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Modern lathe options?

LVLAaron

LVLAaron

Gold $$ Contributor
Tangent to the 4 year old "chamber my own barrels" thread.

I want to eventually be able to turn my own barrels. I also want to make other widgets around the home shop.

Pretend you have 10k budget for just the machine (no tooling) and aren't interested in searching for something used. What would you be looking at? The PM1440GT seems to be popular, but grizzly has "gunsmith" lathes that run 4-6k. Grizzly also has a modern SB Heavy 10.

What would you be looking at?
 
I would seriously look at a used one if your budget is 10k. You need good spindle bearings and ways good enough to turn something straight for a little more than an inch, think about how much tooling you can buy with what you have left over!!!
 
The Precious Matthew's has a lot to offer, I bought the PM1340GT and could not be happier, I find myself using it 10 times more than my old Heavy 10. The PM comes with a 5 year warranty which is unheard of. Mine is a single phase, if I had a do over I would go with the 3 phase and VFD. I still may make that conversion. Im sure there are better machines available but I'm very happy with the results produced of my machine, as well as a lot of my friends.
 
As noted above, the Precision Matthews machines are pretty good. I have a PM1340GT, and it is the berries.
In the other thread, you might have seen that the Grizzly has to have gear changes to change thread pitch? Well, the PM machine is english lead screw and there is no need to change anything for 'normal' threads except the quick change gearbox.
Is it a "Perfect" machine? No, but it is worlds better than a clapped out "Perfect" machine in my opinion.

Frank
 
whatsupdoc said:
Just Curious whats the difference between the Precision Matthews SLP vs PEP?
Click to expand...

Standard Lathe Package, (PM-1440GT-SLP) Includes Lathe, With:
• Complete Base with Chip Tray
• NACHI (Japan) Spindle bearings, with +/- .0001″ Max Spindle Runout
• Back Splash Guard
• Reducing Sleeve for Headstock Center
• 4 Way Tool Post
• Headstock Dead Center
• Tail Stock Dead Center
• Thread Chasing Dial (4” Travel Thread Dial, for easier inch thread cutting)
• Feed Rod Clutch (To prevent overloading and using carriage stops)
• Everything Needed for listed Inch and Metric Thread Pitches
• Steady Rest
• Follow Rest
• Coolant System
• Foot Brake
• 5 Year Warranty


Preferred Lathe Package, (PM-1440GT-PEP) Includes Everything Above, PLUS:


• 8″ High Precision 3 Jaw Chuck, Autostrong, 2 Piece Jaws, Taiwan Made (Extremely High Quality Chuck, .0012″ or less runout)
• LED Work Light
• Leveling Pad Set (Cast Iron)
• 10” Face Plate
 
If you want to profile barrels your gonna need mass and ridgitity, and while PM makes good lathes they are a little light. My grizz 14x40 gunsmith lathe is 1500 lbs or so, profiling takes forever because it chatters. My grizz and I’m sure the pm machines chamber great but your only going 1” and right by the headstock
even my big victor at 3500 lbs will chatter
Look for used 15-18” and 3500-4000 lbs
Try to find something with a taper attachment , steady rest and follower rest, and even then you’ll likely need to put pneumatic fingers on the follow rest. Coolant helps too but I use a mister bc I don’t want to deal with coolant tank issues as I’m in south LA
 
I have a friend with the PM1440GT GTs are made in Taiwan. GS is made in China. He had the GS and sold it. He loves the GT and his work is excellent. I sold my 2000 lb jet 1340, made in China, that I had done hundreds of hours of work on, to buy a Taiwanese lathe and never looked back. So look for something from Taiwan. Make sure you get a cast iron base, not the sheet metal ones.

It's gonna be hard to make the $10K budget but maybe you can get $3k a year for the next 2 years to buy tooling. You'll need money for electrical. 3ph is much smoother so I recommend a 3ph lathe with either a nice DRO or rotary phase converter which is what I use. You'll want a DRO. that won't leave much for tooling. Get the biggest quick change tool post that will fit on your lathe. I use CXA and it is solid as a rock. Dorian or Aloris. I've worn out the chinese and I shouldn't have. When I got the dorian I said "wow, should have done that sooner". I do have a lot of the chinese holders for tools I don't use very often but make the post quality.

boring bars, indexible tooling, carbide inserts, etc. Collets and collet rig or collet chuck. Other precision chucks. a bison 6 jaw will set you back a grand. it will add up. rule of thumb is tooling costs as much or more than the lathe. Also, something I should have bought sooner is a baldor precision grinder with diamond wheels.

