I had been wanting a larger lathe for work for 5 years now, and drooling real hard for the last 2.
Finally pulled the trigger and it showed up yesterday.
Precision Matthews PM-1440TL.
Sorry for the cloudy pics. Lens was fingerprinted.
Arrived with no holes in the crate!
Well made crate and secured stuff inside…
Except for that ^^^^^Must be trying to douse the “China Factory Smell” Cute but odd,
So, I had to put this in my fab trailer. The 10’ wide side door was on the ditch side of the jobsite, so I had to lift with a crane, swing over the trailer, lower on the blind side (had spotters) to a rough terrain forklift, which then inserted into the side door.
The manual calls out for a single line pick from the first gap in the bedways. NOPE!
That made it heavy, real heavy on the headstock side even with the 8" 3 jaw chuck removed, tailstock and carriage all the way to the right and then some.
Had to remove the gap bed, then I could put a choker (3 actually, my light slings are only rated for 4200#, lathe is about 3500# I like a safety cushion) and not screw up the lead screw and other rods, then another to the right on a chain winch to level it out.
Mostly done with cleaning and break in run. 10min at each of the 12 speeds, then 15 at 620rpm.
Still to do;
- Level a bit more
- Fit three chucks (10" 4 jaw, 8" set true adjustable 6 jaw, 5c set true adjustable).
- Install DRO
- Install Tachmoeter
- Install VFD
- Move 18" to the right
- Add another 2.5 inches to the 3" riser blocks
- Level again with the real fussy .0002 over 10" spirit level.
- Then right about now, I will have to tear down the trailer and sip to the next job site.
