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Wanted: Metal Lathe

historicalarms said:
One thing I haven't seen mentioned here on the move being made, I've moved my lathe twice and a steel or wood cross-piece should be bolted to one of the bed base's. The headstock weight and the narrowness of the base feet makes the thing quite a bit top-heavy and will want to roll on you very easily...and if my opinion is worth anything I wouldn't remove the headstock from its original alignment. I discovered when I removed just the gap-bed section from my lathe that Chinese forgings do not fit back together absolutely perfectly no matter how diligent you are trying to retain the original settings.
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Ha, I JUST came back in from the warehouse putting a piece of uni-strut on the back. So I got that part covered.
 
Interesting discussion on both moving machines and what oil to use.

Both my Standard Modern lathes (1340 and 1120) call for 30 weight machine oil, which in the “old days” were non-detergent, mineral oils.
Airplane piston engines still use these mineral oils during the first 100h of operation after an overhaul or initial manufacture to “break them in”. Then they switch to regular wide range viscosity, detergent oils. I was considering using these mineral oils - but they are super expensive. Then I found this....

This is what I use (available from Parts Source (no affiliation) for a reasonable price.
B97CBF30-9BB2-4695-B635-A31207B6B6CF.jpeg
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I use Shell Tonna 68 on all the slideways of all my machines because that’s what is made for. There is Tonna 32 available - it is recommended only if all the ways are in a horizontal plane. It does not stick around long enough on a vertical way - hence the 68.

Just my 2 cents.
 
You have a very nice looking stand...looks heavy enough to accommodate another suggestion I would like to make (something I didn't do with my own but at times I sure wish I would have). I would make a trip to P.A. or BB and buy some heavy duty castor wheels. A lathe without wheels should be situated with enough room behind the machine so that repairs and cleaning can be done periodically but if your tight for room in a basement/home situation this isn't always feasible. With castor wheels under your machine you can place it tight up against a wall for use but easily pull it out & away for servicing or repairs.

My own lathe, because I have it out from the walls far enough for access, it take up twice the floor space it should need.
 
Downwindtracker2 said:
I stuffed a couple of the shorter rollaround tool boxes in my stand . It left the lathe a bit high, but I'm over 6', so it wasn't too bad for me.
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Yeah my lathe will be sitting high too. But I am also over 6'.
It should put the cross slide wheel right at my elbow..... in theory..... (In theory communism works though)

The left chamber will get some shelves and the right chamber is getting a tool chest. I think it will look sharp when its done.
 
historicalarms said:
You have a very nice looking stand...looks heavy enough to accommodate another suggestion I would like to make (something I didn't do with my own but at times I sure wish I would have). I would make a trip to P.A. or BB and buy some heavy duty castor wheels. A lathe without wheels should be situated with enough room behind the machine so that repairs and cleaning can be done periodically but if your tight for room in a basement/home situation this isn't always feasible. With castor wheels under your machine you can place it tight up against a wall for use but easily pull it out & away for servicing or repairs.

My own lathe, because I have it out from the walls far enough for access, it take up twice the floor space it should need.
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I got some space. It wont be enough to walk behind (Like i did for my mill) but enough where I can retrieve items that fall behind.
The bench is going to have some ground clearance too. Wheels would be nice but I think I enjoy cursing and swearing everytime I need to move it an inch ;)
 
Struggle is good for the soul they say.

For my casters, I underslung the stand. For leveling, I used redirod and hockey pucks. I rounded the end of the rod and dimpled the pucks.
 
Looks good. You might want to think about plates or hard points on the upper deck to micro-adjust lathe bed twist. The common mode is to bolt the lathe to the stand & then jack the leg feet to A) level the lathe as in plumb bob level if you have irregular or sloped floor B) twist the lathe bed...which also gets called 'lathe levelling' just to confuse everyone which is all about correcting teeny discrepancies in the ways. Anyways (and this is my own opinion) I would rather segregate the two. The base is the base & what you mount to it & how is another tweak.

FWIW I used Tremclad oil based paint on a steel tubing stand & it turned out decent enough for my purposes. I used a foam roller for 95% of it & brush here & there in crannies. It flows not bad during cure & has kind of a uniform look - and by that I mean its not a spray finish LOL. But seems to be pretty tough when its cured without getting into catalysed paints. There is a surprising amount of oil on new tubing so it took consecutive wipe downs with scuff pads & solvent & clean rag before nothing came off. Some guys use the Tremclad primer but I didn't bother.
 

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Downwindtracker2 said:
Struggle is good for the soul they say.

