New (used) lathe ...

[precisionworks]

I picked up the trailer last night, just after dark, and pulled it home. Really a nice car hauler, dual axle, surge brakes, etc. Rain was supposed to be in the area this morning, but it was all gone by 0700. I waited a couple of hours to let the roads get dry & went to pick up the machine. The seller called a local business with a big fork truck, at least 10,000# capacity with 6' long forks. The operator took his time & set the machine down in the front of the trailer, right in the middle.

The 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" plywood spans a large open area, plus it helps to keep the machine from sliding. We drove home at a slow pace, 45 mph tops, but had only 15 miles to travel. Off came the straps.

That big trailer makes the lathe look little :D

Walked over to my lawn mower dealer & borrowed his Nissan fork truck. Controls are identical to the fork truck at work, with lift, tilt & shift being just where I'm used to. With the lifting bars at each end & one sling on each fork it was easy to pick the machine off the trailer.

Getting the lathe into the shop took the longest time, as my overhead door opens only 84". We would move it a little, reposition the straps on the forks, move it a little more, etc. Surely is a relief to get it down & in the shop :D

The machine came with the original owner's manual & the original bill of sale. Purchase date was 09-01-2003. The correct model number, according to the manual, is 1440-Z ... unlike the 1340 that someone put on the front panel. I'll take care of that :crackup:

 

[csa]

Wow, very nice! Congrats on that purchase, I hope it serves you well. We're all envious.

 

[wquiles]

Looks great - thanks for the nice photos :twothumbs

 

[darkzero]

Awesome, the party has started! :party:
Love your machine shop sign!

 

[wquiles]

Barry, the thing I like the most about your new lathe is that solid, one-piece, iron stand. It looks totally solid. rigid, and stable. That is the type of stand I would like to have on my PM1236 - definitely jealous :naughty:

 

[precisionworks]

solid, one-piece, iron stand. It looks totally solid. rigid, and stable.

:D That was a big selling point for me, as so many 14x40 machines are a lighter weight lathe set on a stamped steel or welded steel cabinet. The Enco 14x40, shown below, is typical and weighs just 1900#. Not bad when parts are smaller & well balanced, but not too stable on larger parts set up off center in the 4 jaw.

Contrast that machine to the PM1440HD, also cast iron base, with a net weight of 2750#. It's lot easier to get a fine finish on a part with that extra weight below the lathe, helping to dampen the vibration.

Ted, who helped broker this deal, met me at the seller's shop & helped with the rigging, loading & strapping down. He met me at my shop to help unload & get the machine far enough inside the door that the door would close. Funny thing is that Ted sold that machine to Bob in 2003, helped arrange the sale from Bob to Jim in 2009, and helped me buy the lathe from Jim this week. I still have to rearrange the machine room, run a 240 volt circuit, build the RPC, etc., before she can make chips :sigh:

 

[StrikerDown]

That is a big difference in weight, my PM 1440 isn't the Heavy Duty version, it's more like the Enco model. The upside is it is way more machine than I anticipate ever needing. So far just using it for hobby gunsmithing, barrel work, screws, etc.

You never know what your customers will bring through the door so it will be nice for you to have the added capability.

Surely a heavy beast to shove around the shop!

 

[precisionworks]

post a picture of big daddy CXA next to little brother AXA! :D

If anyone's interested in the complete AXA set, it's for sale at $490 delivered ($100 less than I paid last November):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dorian-Quick-Ch...QQptZBI_Tool_Work_Holding?hash=item3caa833092

Surely a heavy beast to shove around the shop!

That it is ... it's in the welding/grinding room right now, until the South Bend can find another home. Then I'll have to borrow the forklift again and move it the final 50'. A pinch-point pry bar (60" long) will move it the last few inches.

 

[precisionworks]

Hard to believe that 7 days have passed & I have not touched the new machine ... planned to start on the RPC early this morning but got an urgent call from a customer & worked there til noon. Got home & up drives the Brown Truck with a few goodies:

Enco had a 20% off sale & I picked up the four Aloris holders - about the same price for new holders as eBay sellers get for used ones. The three CXA1 blocks hold tooling with a 3/4" shank, and the CXA4 block holds a 1" boring bar or (with bushing installed) a 3/4" bar.

The RTW tool holders were a bargain at $23.95 each on the Grainger.com website. Couldn't pass up inserts at $2.95 each. Still need inserts for one holder but it's a common (cheap) shape.

 

[precisionworks]

Last Sunday was the first time I was able to get back into the shop & the rotary phase converter (RPC) was Job #1:

Not much to describe about the RPC build - cut & weld a frame out of 1" square tube & 1.5" angle, add a pair of strap hinges so the pony motor can be lifted to tension the belt, adjust the pitch diameter on the small sheave so the rpm of the idler motor is about 1800 ... my optical tach shows 1812 rpm which is close enough :rolleyes:

I'll post a photo of the disconnect when it's wired in, but here's the wiring diagram:

Ted phoned to tell me that he has the South Bend sold & that we needed to get it bolted to a pallet for shipment. He & I pushed the lathe to the overhead door, lifted it a few inches with the forklift & set it down on the pallet. Then the real work began - getting the new machine moved over to it's final location. The forklift made it pretty easy, although I held my breath the entire time :huh:

She's now within about two feet of final position, but I wanted to clean, oil & adjust everything before moving her against the wall:

If you look closely at the photo above, there are at least a dozen oil buttons, one for each sliding surface. After pumping all these full & adjusting all the gibs the machine has that "just right" feel to the controls.

