Experienced lathe operators please help me.

[waverly]

Br7.62, I have the same 13x40 GT. I like it as well. 3 years down the road if the 14x40 GT was around I would have bought it instead. I'd like the footbrake, and the 2" bore, but I'm not selling my13X40 to get one.
I did take classes last year at local tech school. I took advantage of the over 60 free tuition thing. The first 8 weeks was shop safety. It was a lot of fun and I was the senior member of the class. I would say take the classes if available. There was all kinds of grant money available for the people in my class. Most all got on as apprentices at Boeing, Bosch, or Eaton here in the Charleston area.
P.S. chuck keys were launched a couple of times in class, and responsible parties were sent home for the evening.

 

[BR7.62]

Very nice, I also kinda wish it had a foot brake .
Since you have to leave the half nut engaged for metric threads it might make it easier.
My other gripe is the 3 jaw that it came with. Was 1.5 thou out after "adjusting"
It as far as I could.
I ended up doing a bunch of work to it too turn it in to a "true adjust" type chuck.
Plus picked up a bison 4 jaw but I really didn't want to spend that extra money....

 

[waverly]

BR7.62, My 3 jaw was about the same as yours. It did take a little work to get it down to 1.5 also. It's in my tool box. The 4 jaw was very good that came with it. That's all I use.

 

[gunnermhr]

Another PM 1340 GT satisfied owner. Mine has single phase, if I had a do over I'd get the 3 phase and go with Mark's VFD conversion, he goes by mksj on hobby-machinst.com. I'm considering changing out to a 3 phase. That'll give me braking, variable speed and overall smoother operation.

Mine was a package deal with the PM DRO, I would go with the Essson DRO, it's more user friendly and has a nicer display.

The other things I got with it that I really like is a TMX 6 jaw set tru chuck, collet closer, precision keyless chuck and an Aloris tool post.

Hobby-machinst.com has a section dedicated to precision mathews with a ton of great information. There are a ton of great reports on customer service and it has a 5 year warranty. I picked mine up at the warehouse/store in Pittsburgh and spoke with Matt, he owns the disruption warehouse and met me on a Saturday. He seems like a good person, was very helpful and answered a ton of questions

 

[Ramblerman]

Another PM 1340 GT satisfied owner. Mine has single phase, if I had a do over I'd get the 3 phase and go with Mark's VFD conversion, he goes by mksj on hobby-machinst.com. I'm considering changing out to a 3 phase. That'll give me braking, variable speed and overall smoother operation.

Mine was a package deal with the PM DRO, I would go with the Essson DRO, it's more user friendly and has a nicer display.

The other things I got with it that I really like is a TMX 6 jaw set tru chuck, collet closer, precision keyless chuck and an Aloris tool post.

Hobby-machinst.com has a section dedicated to precision mathews with a ton of great information. There are a ton of great reports on customer service and it has a 5 year warranty. I picked mine up at the warehouse/store in Pittsburgh and spoke with Matt, he owns the disruption warehouse and met me on a Saturday. He seems like a good person, was very helpful and answered a ton of questions

I got Mark's electrical conversion and run my PM1340GT on 3 phase with a VFD... absolutely love it...would really love the footbrake, but wouldn't sell what I got now to get the 1440 either (but if you got the room and money, get it!!)

I was going to buy a mill from PM too, but ended up with an old 9x42 Sharp BP clone (First brand)...and I definitely don't regret that...Great piece of machinery. Good luck and make some chips!! Kevin

 

[B Nettesheim]

My advice is to hang on to your money for a bit. Go take the classes that you are talking about, then you will have some experience with a lathe and you will first hand know what you like and don’t like about various models. Secondly buy some micrometers and practice measuring objects, doing this with repeatable results takes some time, good luck in your new adventure BN

 

[alinwa]

Hello and thank you for taking a minute to read my post.
I have come into a little money and I wanted to purchase a lathe and take a few classes
at the college. I know NOTHING about what I need to tread and chamber a barrels. I wanted to
get an idea of what I needed and I was hopping that someone would steer me in the right direction.
I know that is going to take A LOT of time and practice to be any good and I am under NO delusion
that I will be chambering my own barrels anytime soon.
I was just looking for some advice. Grizzly has a 40 in Lathe for sale but the 36 in is a grand cheaper. Do I need a 40 in.?
Thank you.

I'm going to add a vote for the Grizzly G4003G..... AND say, save your money regarding the schooling but ONLY IF YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY GROUNDED IN SAFETY PRACTICE!!!!!

There's a post on here containing an image of a lathe with the key in the chuck and later a "hehehe I knew I'd catch hell" post and if you found that funny DON"T GET A LATHE!

A lathe will KILL YOU!

a chuck key will K I L L Y O U ! ! !

messily

Let me repeat..... this ain't a toy, it will drag you in squealing and grind you into lasagna meat and be humming away merrily when your SO comes and finds your pool of what's left.

If you're absolutely comfortable working around electricity or grinding equipment or airplane propellers or big ol' hawnkin' woodchippers without getting hurt....... if you can back a truck or a dozer without driving over your buddies on the jobsite...... if you know how to keep yer stupid fingers out of the sausage stuffing machine, y'er tit out of the wringer then get a lathe.

And I suggest the G4003G first and foremost because for it's cost...... just in case it ain't your cuppa'........ even if you can't sell it for more than half price, you're only out a couple grand. And you can't get a whole lot of school for a couple grand, even if it's walking distance from your home.

And yer gonna' NEED that money........

for tooling

 

[Ggmac]

G4003 grizzly is one of 3 I use a lot of

 

[tobnpr]

^^
That's the advantage of belt drive over geared head lathes- safety.
Safety for the lathe. Safety for the operator.
Why the SB's were used for decades in smithing and vo-tech schools.
Crash a belt drive, the lathe will survive without major damage. Not so with a geared head...or God forbid, a piece of loose clothing that shouldn't have been there in the first place.

A job shop needs the power of a geared head, a gunsmith does not...