, im not sure. Does anyone else have this problem? Do I need to bolt it to the floor?


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I have a PM30 that looks very similar - the major differences i see - the control box is layed out slightly different, latch on the door is on the other side and there's a drain on the back of the table.

When using the power feed for the X axis the machine wobbles a bit, especially during rapid travel. The cabinet is quite narrow and when the table is towards the end of the travel right or left it's kinda overhung a fair bit compared to the base which doesn't help at all. I haven't anchored mine to the floor as it's in a wood floored shed but i need to do something as it's a bit bouncy. The newer stand from PM has leveling feed on the outside:
https://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/stand-shd-pm-727-30/ which likely helps some.

Also my Y axis is quite tight for the final 1 -2" at each end which is almost half of the travel. I need to attempt to adjust the gibs or something to try to make that smoother. I've lived with it so far and usually think of it when i'm doing a project feeding and hit the tough spot.

Your mill looks good. Hopefully there's some upcoming project pics!
 
The stand is fairly light gauge material, I would expect you would need to build a solid stand out of substantial lumber to make a real improvement
in the stability. Bolting the metal stand will not solve the problem completely I'm sure due to the flex of the side panels- It's essentially a box with little
corner reinforcement
-M
 
Because of the large door opening on the front side, your stand is basically a 3-sided box. The fact it's not 4-sided makes it a lot less resistant to racking. Might I suggest that you stiffen thr front face by adding some L brackets (around the door corners) to stiffen that face?
Angle bracket.jpg

You can find such brackets at Home Depot or Lowes, or else go to Amazon. Get the heaviest (and longest) ones you can find. The ones from Amazon appear to be a bit llightweight ... but that's where I grabbed the above screenshot to illustrate what I meant.

 
Mills look really cool on a dedicated stand, but the stands are of less quality than today's Chinese mills and amplify the lack of the mills mass.

I bought a Weiss VM25L-D without the base and plopped it on a $279 toolbox from HF. The toolbox is incredibly strong and well built. And, I can move it about.

John
Mill 1.jpg
 
Thanks gents, I have a Weiss VM32 coming and so looking for stand ideas.
 
DavidR8 said:
Thanks gents, I have a Weiss VM32 coming and so looking for stand ideas.
Click to expand...

Nice. Pretty sure that’ll be identical to my Mill. Post some pics when you get it set up.


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Ben17484 said:
Nice. Pretty sure that’ll be identical to my Mill. Post some pics when you get it set up.


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Click to expand...
Will do. I may ping you for some pics of your DRO scale install as that's on my ever expanding project list. :D
 
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