The red knob is FWD/OFF/REV and has to be pushed back before moving either up (FWD) or down (REV).

Everything adjusted out correctly, except the carriage lock lever. Six years of use had caused the lever to swing too far around, ending up in a hard to use position. A few tests with shim stock showed that a .015" shim washer was needed to position the handle so it pointed toward the tail stock when unlocked. Mechanically, that was the only mod I had to make.

So far so good. Planning to wire it in today & move it back to the wall.

 

[wquiles]

Very cool - getting closer and closer to cutting chips :D

 

[Tom Anderson]

Looks good! :thumbsup:

 

[darkzero]

Looks good! :thumbsup:

+1

:clap:

 

[precisionworks]

Sunday was "rearrange the machine room" day ... everything was moved toward the overhead door so the lathe would have room to chuck a long piece that projected beyond the left side of the machine. Nothing light in here, except 42# Tasha (who moves easily :D )

The lathe still needed to be moved about 12" to the right and 36" toward the wall. The forklift got it this far, using 4x4 posts to extend the reach of the forks, but the forklift would not fit through the door. The pinch bar moved the machine about 1/4" at a time, too slow for where it had to go. Finally, I lowered the two jackscrews under the tail stock end & placed 3/4" diameter pipe rollers under the base. Same thing at the head stock. This made it easy to push the lathe into position. The photo below shows the plates that act as temporary pads. These allowed precision leveling the machine so initial test cuts can be made.

Now it's time to run wire from the load center to the disconnect (just behind the DRO) then down to the RPC, then to the machine.

Hopefully today :D

 

[wquiles]

Excellent progress!

The lathe looks like it "belongs" in there ;)

 

[precisionworks]

Any contractor will tell you that a change order adds cost & time to a job ... and that's what happened :confused:

Instead of mounting the disconnect where shown in the last photo, I decided to move it to the far end of the room so the RPC noise would be less noticeable. I've owned a few commercial converters (Phase-A-Matic, Ronk, Cedarburg, ARCO) that were pretty quiet. One, a Phase-O-Matic from http://karammfg.com/ was louder than the Hammers of Hell ... but it had hundreds of hours use before I bought it. Even with new bearings & retaining compound to tighten up the worn end bells, it would wake the dead :huh:

This meant moving the disconnect (a ten minute job) and building a stand for the RPC (half a day including interruptions by paying customers). Plus it meant buying 50' of 10 gauge, 4 conductor, SOOJ rubber covered cord. The local hardware store sells this for $3.65 per foot, while my electrical supply charge $1.22 per foot - which meant an hour of driving to get the lower cost cord.

Figured out pretty quickly that hardware store fuses, the 250 volt kind, will not work in a 600 volt disconnect ... one more trip to the supply house :oops:

Wrapped up last night about 8:00 with only final wiring to do, probably an hour's work. Will post photos when done, either this evening or more likely tomorrow evening. Certainly a different experience than moving a smaller lathe into place - that was plug-n-play. This is work.

 

[wquiles]

Why was it that the VFD was not an option?

 

[precisionworks]

Too many items would have to be removed, spindle brake would not work as well without adding a large number of braking resistors, higher cost ($400 vs. $100), etc. If you remember when Brian (Mirage_Man) bought his PM lathe, he considered a VFD. His wiring, pictured below, is nearly identical to my machine - except that my lathe has more interlocks :D

Not saying that it cannot be done, but it's so cheap & easy to build a pony start RPC that the VFD is not an attractive option. Plus, I don't believe that I'll ever need to go lower than 40 rpm nor higher than 2000 rpm. In this instance, a freq drive doesn't offer enough benefits to justify the cost & time involved.

FWIW, Brian also chose a RPC to power his machine.

 

[wquiles]

Gotcha, I see where you are coming from. Certainly the cost is a big deterrent

My PM1236 has a similarly-looing control panel (actually I "think" that is my own wiring pannel, not Brians'), but after having done two VFD's, I don't feel the wiring will be a challenge since I already spent time re-drawing the electrical circuit/diagram for my own lathe and it now "looks" simple - I really understand what each wire does, where it goes, etc.. In fact the VFD solution for the lathe will be much simpler and elegant, at least to me as an Electrical Engineer. I just need to save enough funds for the VFD and the breaking resistor package, which as you know for a 5HP motor (10HP drive) is not a trivial amount :broke:

 

[Per-Sev]

Sweet score, I was a machinist for 16 years and the lathe was my favorite machine to run. I have always wanted one in my basement but never got a round to it, your's would work but I don't think it would fit down my stairs. I would not know what make first. Good luck wish it was mine.