Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Precision Matthews, any experience with the company or machines?

Strongly considering a few of their milling machines. Looking for first hand knowledge. The Taiwan built PM-833TV especially.

Thanks

No first hand, but never heard anything bad. I have a Grizzly, it's not a Bridgeport, but I didn't pay for a Bridgeport.

I’ve been looking at the PM branded stuff, mostly lathes. Found a place over by Rockford Illinois that had a few. Was able to go look at and run them. I’m pretty impressed. Hoping to add one to the shop before taxes go through roof. They seem to be really well equipped for the money. And with the older machines getting harder to find I think they are a viable option

I’ve got a Pm milling machine. I’ve been happy with it. I’ve owned it about two years. So far so good. Mine is the pm30mv.

Thanks guys. The used perfect condition comes with $$$$ tooling deals are sparse.

What model? A few possibilities...

A friend in Alaska just bought one.
And he looked carefully
Shipped to Bethel.......not cheap.

Does his homework

You are much better off buying a quality used machine with comprehensive tooling.

Yep, that will magically appear here in W Montana for my consideration... Check. Oh, and I should do this about 20 years ago roughly.

I saw some posts by WQUILES on the candlepower forum in 2009 about his Precision Matthews lathe.
I talked to Matt at Precision Matthews in March 2009, and ordered a PM1236 with DRO in October 2009.
It arrived in Seattle from China via Penn [where the DRO was added] in Jan 2010.



The PM1236 is the 5th lathe I have paid for. I have used it most every day on my silly hobby stuff.
I made this handle from Cherry from my neighbor's yard in the lathe 2 days ago.

I was making something good today, until I snapped off a 10x1.5mm tap in a tool post I was making:(

I think you cannot go wrong with a Jet, Grizzly, or Precision Matthews lathe from China.... but for mills, I think used American mills are a better deal.

WQUILES got a precision matthews
Applied science got a Grizzly.
My brother got a 14x40 Jet.
All three of those guys are way better machinests than me.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AppliedScience/videos

My Grizzly is similar to the G0731, but I bought mine 15 years ago and it came with a bigger table.

Thanks

You don't have to believe in magic--just use your head. How do you think brand new Chinese machines get to W Montana? (They are shipped)

If you are simply trying to rationalize buying a cheap import, just admit it and settle for what you get. Same as buying from Harbor Freight. Or if you are a lazy shopper, or can't justify the time it takes to search the used machine market, that's ok too. But don't expect quality to magically appear for your consideration if you are unwilling to put in some effort.

I have been shopping for a mill. PM machines are definitely an option.

You could do a lot worse than the big Jet on craigslist right now in Randal Wa. 5,000 asking. Clean.

Boomer - look at my MILL DRO post.

I have a PM30 (Precision Matthews) bench mill, and a PM1440GT - 14x40 Gunsmith lathe.

Great company, excellent customer service, head and shoulders above the Grizzly china machines...
they use the right parts at the right places (you can have some china stuff, but you want Taiwanese / Japanese parts where it counts.

My lathe spindle has less than 2 / 10,000ths variation !! DANG !

One tip - Order you machines with DRO’s.. it’s not hard to put them on yourself (like I did on my Mill) but fabricating the brackets takes a while, so I wish I had just done it to begin with (I did on my lathe).

Precision Matthews milling machines are made in Taiwan. The Taiwanese machines are higher quality than Chinese. But some are better than others.

I'd get the knee mill with the power feed table and the digital readout. Digital readouts allow you to do much more accurate work and the power feed can be set to make your cuts optimally smooth.

https://www.toolots.com/x-multiple-...5nbfk7QIVGUqGCh1AvQHWEAQYBSABEgLC9_D_BwE

I got a bench mill because I wanted a smaller footprint, but if I were in my new shop, or new I would have been moving I would have gotten a Bridgeport equivalent.

There are very few things I can’t do with my benchmill, but it’s somewhat getting close to the end of it’s travel when I do a couple of things.

+100 on the DRO, I was drilling and tapping receivers for scope mounts - you just can’t beat using a DRO vs. dialing it... I am really enjoying my DRO right now.

I had a 600 pound Rockwell 21-100 mill and replaced it with a 2000 pound Bridgeport series II.

The old mill would have been just as good for gunsmithing projects if I had:
1) installed DRO
2) installed auto feed
3) rebuilt to get the backlash out of the X axis.

You only need to adjust the gib to take the backlash out of the X or Y axis,....5 minute job. Basically, it involved turning a screw with a screwdriver.

Also, the lead screw is affixed to the table of the milling machine with a split nut,...usually bronze. If the backlash is coming from wear on the split nut you only need to spread the split nut via a tapered screw which is threaded into the split in order to spread the nut which tightens the relationship between the nut and the lead screw.

Milling machine tables are designed to be adjusted. They'll loosen up over time and will need to be tightened up. It's not a big job.