Panther mill II

[kpantherpro]

I am surprised by some of the comments, but I do stand behind the design of our mills, we will never please everyone, but we do please way more than not, and for our price point I think we put out a great mill, not the prettiest, but definitely functional, and that's what a mill should be, I think if your experiencing problems with movement, try bringing the bolts to a point as mentioned earlier in the thread and that should stop any wandering and might even make you a fan of our mill. As far as predrilling holes we have too many customers who use our mills in different ways, it's not an option for us. Best of luck to all

 

[BobL]

. . . try bringing the bolts to a point , , , ,

I'm not sure this a good idea as a smaller contact area will more easily distort and may even puncture the inner tubing.

There are some design solutions to this problem;
- The simplest is to use thicker walled tubing or even solid bar .
- Instead of the bolt pressing into the middle face of the tubing (i.e. single face contact), welding the nut onto the corner of the outer tubing so that the bolt presses onto the corner of the inner tubing will generate greater frictional contact between the two faces opposite the bolt. As well as greater friction it will also reduce movement and mill flex. This arrangement works on thin wall tubing because a corner is stronger than a flat face so it is less likely to crush the inner tube.

Ultimately a single bolt pushing down on any surface is a limited design. I can understand why it is used on a DIYer or a budget level mill, but if a long life, high strength, solution is required a full wrap around clamp is a much better option for a CSM.

 

[hypnolobster]

Dropping a strip of 1/4" flat bar that fits snugly inside the uprights on the panther mill, centering it roughly and welding it at the top and bottom fixes the problem completely, and makes the single bolt clamp work about as well as can be reasonably expected.
I drew it up real quick to show what I did. Hopefully it helps someone. All the advantages of a solid/thicker tube, but only adds a bit of weight.

 

[BigOakAdot]

Maybe I will try that method. I got it set up to be able to make 3" slabs by drilling the tubing.

Kim, I'm not saying your mill isn't affordable or complaining about the appearance. In my opinion your mill should work as its expected to out of the box. The fact that I need to take time to make it so that it works as it should makes me wish I had spent more money on a grandberg.

Nothing personal it's just a fact I'm having issues with it. And I'm clearly not the only one. I would just take this as an opportunity to make some changes to the larger mills that have this issue. I'm sure you can come up with something that wouldn't add significant cost to your mill.


BOA

 

[Tpcambridg@aol. Com]

We ordered panther pro in

Some pics would be interesting.

December and are still getting the run around. It may be a fraudulent site

 

[Tpcambridg@aol. Com]

We ordered panther pro mill in December and are still getting the run around. We are worried we have been defrauded our $1000

 

[kpantherpro]

To big oak, honestly I had never heard of this issue before and I hear from a lot of customer's through e-mails and phone calls about how well our mills do work, I really have not had any negative issues communicated to me directly, and we've built and sent out thousands of these mills. From this forum, it seems that the people who have the problems are the ones running the bigger stihl's, I have 3 of these I run, one on a smaller husky and a stihl 440 and a husky 3120, I've never had the problem, the easiest fix I can see without shipping the mill back to me is to bring those bolts to a rounded concave point that it will bite positively into the metal, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes and will save a world of frustration. To bob on that piece we use 14 ga. steel that's almost an 1/8th ", bringing it to a rounded point won't punch a hole through it but will probably stop the movement due to the bigger heavier saws and their vibration.

 

[kpantherpro]

We ordered panther pro mill in December and are still getting the run around. We are worried we have been defrauded our $1000

Everyone who has ordered from us has gotten thier mill, some have waited a long time but they have gotten what they ordered, we are busier than we have ever been and I communicated this to you, you ordered a large custom carriage which is finally being put together, some of this is my fault as I was trying to get this together before we moved into our bigger shop and it did not happen, you will get the mill that you ordered, I am sorry you are having to wait so long, but I am sure that anyone here who has waited for one of our larger carraiges will hopefully put your mind to ease. I would never defraud someone out of their money it would never be worth it to me. I believe your name is what you make of it, I don't want anyone to legitimately have any bad words to say about me or my company. Thanks

 

[Boozer]

Got ours 2 days ago and my son and I made our first cant. We had a great time.
It's a 30" PM2. The finish was perfect, welds looked good.

I spoke with Kim about the time it took from order -> delivery as being longer than
expected.

Growing company, made in USA, providing jobs for people locally...we need more of
this imo. I can overlook a delay, especially when you can speak to the owner
directly regarding the issue.

The price point with the shipping included makes it very affordable to a wide range
of people, money saved can go into a bigger saw!

 

[IyaMan]

Got ours 2 days ago and my son and I made our first cant. We had a great time.

Good to hear about you positive results. Happy milling!