Suggest leg risers for my new 1642...

[Jim Underwood]

I put the new 1642 together this evening just to measure the center distance off the floor. I want to add about 4-1/2 inches to the height. I haven't put the levelers on because I'm going to put risers on...

Any suggestions?

[Tony Kahn]

Lag bolt 4x6 to the bottom of legs, heavy duty t-nuts into drilled holes int the bottom of 4 x 6 for leveler screws.

[Philip Morris]

Dominic Greco wrote a very detailed pictorial article on making feet to raise a 1642, as well as building a ballast box. It is posted under the Articles section of another forum (not sure if I am allowed to name it here).

Just did a Yahoo search with the following string and his article was the first returned link.

Dominic Greco Jet 1642

[Philip Morris]

Jim,
If you go with building some kind of tressle riser feet, more than likely you will end up with a bigger "foot" under each leg as compared with the levelling feet (mine ended up being 4" x 5.5"). Also, the tressle will act as a stiff member connecting two of the legs and not allow them to move independent of each other as they could with just the levelling feet. This will exagerate the effects of an uneven concrete floor.

The result will be feeling minor harmonic vibrations in the lathe at various speed settings (even with nothing mounted on the lathe). It may also amplify vibrations when turning an out of balance piece. To solve this I placed a piece of 1/8" thick rubber gasket material under each foot, which provided more even pressure under the whole foot.

No more vibrations. You can check the pressure of the feet just by hitting each one, where it contacts the floor, with a rubber mallet (or kick with your boot).

[Mike Lipke]

This will bring a lot of rain, but I have a 1642, which I also felt was too low, and I put the WoodCraft red polyurethane locking casters on it, which raised it 4". Everyone says to never put casters on a lathe, but if I had an unbalanced chunk on there, with the infinitely variable speed on that unit, it was easy to adjust and live with. 25 rpm makes all the difference usually. The advantages of those casters, for me, made up for the disadvantages. The blanks were unbalanced not that long, and once in balance, the lathe was steady as a rock.