My Precision Mathews PM1340GT Arrival

I've never heard continental vs American dials but I'm still young. My old machine shop instructor (retired now) called them direct & indirect dials, that's what I see them being referred to online also. Direct dials indicate total off the diameter & indirect indicates off the radius. Most of the lathes there were old American iron & there were lathes that had both, just don't remember which ones.

I also prefer indirect, the cross feed dial indicating how much I am actually moving the tool. Since I got the DRO I don't really use the cross feed dial that much, just for reference. On my DRO I can switch back & forth, the modes are called diameter & radius (true lathe DRO & not the universal/mill type). I use radius for grooving, chamfering, threading, etc to reference DOC & diameter mode which is obvious. But the way I use diameter mode is I take a skim cut & measure the diameter. I then enter the measured diameter into my DRO then just cut to the targeted diameter reading the DRO & use the cross feed dial for DOC reference. Can also enter in the targeted diameter into the DRO after a skim cut, then cut till the DRO reads 0 but I never use it that way.

Oh, congrats on the lathe delivery finally! Nice setup!
 
Lathe I learned on and the one I have both are direct. I'd get all screwed up if I had to start thinking radius instead of diameter...

Bill
 
Lathe I learned on and the one I have both are direct. I'd get all screwed up if I had to start thinking radius instead of diameter...

Bill

I know it's the established convention but that terminology seems backwards to me. I would have taken "direct" to mean that the dial directly reads the motion of the slide.

At any rate, it's confusing to have two conventions.
 
Congrats on the new lathe Mike. It looks very similar in design to my CanTec 1440. I just lay a paper towel folded in quarters below the gear box to catch to oil drippings, and toss it every few days.

John
 
I would have taken "direct" to mean that the dial directly reads the motion of the slide.

Agreed. But I gave up trying to apply logic to machining when my friend tried explaining to me years ago why CNC memory was measured in 'feet'. Wow... :nuts:

Bill
 
Congrats on the new lathe Mike. It looks very similar in design to my CanTec 1440. I just lay a paper towel folded in quarters below the gear box to catch to oil drippings, and toss it every few days.

John

Thanks John. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. I will just cut a small absorbent pad and place it under. For now I just have a folded paper towel as well.

Mike.
 
Agreed. But I gave up trying to apply logic to machining when my friend tried explaining to me years ago why CNC memory was measured in 'feet'. Wow... :nuts:

Bill

Because the paper tape was measured in feet, of course. Before CNC came NC...
 
Looking good, I like the chuck holder too, I will be doing that to mine as well.
 
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