PM 1440 TS lathe purchase

wrmiller19 said:
I agree with your comment about 'overkill' for the hobbyist. Well, for most hobbyists anyway. But then there are always outliers... :)
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Well I guess I am one of the "outliers". I am going back to my old job in a few months and pretty much work 6 months a year. I plan to get my class 2 FFL and do gunsmithing and select machine work on my time off so I do hope to turn my hobby into something I can make enough to be self sustaining.
 
It sounds like you're buying a machine to do work/make money, not hobby stuff. A bigger, more commercial grade makes sense in that case. But, the 1340GT I'm waiting on is more machine than I need to support my personal gunsmith and hobby work so I guess I one of the outliers too, compared to some. :)
 
I am currently not on the mainland and will be back home in a couple of days. I can send photos of the inboard and outboard spiders then. One additional thing I like is, I was able to build the outboard spider and it does not interfere with the cover. On my other lathe , Jet 1340 BD, to use the spider all the gears were operating in the open as the cover had to be removed. Yes this lathe is probably overkill in my shop. We all learn with time to make adjustments for our equipments shortcomings and obviously many on this site are more skilled than I and produce beautiful work with lesser equipment . I have had the Jet lathe for over twenty years and other than replace belts it has worked well. It will produce accurate work once you learn its quirks. Did I really NEED a new lathe? Probably not but I wanted a more rigid lathe with more power. I was also tired of changing belts to change speeds. Gun smithing is not a very stressful deal for a lathe but this thing is a real pleasure to use for the gun work and great for other jobs here on the ranch.


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Doc, I don't think you will be disappointed in that lathe one bit. Had I not already gone well overboard on the milling machine and blown my budget to hell I may have gone that route but as is the 1340GT does everything I need it to and then some. I haven't even begun to push its limits yet.

Congrats and make sure to post up some pics when you get it set up and operational.
 
cgmaster, I apologize for not answering all your questions. Yes there are some gear changes to make for metric. Quite simple and quick, the extra gears come in the tool box. I am new at this site so I will try to upload some photos for you, will see how that goes. The gears are easy to get to and the changes to the gear train are well depicted on the cover.
To upload photos, Tapatalk says I need the latest version of their app from ITunes . iTunes says the latest version of Tapatalk is not compatible with this ancient IPad 1. I will try to get this done on the computer but it may exceed my tolerance for technology .


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Got my Mac Book Pro and went to the ITunes app store. It tells me that it cannot locate any Tapatalk app. So I went to the help section on this site and explained my problem on the area about posting photos and then on the section that lists the moderators that will help and when I hit send I get the message that this thread is no longer active. Defeated by technology! If you want the photos you can email me ; mdw@beecreek.net


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Well it think plans have changed. I am going to call Matt tomorrow and change to the 1340GT I think. I just bought an Acer 17x60 I couldn't pass up for the price and condition. My only concern is if I can use my CXA toolpost on the 13x40? I have tons of holders and tools for CXA which my Acer also has a Dorian with a 4 way quick change cxa that looks really nice.
 
cgmaster said:
My only concern is if I can use my CXA toolpost on the 13x40?
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I really doubt the CXA will fit on a 13" lathe. I would recommend getting someone to measure the distance between the top of the compound slide and the workpiece centerline on the 1340GT, and compare it to the measurements in the Aloris catalog. The CXA tool post is 0.250" taller than the BXA tool post. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it doesn't take much.
 
I use a Dorian BXA, I have had some problems with there oversize holders and travel. The PM1340GT top of the compound to the chuck center is 1.70". Also depends on the holders and tooling, but very doubtful that it would fit a CXA. One consideration, use a BXA QCTP with oversize BXA holders and you can probably use 3/4-1" inset holders.

That being said, you could probably get good $$ for the CXA Holders/tooling.
 
mksj said:
The PM1340GT top of the compound to the chuck center is 1.70". Also depends on the holders and tooling, but very doubtful that it would fit a CXA.
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The normal Aloris CXA-1 holder is 1.4375" tall to the top of the tool slot. That means that with a 3/4" bit in it (filling the 3/4" slot completely), and the bottom of the holder flush with the compound slide, it would be 0.253" below centerline, so it seems like it would fit (unless I am missing something obvious). BXA-1 is 1.1.25"

However, if you like #71 (parting holders), the CXA-71 will not work since the top of blade is 1.9375" (BXA-71 is 0.9375").
 
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