For my casters, I underslung the stand. For leveling, I used redirod and hockey pucks. I rounded the end of the rod and dimpled the pucks.
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Arrrhgggg, I am on the fence. I was going to do that but I might spend the money and get proper leveling feet. Will help me lower it a little bit. Planning on going to Casterland on wed. (Will cost 80$ though ;P)
 
PeterT said:
Looks good. You might want to think about plates or hard points on the upper deck to micro-adjust lathe bed twist. The common mode is to bolt the lathe to the stand & then jack the leg feet to A) level the lathe as in plumb bob level if you have irregular or sloped floor B) twist the lathe bed...which also gets called 'lathe levelling' just to confuse everyone which is all about correcting teeny discrepancies in the ways. Anyways (and this is my own opinion) I would rather segregate the two. The base is the base & what you mount to it & how is another tweak.

FWIW I used Tremclad oil based paint on a steel tubing stand & it turned out decent enough for my purposes. I used a foam roller for 95% of it & brush here & there in crannies. It flows not bad during cure & has kind of a uniform look - and by that I mean its not a spray finish LOL. But seems to be pretty tough when its cured without getting into catalysed paints. There is a surprising amount of oil on new tubing so it took consecutive wipe downs with scuff pads & solvent & clean rag before nothing came off. Some guys use the Tremclad primer but I didn't bother.
Click to expand...

I gave my blacksmith buddy a couple of HVLP gun so I MIGHT be able to use those to spray on the paint. I say might because there is no room in the shop right now for me to store it while it drys so I need some warmer whether. If I end up rolling it on at home I will probable use the same paint that you are recommending.

I am planning on just putting the mounting feet in the legs. So 6 total. Hopefully I only need to fight it the one time for the next decade.
 
Everyone has opinions & their own experience about lathe mounting and I guess so do I.
I prefer the ability to jack & level so prefer pucks & rubber machinery mounts. Castors move things around, feet not so much. So the question is how often & how far will you move it. Castors have very little contact area with the floor vs. feet & questionable dampening. Some guys who are handy with the welder have come up with all kinds of cool features (I'm not set up for welding). Like retract mode with brackets or put them on a sub-plate to adjust height. I know there are locking casters too and I've seen them on big woodworking machines, but they can be spendy & wheel diameter increases with more weight. Maybe I am just used to feet over wheels just because they are low footprint, less stick-out.
 
PeterT said:
Everyone has opinions & their own experience about lathe mounting and I guess so do I.
I prefer the ability to jack & level so prefer pucks & rubber machinery mounts. Castors move things around, feet not so much. So the question is how often & how far will you move it. Castors have very little contact area with the floor vs. feet & questionable dampening. Some guys who are handy with the welder have come up with all kinds of cool features (I'm not set up for welding). Like retract mode with brackets or put them on a sub-plate to adjust height. I know there are locking casters too and I've seen them on big woodworking machines, but they can be spendy & wheel diameter increases with more weight. Maybe I am just used to feet over wheels just because they are low footprint, less stick-out.
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Yep, I agree, to be clear I am going to caster land to look for the leveling feet I want. Not casters.
Casters would make it too tall for me. Im already going to need phone books for my machinist friends.... and who the hell has phone books anymore?
 
My stand has a 3/16" top, surprisingly AlderSteel didn't have 1/4" plate that day. I leveled the stand with a good carpenter's level and the four leveling feet. It was enough of a pain with just four, I wouldn't envy someone with six. With the lathe, I used a machinist level and shim stock. You have to expect a day's work.
 
Downwindtracker2 said:
My stand has a 3/16" top, surprisingly AlderSteel didn't have 1/4" plate that day. I leveled the stand with a good carpenter's level and the four leveling feet. It was enough of a pain with just four, I wouldn't envy someone with six. With the lathe, I used a machinist level and shim stock. You have to expect a day's work.
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Fun fact
Leveling a round column mill sucks
Second fun fact
Buying a feeler gauge set from PA works awesome as shim stock of all sizes for around 10$
 
Chicken lights said:
So is this in the basement yet?:D
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Errrmahgerrd.
I wish, but no, I need to finish the stand first so I have a place to put it. (I get very limited time to work on it because it is in someone elses shop)
Today is my last day at work until the 2nd. So I might move it into my basement before the bad weather and before my stand is done. I WILL take pictures and maybe video on the rigging and the move itself. If it goes according to plan the "lift" should only take a couple min.
 
And if your not inundated enough with "suggestions" from the rest of us yet, your discussion on "leveling" brings up another consideration.

Are you going to run a fluid coolant system on your machine ? If so may I suggest adding some shims at each end of your chip pan to accentuate the slope to whichever end you want the drain to be at ( it looks like the same chip pan my lathe has and I had to cut a hole at one end for a drain). The way I did it was to put a few 1/8 flat stock pieces under the "high" end of the chip plate between the stand top & underneath the chip plate and a corresponding # of flats between the lathe foot and chip plate at the low end (this leaves the lathe ways "level with the world")with the chip plate at this end laying on the stand.

A few degr. of slope to the pan really speeds up circulation of your coolant
 
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