Pared Down 1440GT Order

[erikmannie]

I am going to try to land a PM-1440GT with factory DRO, but I will have to keep the amount of the order to an absolute minimum. Otherwise, I risk the whole acquisition falling through (in the form of a wife veto).

Questions:
(1) (Looking ahead) Does the taper attachment interfere with the DRO scale?

(2) To what extent does one need to change gears on a 1440GT for single point threading? I don’t mind the work of changing gears, but the time that it takes is an issue for me. I had hoped to get one of the PM 16” swing machines and be done with change gears.

(3) Should I plan on getting a domestic QCTP, or can an import QCTP serve here without degrading the tight tolerances of this Taiwanese machine?

(4) Same question for chucks as in question (3) above. Should I use the chuck that comes with the machine and save up for ultra high precision chucks?

 

[erikmannie]

I currently have a PM-1030V. I love the machine, but I crash the tool a lot. I almost always work on mild steel. Parting, boring & “facing the bottom of a bored cylinder” too often ends with the cutter dug into the material which I solve by backing off or sometimes an e-stop.

I use larger (14”-16”) machines when I go to school, and I have never crashed a tool at school. The only other difference between home & school is that I use a heck of a lot more cutting fluid at home. I can’t imagine that an increase in the amount of cutting fluid would cause a tool to crash. I think that the tool crashes are due to less power and rigidity.

An example of a tool crash is a HSS insert boring a 4” deep, 2” diameter hole in mild steel with only a .003” depth of cut. A large amount of CF was used, RPM was 178, and the power feed was .0025” per revolution. At school, the machines have always been able to eat up anything that I dialed in.

 

[erikmannie]

Every time I part 2” mild steel round stock, I wish that I had a larger machine. The process can take up to an hour. I need to sharpen the blade 1 or 2 times during the process. The blade gets buried about 20 times in the process.

 

[DavidR8]

When you say crash do you mean your tool hits the chuck?
Or that you stall the work?

 

[erikmannie]

When you say crash do you mean your tool hits the chuck?
Or that you stall the work?

I have never hit the chuck; I am super careful about that. I should have said the tool gets buried in the work.

I often wonder if I am damaging the machine for all the times that this happens. Like I said, this has never happened at school, and it happens quite frequently at home.

 

[erikmannie]

Maybe a PM-1030V isn’t the best choice to cut mild steel. I am patient, but I wonder if a 14” machine would make the work go a lot faster.

 

[erikmannie]

The sad thing is that I would not be able to fit two lathes in my garage. I can’t imagine ever parting (pun intended) with my beloved 1030.

 

[DavidR8]

Thanks for the clarification.
I've done the same thing on my South Bend 10K a couple of times. Nothing dramatic happens other than the belt pops off.
I have no issues parting off mild steel. I use a 1/16" wide parting blade, it's razor sharp and absolutely on centre.

Re 1440 questions Is it possible to get the manual for the lathe to understand what threads you can cut with each set of change gears?

I have an import QCTP on my SB and it works fine. Likewise my import 4-jaw. I had to disassemble to clean but after that it works fine.

 

[erikmannie]

Thanks for the clarification.
I've done the same thing on my South Bend 10K a couple of times. Nothing dramatic happens other than the belt pops off.
I have no issues parting off mild steel. I use a 1/16" wide parting blade, it's razor sharp and absolutely on centre.

Re 1440 questions Is it possible to get the manual for the lathe to understand what threads you can cut with each set of change gears?

I have an import QCTP on my SB and it works fine. Likewise my import 4-jaw. I had to disassemble to clean but after that it works fine.

In what way does the belt pop off? My machine stalls, and I have to back off or hit the e-stop.

Is that at all alarming for you with the belt pops off? I am no longer alarmed because the machine has always started back up again for me. I imagine that my belt is slipping on the pulleys when it is stalling; if this is not the case, then a lot of heat would be generated in the motor while it is stalling, as I understand it.

So how long would it take you to part a 2” diameter mild steel round bar? How many times would you bury the parting blade into the work during this process?

 

[erikmannie]

Does anybody have anything good or otherwise to say about the 1440GT? Most everything that I have read so far has been positive.