Lathe Leveling Mounts

[jmottle]

Hi all,

My first post and until tonight had no idea there was even a Canadian metalworking group! Awesome!

I built out my shop a few years ago and have a TopTech (rebranded Optimum) 10 x 22 lathe (250 x 550) and a Sieg SX3, but I got busy with work, as I'm self-employed, for the last few years and my machines were just sitting there. This year I'm changing that and am currently taking the MACH 213 course at SAIT at night. I'm in the process of building up the list of tooling to add to the shop and getting the machines torn down and cleaned up.

The lathe is done, but now needs to be leveled. I had a few questions though I'm hoping someone might be able to assist with:

1) The lathe stand has 8 holes in the bottom of the support base, presumably for anchoring or leveling mounts, but they are not threaded and are huge - a bit larger than 5/8". Most of the leveling mounts out there assume some sort of threaded hole. The only ones I "think" will work are like (I'd post a links, but am too new):

a) Sunnex OSM series feet
b) GD stem type FootMaster casters
c) Low Profile Industrial Leveling Casters from Atlas Casters





The main issue with all of these are the price. I'm not sure if I can get away with just 4 feet, rather than 8, but each of these feet cost $100-200 each! The feet combined will cost more than the lathe! LOL.

I'd ideally like the ability to roll my lathe if required, but lock it in place

2) The second question I had was about actually leveling the ways. The lathe sits on the top tray of the support base and bolts to it with 3 bolts. One at the tailstock and two at the headstock. All are inline and down the centerline of the lathe bed. I know I'll have to likely shim, but am not sure if it matters that the lathe is not bolting down in the 4 corners.

Thanks for your help! Looking forward to participating more in this group.

Jeff

 

[PeterT]

Welcome Jeff. It is important to have your lathe positioned without any bed twist so it cuts properly & doesn't cause alignment issues. By that I mean a level placed laterally across the ways at the headstock measures the same when positioned across the ways at the tail post. Unfortunately a carpenters level wont quite cut it, but start there to correct any gross alignment & try to access to a machinists level. It looks like your stand is sturdy, generally the lathe should be bolted firmly to the stand & feet jacking levels it from there.

I haven't seen that particular base bolt hole configuration so maybe some other guys will chime in. But in terms of feet, I have used these steel body rubber sole type feet on my 14x40 lathe. They are sized for the weight, offer a bit of vibration dampening, conform to the floor a bit & have threaded posts so you can jack them individually, typically with a bottom nut under the frame & locking nut on the other side. Most of the machinery supply places like KBC or Travers carry them if you cant get them locally. The ones in the catalog page I attached look even fancier, like a ball & socket configuration. The ones I have are likely cheaper yet. And I've seen some made out of hockey pucks & bolts.

I've seen castors employed where people want to move the machine, but usually they are retractable so the lathe primarily sits on firm footing. So that might involve some welding or modifications to your existing frame.

 

[jmottle]

Thanks Peter. I had planned on getting a Starrett 98-6. I assume that will be sufficient?

Because the holes on mine are not threaded, I'm not sure if the feet like the ones you reference would work without welding a nut to the hole. Sadly, I don't have a welder and don't know how to weld. Do you know if the bottom nut is adjustable on those feet? I've seen many of these feet before, but always assumed the bottom nut was integrated into the threaded stem, and it was only to get purchase with a wrench so it can be adjusted in the threaded hole. If it can be adjusted, I could probably just reduce the hole size with a washer and then adjust the bottom nut.

 

[PeterT]

My lathe stand just has clearance bolt holes for (I want to say 5/8" threaded shanks but I can check). So the sequence goes foot, nut, washer, stand, washer, nut. The stand is getting sandwiched between 2 tightened nuts. To adjust, loosen the top nut, jack the bottom up or down, then snug the top.
Visually your holes look bigger so kind of a PITA if common washers wont bridge support it properly, but hopefully something like this will work?

I wonder if there is specific hardware available they had in mind? Does anything show up in the manual as a part? If not, no biggy but worth checking.

Yes that Starrett level would be perfect. Very useful. They come on Ebay too, along with the usual cautionary caveats.

 

[Johnwa]

Google “hockey puck feet”. They’re pretty easy to make and pucks machines quite nicely.

 

[jmottle]

Google “hockey puck feet”. They’re pretty easy to make and pucks machines quite nicely.

Thanks! Might do that for four of the feet and use leveling casters on the other four. I had seen those hockey puck feet before, but never clicked to actually use them as I was spending so much time trying to find info on leveling casters.

 

[JohnW]

Be careful about machining hockey pucks. They contain a bunch of powdered limestone that adds weight and hardness to the rubber. Better for knocking out teeth that way. When I made my hockey-puck feet, I had to sharpen the HSS bit after each puck. When I started, it was burning on the third puck because the HSS cutter was so dull.

See: https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/my-new-lathe.292/post-2864

 

[jmottle]

Be careful about machining hockey pucks.

Good to know! I was just going to throw them onto my mill to drill a hole for the bolt and use a Forstner Bit to counterbore for the bolt head.

 

[PeterT]

It seems like a common approach is drill/counter bore the puck with the nastiest 'wood' bit in your collection. All it needs is for the hex head to reside slightly inside the puck bottom face resulting in a donut contact area to floor vs. the entire puck. The rest is just washers & nuts.

http://lumberjocks.com/darthford/blog/39066

 

[Tom Kitta]

If your lathe is not aligned properly you may have rather major issue with the bearings not getting enough oil in them. Also you may have oil leaks.

 

[Johnwa]

Be careful about machining hockey pucks.

The ones I had machined like a charm.