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Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Ontario GTA West area meetup is planned for Saturday April 26th at Greasemonkeys shop in Aylmer Ontario. If you are interested and haven’t signed up yet, click here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!
SM Utilathe owners
- Thread starter slow-poke
- Start date
I made an almost full length chip shield for mine out of old bed frame and sheet metal. I bolted the frame of the shield to the base cabinet with four bolts and bolted the shield to the wall with a bracket to prevent it from tipping over if something went really wrong. I have never come close to tipping it over, but just in case and it was easy to do. I can try and wedge in there to get a picture to explain if you like.
slow-poke
Ultra Member
Good idea, and I would like to see it.
Brent H
Ultra Member
@slow-poke : I have 2 and they are level using the 1” levelling pegs, standard with the lathe. After levelling you “could” drive a 3/8” bolt down into a concrete pad, or into a deck plate (lathe used on a ship - US Navy used them quite a bit) “But” it depends on how you are using the lathe.
I would bolt it down if I was using some sort of hoist to load blanks, or in a shop situation where it could be bumped. For my shop (radiant heat) punching a bolt will not happen, however, if I was absolutely sure the lathes were staying in place, I would build a little dam around them and pour floor levelling compound to set them perfect.
I would bolt it down if I was using some sort of hoist to load blanks, or in a shop situation where it could be bumped. For my shop (radiant heat) punching a bolt will not happen, however, if I was absolutely sure the lathes were staying in place, I would build a little dam around them and pour floor levelling compound to set them perfect.
I would have bolted it down if it had needed it, but mine aligned up just fine without it, and it never bounced around at any speed with any stock at all so I never bothered to bolt it down.
Sm 9 utilathe. Mines been great after I got a couple things sorted out. Mines a 3 phase lathe with Vfd, runs very nice. I have mine levelled off the levellers, I have not bolted it down. I have not had the need. But as a novice I’m in the light cuts category. I built a back splash from repurposed stainless with the idea from Brent and help from Ryan on how to use solid rivets. It’s leaps and bounds better than my 9x20 busy bee lathe.
Chipper5783
Super User
11” Utilathe, levelled using the SM provided jacking screws. Not bolted down.
I have a number of machines now, some pretty decent size. Only the 15” lathe is bolted down, and I wish it wasn’t (obviously I can unbolt it, that isn’t the point). I bolted it down because I was struggling with getting the alignment spot on. Several folks told me I had to bolt it down, to pull the bed. That did not address the alignment issue. Finally, with great reluctance, against the advice of many, I pulled the headstock off (“factory aligned, don’t touch it”) - there was paint on the Vee way! I cleaned it well and alignment is much better.
The point being that if you feel you have to twist the bed to achieve alignment of the headstock to the bed ways - STOP. There is something else going on, figure out the problem.
Like Susq says, if it works fine without bolting it down, then don’t bolt it down.
I have a number of machines now, some pretty decent size. Only the 15” lathe is bolted down, and I wish it wasn’t (obviously I can unbolt it, that isn’t the point). I bolted it down because I was struggling with getting the alignment spot on. Several folks told me I had to bolt it down, to pull the bed. That did not address the alignment issue. Finally, with great reluctance, against the advice of many, I pulled the headstock off (“factory aligned, don’t touch it”) - there was paint on the Vee way! I cleaned it well and alignment is much better.
The point being that if you feel you have to twist the bed to achieve alignment of the headstock to the bed ways - STOP. There is something else going on, figure out the problem.
Like Susq says, if it works fine without bolting it down, then don’t bolt it down.
I don't think that will be the norm for others, but I certainly agree that it's always good to reflect on what MIGHT be going on before plowing ahead.
On one old lathe I helped a buddy with, the bed had twisted with time so badly that it couldn't be re-aligned even with the two back tailstock end screws floating off the floor. We tried everything, and then decided we had done enough for one day so we just let it sit for a while. It seemed odd to think that it might have taken a set over time, but that turned out to be the case. A week later it had relaxed enough to touch the floor and more importantly, the twist was gone!
In that case, there was no way it was head related. It was pure bed twist. I suppose we could have bolted it down and forced it into alignment, but then we would probably have had to fix it again.
In hind sight, it is my opinion that most buyers of mid sized lathes just buy them, plunk them on the floor, and use them. They don't align them. Prolly the majority just "level" them in the classic sense. If they do any real alignment, it's for bed twist only. I guess that's fine if their expectations are low or they just want to make small parts.
If it comes to a twist in the bed, the tool will not move parallel to the axis of rotation of the work. Probably the twist is not uniform along the length of the bed, and so the taper that it cuts won't be either. But the significance of that taper is bounded by the trigonometry created by the length between the axis of rotation and the axis of twist - probably also not constant along the length - but about equal to the swing plus half the depth of the bed. Almost certainly this is a lesser effect than the misalignment of other parts of the lathe especially the headstock. Probably it is irrelevant for work on short pieces, and for long pieces, the results will change significantly with a tail stock - the 'dish' shaped taper will turn into a 'bow' shaped taper because the tail stock will hold the end of the work in the twisted position at that part of the bed
It is also hard to check for since the most common reference surface is the bed itself
and unless gravity does it, it is hard to fix too
all good reasons not to bolt down anything unless you are worried about something overturning - a valid safely issue of course. And it should also be noted that that is really the only reason to 'level' any tool. A lathe or mill will work just as well on an incline, and you will never get it level enough to use level as a reference
It is also hard to check for since the most common reference surface is the bed itself
and unless gravity does it, it is hard to fix too
all good reasons not to bolt down anything unless you are worried about something overturning - a valid safely issue of course. And it should also be noted that that is really the only reason to 'level' any tool. A lathe or mill will work just as well on an incline, and you will never get it level enough to use level as a reference