Just wanted to post an update. I received my PM 1022v on Friday July 19th. It took my wife and I the better part of a day to figure out how we were gonna get it lifted on to it's table. I didn't tear it completely down for cleaning... but I did disassemble the compound/slide/saddle because I had read that a lot (most?) of the Chinese lathes would have a lost of grit and gunk left over from the manufacturing process. To my surprise, it was actually pretty clean. I did come across a little grit in places, but it was nothing like pictures posted on other forums showing Grizzly tear downs.
After getting it all cleaned back up, I plugged it in and was ready to see it come to life. Emergency Stop... disengaged, direction set to forward, speed set to lowest setting. Pressed the "on" button.... nothing happened. My heart sank for a few moments... then started going thru a mental checklist of what could be wrong. Checked obvious things like... plugged in... power to outlet, fuses, etc. All of that checked out.
Then I recalled reading another post about the 1022v that when you removed the gear cover (which I did), there is also a small tang that gets inserted in a safety switch when the cover is reinstalled. When I put the cover back on, I seemed to be a little more difficult to get back on than I expected, but the two studs that protrude the the cover and have knurled nuts to secure it seemed to line up and go thru without too much effort. But when i too it back off, that is when i noticed, I had not lined up the tang for the safety switch correct. Made sure I did it right this time... and she powered up! Whew.... that was a huge relief for me. I'm not sure about everyone else, but it is an aweful feeling when you plunk down a fairly large chunk of cash for something.... and it doesn't work when it arrives. I was fairly certain that Precision Matthews ran it at least a little before it shipped out because I'm assuming they are the ones who install the DRO and the QCTP. Not that you need to run the lathe for either of those, but it just kinda of "felt" like they did.
In any case, like I stated in my initial post, I have absolutely zero experience with a metal lathe. Absolute beginner... but I have watched way to many YouTube videos over the last 6 months (at least according to my wife). It took me another full day to work up to courage to chuck a piece of 1.5" Alum Round bar to attempt to make my first cut. The previous day, I had mostly just played around with the controls trying to understand how/what each level/knob/switch did (yes I did have a small chuck of alum chucked up so the jaws would be loaded), but i dont think i ever took it above maybe 200 rpm. In any case, my first facing cut was pretty much exactly like all those YouTube videos showed. I did have a little nub, so I knew my tool height wasn't quite right... but it was still pretty exciting to see the first chips coming off the tool and falling to the chip pan. After a few adjustments, the nub was gone.
I know a lot of you will think this sounds kind of silly... but I was ecstatic. Baby steps.... but I have started my journey of learning a new skill. I'm sure I will have lots of questions in the future. Many of which will probably be very obvious to all of you have that years of experience under your belts... but will escape me and my limited knowledge.
I just wanted to give a quick update.
Doug