[sdavilla]

Order one, a few months later, it arrived today. no box damage on outside. Looking good so far.

Never sure what size the truck might be so I meet them on the main road and fork it in. Glad I had 485 backhoe attached to the 4500/460, feels heavy, BOL says 700 lbs. Loader lifted it like nothing...

And into shop.

First thing is to un-band from pallet and place it on the backhoe cart so I can move it around easy.

Peek-a-boo...

Top and sides of crate removed, now I can take a good look. Seems ok, nothing floating about.

Test fit the chip pan.

Tool box, love the oil bottle, empty of course Everything else is floating in a pool of oil. lol.

Mounting kit. Recommended as the t-slots are metric, close to 9/16.

So far, I'm pleased. Arrived with no transport damage. Next step is to remove the copious amounts of oil and grease that is all over everything.

 

[theduke]

Is the gearbox full of fish oil or dry?

Looks like you got some basic setup tooling......anything helps.

They didn't waste much crate space the way they shoehorned it in there.

Country of origin?

I have some goofy mill lathe combo.....while the lathe is useable the mill is garbage and has a crack in the head where it clamps the outer spindle piece.

 

[sdavilla]

No gear box, belt drive with a low and high range (belt move) 50-3000 rpm. China of course. Their PM-728VT is Taiwan made but only 320 lbs vs 520. I pondered long and hard between the PM-728VT vs PM-30MV. Heaver is always better, right ? The PM-30MV seems to have more oomph so tossed the dart.

Eventually, will CNC it and replace the lead screws with nice double nut ones. For now, it gets 5um linear glass slides and DRO (TouchDRO) and I'll old school the backlash.

 

[PaDave]

Yahoo! Let the games begin!

 

[Ritz]

I've been looking at the smaller PM-25. I currently have a modified SIEG X2 mill that I'm starting to outgrow. I'll be curious to hear how you like your new mill once you've got it together and trammed up.

Best,

 

[sdavilla]

Shiny

The spray bottom just out of the picture contains WD-40. A few soaks and the cosmaline comes right off.

Took off the chip shield, hard stops and way clamps. Motor/belt cover too. Easier to clean.

I think I might need a bigger vise This is a 4 inch Vevor brand. Cheap enough to start with.

Still thinking on which side for linear glass scale.

This side, easier to hit way oil points, way clamps might be an issue. Loss of hard stops and inch scale.

On the other side, no way clamps but another pair of way oil points and mount for lower rubber chip shield. That could be moved. Oh and I will have lost 3/4 inch of travel, the thickness of the glass scale. Humm...

 

[ttazzman]

looks great.....keep us posted how it works.....lol i have a bit of envy going on here ...

 

[jthibodeau89]

Be sure to verify the x and y axis are perpendicular. Clough42 was setting up a PM30, and after installing the DROs, found that something on the table was machined out of square. PM took it back and made it righr. But the issue could not be fixed on that particular machine. Best to tram it out before installing the DRO.

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[sdavilla]

Ahh, Clough42. I want to buy all his toys. I watch him all the time, he's very good. His was a PM940 that did not have perpendicular x/y axis. He swapped it for a PM935. I looked at PM935 but way out of my price range.

As far as I know, PM-30MV's are pretty solid, not read anything major wrong about them. But do intend to measure everything to know it's limits.

 

[jthibodeau89]

His was a PM940 that did not have perpendicular x/y axis. He swapped it for a PM833.

As far as I know, PM-30MV's are pretty solid, not read anything major wrong about them. But do intend to measure everything to know it's limits.

Ahh OK. I knew it was one of the square columns that was bad, and was replaced with a knee mill. Guess i don't know my PM tools. Glad you are in the know.

Now to add cnc drives to my ACRA clone.


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[Ritz]

Someday, I hope to have the space and a spare crane so I can get a Bridgeport.

Best,

 

[jthibodeau89]

Don't need a crane, just a 5k fork truck.

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[sdavilla]

Don't need a crane, just a 5k fork truck.

Heh, I did consider a Bridgeport. It would have to be local but then I thought, oh wait, how am I going to move it ? Even if I did get it home, max lift on the jd4500/460 is about 3000 lbs at the best point, so 2500. Bridgeport's weight much more.

 

[Kennyd]

Heh, I did consider a Bridgeport. It would have to be local but then I thought, oh wait, how am I going to move it ? Even if I did get it home, max lift on the jd4500/460 is about 3000 lbs at the best point, so 2500. Bridgeport's weight much more.

I moved my Bridgy into my basement in pieces, it's really not that hard. As I recall they are spec'd at 2200 to 2500 depending on which table it has.

