Revisiting weird gib issue

[Eyecon]

It surprises me how quality of a product produced in a factory could vary so much. I'd think processes, techniques and material would be consistent and the resulting product would also be consistent. I know there can still be the one-offs and that's probably what this one is. All I've heard is that PM is pretty good at ensuring their customers are happy with their machines.

I suspect something went wrong with the casting, so when the saddle was machined
/ground against whatever jig they use at the factory, it went out of tolerance and they tried to manually correct it but didn’t do a good job inspecting it. PM tech support told me the flat that’s ground in the saddle dove tail could be part of the factory’s deburring process of the saddle lock bolt hole… to me it seems like a very aggressive way of deburring a small M8 hole hence my conclusion.

 

[Eyecon]

Hope they send you a new, tested/inspected machine. After the time and effort you've put into this you deserve a replacement.

Me too, that would be preferable for sure, I learned a lot trying to troubleshoot this issue but I certainly want to use the machine instead of working on fixing it

 

[Former Member]

I suspect something went wrong with the casting, so when the saddle was machined
/ground against whatever jig they use at the factory, it went out of tolerance and they tried to manually correct it but didn’t do a good job inspecting it. PM tech support told me the flat that’s ground in the saddle dove tail could be part of the factory’s deburring process of the saddle lock bolt hole… to me it seems like a very aggressive way of deburring a small M8 hole hence my conclusion.

My understand of castings is they must be aged to let the stress naturally relieve themselves before grinding, failure to do so can result in a perfect initial grind but after a bit of time the stresses not yet relieved show themselves and destroy that perfect grind.

 

[Eyecon]

Latest from PM is that they’ll send a label for me to ship the saddle only and they will fix it and send it back? Do you guys think this is a good idea?

 

[DPittman]

Latest from PM is that they’ll send a label for me to ship the saddle only and they will fix it and send it back? Do you guys think this is a good idea?

Well I guess it's a fix. I wouldn't really want to have to go through the set up of a whole new replacement machine myself so I guess getting the faulty component fixed is best case scenario?

 

[Susquatch]

Latest from PM is that they’ll send a label for me to ship the saddle only and they will fix it and send it back? Do you guys think this is a good idea?

The way I look at it is that you have been given a very long tortuous path to follow. But what choice do you really have?

Make sure you express you concerns with this approach and if possible get them to agree that if this doesn't work, they will replace your entire machine....

Cuz that's where I figure this is headed...... And I feel your pain big time!

 

[YotaBota]

Hope this works out for you.

I'm going to guess they want the gib as well.

I'm also wondering how they will mate the saddle to your bed without having the bed.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Susquatch]

Hope this works out for you.

I'm going to guess they want the gib as well.

I'm also wondering how they will mate the saddle to your bed without having the bed.

Fingers crossed.

I'm guessing they won't touch the saddle to bed interface. They will just fix the cross-slide to saddle interface. (or make it worse....)

 

[Eyecon]

Thank you all for the feedback. I did express my concerns about the approach they were taking after understanding from Charlie at tech support that they are just planning to take a skim cut on the dovetail in question to make sure it’s flat. My response to that was exactly as you all suggested: how do know that will fix the problem without having a way to check it! I’ve been trying to get an answer from PM now for the past 10 days or so. To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed at how long it’s taking them to solve the problem given everything I’ve heard about PM in the past. But as someone mentioned, I don’t really have a choice at this point. I’ll post updates when I hear back from PM

 

[Eyecon]

In the meantime, does anyone have the direct contacts of the management at PM and would be willing to share? I’ll give tech support until the end of the week to respond but I’m thinking if I make direct contacts with the management they might help push things(?)