• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Canadian Gun Nut looking to branch into Machining.

Munkey1973

Munkey1973

New Member
I am already an avid precision rifle competitor (sport called F Class Shooting).
I looking into buying a PM 1022 lathe (as a starter lathe) this winter.
Want to make my own, custom reloading tools for now, and learn the skills necessary to be a precision gunsmith in about 15 or so years when I retire from accounting.

Thanks for letting me join !
 
Welcome from Farmland south of Chatham Ontario.

Nice thing about the prairies is that there are lots of guys out your way who can help you reach your smithing goals.
 
Welcome from a fellow Saskatchewan gun nutz. Living the dream about 1.5 hours from 'Toon town and Speedy Creek
 
welcome!

Perhaps your choice in lathes will result in you needing to upgrade fairly quickly as you acquire skills. (not that there is anything wrong with that)

The PM 1022 doesn't have a very large through hole in the spindle, about 1" This is pretty tight for chambering competition barrels, even with a spider.

It short bed will also constrain you when doing chamber reaming. You have to account for 4" for the tailstock, the reamer holder or dead centre, and the length of the reamer, the depth of the 4 jaw chuck and some stick out of the barrel, in order to ream and cut your threads in one setup (always preferred)...

On paper, a 10X22 all looks possible, but I found my 12X37 wiht a 1 3/8 bore to be a little undersized but doable. This is why Grizzly sells a 14X40 as their 'gunsmith' model...
 
Munkey1973 said:
I looking into buying a PM 1022 lathe (as a starter lathe) this winter.
Want to make my own, custom reloading tools for now, and learn the skills necessary to be a precision gunsmith in about 15 or so years when I retire from accounting.
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with the PM 1022 so I didn't plan to comment on that till I read @Dabbler 's note just now

He is a smart cookie and one of those guys on this forum who is worth a very careful read. I believe he is correct on every point he made for you.

There are many ways to use a lathe for smithing and more than one way to do things. But you either need a long bed or a big spindle bore to do most of them. If the PM is 10x22, it won't do fill either bill.

I'm willing to provide way more specific smithing advice via a pm than I am here. Feel free to reach out.

So all that said, if you don't plan to do much barrel work, the smaller machine may suffice and provide enough of a learning curve to give you the guts you will need some day to buy the lathe of your dreams. Which is exactly what I did. The only difference is that my first lathe was too old, not too small......LOL!
 
If you have the possibility of having two lathes I think you would love to have the 10x22 as a little lathe for alot of projects. You could start with the little one and as you say learn the neccessary skills.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top