My new (to me) Bridgeport MILL w/CNC conversion

Well, I've mentioned it a few times, but I finally got it. Between work, weather, and a basement shop remodel it's taken me about 8 months to make this finally happen. Part One is taking the mill apart and getting it loaded on my trailer...

www.greentractortalk.com

 

[Old Machinist]

Heh, I did consider a Bridgeport. It would have to be local but then I thought, oh wait, how am I going to move it ? Even if I did get it home, max lift on the jd4500/460 is about 3000 lbs at the best point, so 2500. Bridgeport's weight much more.

We had two Bridgeports where I worked. A 36" and a 48". The 36" was worn out. I adjusted the gibs but couldn't get it to repeat within .010". The 48" was dead on but the gib adjustments were bottomed out on the X axis. Both machines were VERY OLD!

We replaced the 36" Bridgeport with a 54" ENCO. It was a pretty nice machine and the long bed was needed for some jobs we had. One neat thing about the Enco was it had oil tubes going from a common reservoir to all the oiling points. You just had to push the manual pump a few strokes and it was all lubed up.

The 48" bed Bridgeport was still my favorite machine for most jobs. Mostly because the ENCO was so tall I had to stand on my tip toes to loosen and tighten the collet bolt.

 

[jthibodeau89]

Heh, I did consider a Bridgeport. It would have to be local but then I thought, oh wait, how am I going to move it ? Even if I did get it home, max lift on the jd4500/460 is about 3000 lbs at the best point, so 2500. Bridgeport's weight much more.

I had to rent a 5k pneumatic tired fork truck to get the 3400lb ACRA from the trailer into the shop. Took all of 30 minutes to get it inside. Fork truck is much more maneuverable than a tractor.

But the price was right. Won mill at a local auction for $1375 out the door. Includes 2 axis DRO, VFD speed control, one shot lube, power draw bar, and power feed on X axis. I takes up a lot more space than your PM30, though. That will be a sweet little cnc conversion.

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[sdavilla]

A quick initial test of x/y axis flatness across travel. Less than 0.001 inch of deviation except near ends of x-axis where the table is at max overhang. There, the deviation goes up to about 0.001. The specs say 23 inches max travel so call it 22 inches once the glass slide is mounted.

Axis backlash seems about 0.004, might see if I can tighten this up as the screw mounts are split and have adjustment screws. Really does not matter once the DRO is mounted. Plus, when it gets CNC'ed, these get replaced with nice double ball nuts/screws that will have very little backlash.

Have not check nod/tram yet. Will wait until mill gets mounted on table because things might move as I'll be lifting with a strap around the head. Once mounted on table and bolted down, I'll re-check everything more carefully with a better test indicator. Lift should happen this weekend. I know, picts or it did not happen.

 

[jthibodeau89]

Coming along. All good so far

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[Ritz]

A quick initial test of x/y axis flatness across travel. Less than 0.001 inch of deviation except near ends of x-axis where the table is at max overhang. There, the deviation goes up to about 0.001. The specs say 23 inches max travel so call it 22 inches once the glass slide is mounted.

Axis backlash seems about 0.004, might see if I can tighten this up as the screw mounts are split and have adjustment screws. Really does not matter once the DRO is mounted. Plus, when it gets CNC'ed, these get replaced with nice double ball nuts/screws that will have very little backlash.

Have not check nod/tram yet. Will wait until mill gets mounted on table because things might move as I'll be lifting with a strap around the head. Once mounted on table and bolted down, I'll re-check everything more carefully with a better test indicator. Lift should happen this weekend. I know, picts or it did not happen.

Sounds like a nice machine. Were you planning to convert it to CNC right away? Is there a readily available "kit" to get there or were you planning to roll your own?

Best,

 

[sdavilla]

Sounds like a nice machine. Were you planning to convert it to CNC right away? Is there a readily available "kit" to get there or were you planning to roll your own?

There are about three companies that make cnc kits for the pv-30mv. Of those, Arizona CNC Kits seems one of the best. Runs about $1k. Double nut ball screws and motor mounts, very nice. Best thing is support, if something needs fixing, they will take care of it. Not sure about when it gets a CNC convert. Might be sooner than later.

The z-axis crank is high up and after moving the head up/down for a bit, my arm is getting a work out. And a motorized x-axis would be nice too. Could get a z-axis lift and motorized x-axis but after CNC, these would get removed and never used again. So cost factor there. $350 for the lift, $280 for motorized x-axis. That's 1/3 or 1/4 the cost for x/y/z axis motors/controllers.Depending on steppers, hybrid stepper, DMM servos or the high end, ClearPath Servos.

Stop that now, you have to get it on the table and powered up making chips before going nuts on "I need"... lol.