Lathe finally showed!

[MontanaRifleman]

Very cool Rhian! Does this mean you are going into the gun building business?

 

[bigngreen]

have you used the digital read out much? Like the big numbers and large buttons.
good luck
gary

Really liking the DRO!!! I'm just learning how to use it but I really like the calculator function and then I can transfer the calculated number for the new zero in one button push then cut down to it. I think once I get on to it I'll find it indispensable!!

I'm not wanting to go big with this, don't want to turn a fun thing into to much work but we'll see were it leads

 

[Speedo]

have you used the digital read out much? Like the big numbers and large buttons.
good luck
gary

Gary, a lot of us on this site have seen quite a few years slide by and the big numbers and large buttons get to be more attractive all of us.

Gus

 

[Trickymissfit]

Really liking the DRO!!! I'm just learning how to use it but I really like the calculator function and then I can transfer the calculated number for the new zero in one button push then cut down to it. I think once I get on to it I'll find it indispensable!!

I'm not wanting to go big with this, don't want to turn a fun thing into to much work but we'll see were it leads

once you get used to using the DRO, you'll find you can't live without it. Just speeds things up a lot. Specially when setting up shoulder lengths and cutting grooves and internal things you can't see. The one for the O.D. is nice, but just never relied on it all that much. (just enough to get me pretty close to a final finish cut.

If your new lathe didn't come with a spray mist can, then get one! I was always a flood guy till a buddy put me onto them.
gary

 

[Trickymissfit]

Gary, a lot of us on this site have seen quite a few years slide by and the big numbers and large buttons get to be more attractive all of us.

Gus

boy that's spot on!! I'm a young 67 years now and don't see anything like I used to twenty five years ago. I can't even read the lines on an old style vernier caliper without a magnifying glass! That God for dial and digital calipers!!! But getting back to the digital readout on that lathe. I just like the size of the numbers on it. I'm used to the ones on an Anilam and Hidenhand that are about 3/8th's inch. Those big numbers are a nice touch for us old folks!
gary

 

[Hired Gun]

One of these will be handy.

Full size chucks bend barrels. These will make doing barrel work easier.

 

[bigngreen]

Thanks for the pics Hired Gun, it's always interesting to see how others have set up things. I have the parts that I built for my other lathe, right now I'm turning the outboard spider. I want to get the True Bore Alignment System from SSG, to me that set up make the most sense with the least possibility of inducing any stress into the parts. I have to make the mount to secure my rotary coupler for the high pressure flush system also.

 

[Clark]

I ordered my PM1236 on March 10, 2009 and it arrived July 25, 2009.
The wait was on China.
When the guys in Penn got the lathe they put DRO on it and had it out the door in days.
I never seem to stop making tooling , buying tooling, and modifying the lathe.

 

[Trickymissfit]

when you guys buy a new lathe and get it running, you really ought to check the level on it every couple weeks till it quits changing (all normally will change a little bit till the bed settles in). Another thing I've ran into with scales installed by the middle men is that they often need realigning after shipment. From end to end shoot for about .0005" ontop and the sides. This makes the grid lines on the glass as narrow as you can get them; making the scales even more precise. Also if you buy a new lathe with scales; pop the end caps off the scales and shine a brite flashlight down them to check for clearence between the reader head and the glass rib inside them. I've seen more than a few that were touching, and if you crank the slide you ruin the scale. This may save you a lot of grief down the road.

About once or twice a year check the spindle nose for runout. If you see more than when itwas new, you simply need to tighten the bearings a little bit (not too much). Normally after about a hundred hours of use you need to readjust the bearings anyway as they break in.
gary