Jerry
 
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I have to weigh in here on the profiling issue. It doesn't matter how heavy your lathe is you can't profile without a steady or a follow rest, there is just too long an unsupported span.

which brings up another good point for gunsmithing lathes. You need a narrow headstock. The one thing I don't like about my lathe is the headstock is too wide. A lighter profile barrel supported between my front and rear spiders will want to chatter because they are 24" apart. A lathe with them 18" apart will be much better. --Jerry
 
I also purchased the PM-1340GT, I bought the PEP 3 phase package. Added the steel base which I raised 7". I added the Easson 12B DRO installed, an Aloris QCTP with 5 holder set, Bison 5C set tru chuck with D1-4 plate, 72 piece 5C collet set, added the 1/8"-5/8" ultra precision MT3 drill chuck. Bought a Hitachi WJ-200 VFD (you can buy from Precision Matthews/Quality Machine Tools) and wired/configured it myself using relays that came on machine, just no high voltage ever going thru them. You flip the driven pulley and then using VFD, you can have speed range from 40 - 1800 RPM. I've got a joystick jog fwd/rev that will turn around 6 RPM in low. With the Easson 12B DRO, I was able to add a magnetic scale to tailstock and it reads out as Z1 on display, also added a 1/2" drive socket base on tailstock, so you can use a torque wrench to tighten down. All of the add-ons get it close to your 10K. Now if you can swing 10K before any add-ons, then definitely get the 1440GT but I haven't ran across anything I need to do the 1340GT has fallen short on.

1st projects outboard spider, inboard spider on D1-4 backplate, later added 1-shot oiler for Norton gearbox, action truing fixture mounted on D1-4 backplate.
 
Last edited:
xr650rRider said:
I also purchased the PM-1340GT, I bought the PEP 3 phase package. Added the steel base which I raised 7". I added the Easson 12B DRO installed, an Aloris QCTP with 5 holder set, Bison 5C set tru chuck with D1-4 plate, 72 piece 5C collet set, added the 1/8"-5/8" ultra precision MT3 drill chuck. Bought a Hitachi WJ-200 VFD (you can buy from Precision Matthews/Quality Machine Tools) and wired/configured it myself using relays that came on machine, just no high voltage ever going thru them. You flip the driven pulley and then using VFD, you can have speed range from 40 - 1800 RPM. I've got a joystick jog fwd/rev that will turn around 6 RPM in low. With the Easson 12B DRO, I was able to add a magnetic scale to tailstock and it reads out as Z1 on display, also added a 1/2" drive socket base on tailstock, so you can use a torque wrench to tighten down. All of the add-ons get it close to your 10K. Now if you can swing 10K before any add-ons, then definitely get the 1440GT but I haven't ran across anything I need to do the 1340GT has fallen short on.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a truly awesome setup. You aren't saying 10K covered all that you described are you?
 
$7000 (machine + stand + precision 4 jaw + BXA master set delivered)
$800 Aloris QCTP with holder set
$1200 Bison set-tru and 72 piece set of collets
$230 Hitachi WJ-200 VFD
$900 Easson 12B installed
by the time you add wire, relays, panel, disconnect, joystick, pushbuttons from automation direct, you add another $300 or so.
The 5 uM magnetic encoder I added to tailstock and connected to Easson 12B came from UK and was about $160 delivered.

One thing I didn't realize initially is that Precision Matthews is Quality Machine tools and they can get almost any machine tool you want, Aloris, Dorian, Hitachi Drive, Bison, and I couldn't find any place that beat their price. If you add before it ships, it all ships for same price.
 
Last edited:
carlsbad said:
I have a friend with the PM1440GT GTs are made in Taiwan. GS is made in China. He had the GS and sold it. He loves the GT and his work is excellent. I sold my 2000 lb jet 1340, made in China, that I had done hundreds of hours of work on, to buy a Taiwanese lathe and never looked back. So look for something from Taiwan. Make sure you get a cast iron base, not the sheet metal ones.

It's gonna be hard to make the $10K budget but maybe you can get $3k a year for the next 2 years to buy tooling. You'll need money for electrical. 3ph is much smoother so I recommend a 3ph lathe with either a nice DRO or rotary phase converter which is what I use. You'll want a DRO. that won't leave much for tooling. Get the biggest quick change tool post that will fit on your lathe. I use CXA and it is solid as a rock. Dorian or Aloris. I've worn out the chinese and I shouldn't have. When I got the dorian I said "wow, should have done that sooner". I do have a lot of the chinese holders for tools I don't use very often but make the post quality.

boring bars, indexible tooling, carbide inserts, etc. Collets and collet rig or collet chuck. Other precision chucks. a bison 6 jaw will set you back a grand. it will add up. rule of thumb is tooling costs as much or more than the lathe. Also, something I should have bought sooner is a baldor precision grinder with diamond wheels.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Is there a downside to the rotary phase converter in your experience? I'd like to also get a 1440GT, but I'm up in the air on how to convert to 3 phase. A VFD would be ideal, but that might be pushing my electrical abilities.
 
BigBlueandGoldie said:
Is there a downside to the rotary phase converter in your experience? I'd like to also get a 1440GT, but I'm up in the air on how to convert to 3 phase. A VFD would be ideal, but that might be pushing my electrical abilities.
Click to expand...

Rotary converters are big... VFD's are small. They're not terribly hard to wire. It's all color coded :)
 
BigBlueandGoldie said:
Is there a downside to the rotary phase converter in your experience? I'd like to also get a 1440GT, but I'm up in the air on how to convert to 3 phase. A VFD would be ideal, but that might be pushing my electrical abilities.
Click to expand...
Rotary phase converters are noisey- i dont like to listen to mine running when im not using the machine. Since they do not provide true 3 phase you dont get as much power out of the motor-- around 70%----- its kind of hard to size motor overloads as the created phase will draw different current than the other 2
 
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