Bolting lathe to floor?

[John M. Smith]

In anticipation of delivery of my backordered PM3520B lathe, I was wondering if anyone has bolted there lathe to the floor. Would this help with dampening vibration?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I think I would add ballast before I considered bolting it to the floor.

[Jim Silva]

In anticipation of delivery of my backordered PM3520B lathe, I was wondering if anyone has bolted there lathe to the floor. Would this help with dampening vibration?

Others may have done the math and can give a better answer but it seems to me that while bolting to the floor would keep a lathe from walking it wouldn't do that much for vibration (I'm assuming out of balance/round is what you're talking about).

Bolting to the floor would seem to cause all torsion/vibration to focus more on the spindle rather than absorption into the frame itself and would be detrimental to the lathe.

I'm with Ken in thinking that ballast would be the better answer.

[Stephen Massman]

I heard from a local turner that bolting to the floor caused problems with his 3520.

[John Keeton]

This issue is one that I certainly have no experience with, but a concrete floor is not a very good dampener in my experience. I would think that in order to effectively bolt it down, one would have to remove any cushioned "feet" from the stand. The metal to concrete connection would increase the sensation of noise and vibration in my opinion - but, again, I have no experience with that.

Seems leaving the cushioned feet on the lathe (if there are any?) and using ballast would be better.

[Fred Perreault]

I have been in the construction business for 40+ years, and enjoy both turning and the SMC forums. As for bolting versus ballast, I am not sure. But for a good ballast that doesn't take up much room, I have taken advantage of my heavy equipment owner friends. They are always replacing the bolt on edges of their ground engaging machines. I replaced many tons of steel on my machines over the years. When the replaceable edges get worn to near the edge of the main bucket or blade, they unbolt the pieces and replace them. For a mid-size to large wheel loader or bulldozer, you are talking about 6"-10" wide by 2'-3' long stuff that could be 3/4"-1.25" thick. The peices are manageable by one person for the obvious reasons of replacement. They are usually throw into a general iron pile or such, and should be available by barter... a bowl, or platter for the boss' wife? The town DPW would be a good source of this stuff. The benefits are that there is mass, convenience of size, instant shelving, and adjustability. I have done this, and the only problem might be that contractors sometimes (frequently) use this steel for fabricating, or band-aids on their gear. So, offer two bowls and a future draft choice...
Fred

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - one additional thing to keep in mind is that concrete floors are very seldom level. Bolting the lathe would most likely twist the bed and that could be more trouble than it is worth. I have the Jet 1642 and built a ballast box that fits between the legs on the provided supports. I filled mine with 7 bags of quickcrete and it does make a difference when turning.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

I have my "heavy" VB36 bolted to a concrete floor, but it sits on thick, very dense rubber pads. The bolts certainly keep the lathe in place, but I don't know if they provide any vibration dampening. After about five years, the bolting does not seem to have caused any problems. For what it's worth.

[Mike Minto]

if it's such a negative, then why do all lathes i've seen have manufacturer drilled holes in their 'feet'?

[David Christopher]

John, Ive been on navy ships for years and everything is bolted down. but everything has rubber feet and bolted through to the deck ( even wood lathes, table saws and all other equipment ) with no problems..as long as you dont torque or twist the machine into a fixed position, use rubber feet with a little free movement you should be fine

[Mike Lipke]

The hole in the legs are for most often, adding casters, adjustable pads, vibration dampeners, or bolting.

I tried bolting on a Oneway, and it always rattled. I put Great Lakes casters on it, and it is now vibration free, walk free, rattle free. Love it. Just enough resiliency there, I'm guessing, to soak up vibrations. Lathe doesn't move unless I want it to, and sometimes, I want it to.

I tried the PolyUrethane casters from WoodCraft, and they were not only too high, but they made the lathe sort of do a Hula with a blank in its early stages. The Great Lakes casters don't do that.

[Kirk Miller]

John,
I understand your concern about vibration and your new lathe. I wouldn't offer this advice to just anyone but you seem like a responsible adullt trully concerned about his 3520b. Just have that thing shipped to my house and I guarantee you won't notice a bit of vibration........:) Congrats on your new lathe & enjoy.
Kirk

[Thom Sturgill]

IF you decide to bolt it to the floor, the floor must be level under the pads. Level the lathe carefully and such that the lowest leg is about 1" above the floor. This can be done by installing the bolts and using nuts above and below the foot pad. Then get some non-shrinking grout and form grout pads under the feet to support the lathe. This is the way industrial machinery is generally installed.

Now the painful part - you can't use the lathe until the grout is fully cured. That's probably why you rarely see it done :D

[Leo Van Der Loo]

It is better for a machine to be properly leveled and bolted down than have it standing loose and rocking, where the forces than could be placed on just one leg when rocking, as with a lathe, while if all legs are bolted down the forces are spread over all the legs.

But that doesn't mean that when the machine is bolted down you then can just increase the load on it.

You want to turn bigger wood, get a bigger lathe.

My lathe is and has been bolted down from day one, more than 10 years by now, and no there's no problems with that.

The way I look at it, what some are trying to do with adding ballast onto a loose standing lathe, they could do better by adding the concrete floor as ballast, just by bolting the concrete to the lathe.

I have a very strong bodied lathe, but without bolting it down, I would not be able to turn big off-balance pieces like this, as the lathe would be rocking badly or even simply roll over.

137718

[John Keeton]

Leo, you don't have a lathe! You have an ITD (Industrial Turning Device)!!!:eek:

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Whatever you want to call it John, it would round the wood round, it will ;)

[Sid Matheny]

Back several years ago when I was a machinist making large aircraft wings using mulit-million dollar skin mills, they would pour concrete 4 to 6 feet deep and bolt them to the floor but they used rubber feet to help absorb vibration.

Sid

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Wow that is an awesome blank! My goodness. How big in diameter was the whole blank and how wide was the tenon you were making on the bottom?

Wow.

Joshua

[Allen Neighbors]

I have a Plywood floor in my shop. I have a Oneway 1640 that stands on doubled 2x6s and is bolted through the floor. When I get large, out of balanced blanks, it seems like an earthquake is in progress. :D Just thought that might interest someone. :)
If I had a concrete floor, I would bolt it down, through 1" rubber gym matts, making sure I didn't twist the bed. Just my opinion. Blessings to you.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Wow that is an awesome blank! My goodness. How big in diameter was the whole blank and how wide was the tenon you were making on the bottom?

Wow.

Joshua

Started off at about 31" Josh, and kind of heavy to lever it op on the lathe by myself, used to be easier ;)

I turned an approximate 5½" recess in it and started hollowing the piece, worked fine, till it got more wood out of it,(not thin yet by any means) as it then started flexing too much to my liking, as I can't use a steady for all the openings, I have to find some other way to make it more rigid, still thinking and debating with myself on which way to get there, not in a rush with it, there's always other projects waiting :D, but I like to get it finished one way or another, hope it will be worth all the trouble, but no guarantees :rolleyes:

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Back several years ago when I was a machinist making large aircraft wings using mulit-million dollar skin mills, they would pour concrete 4 to 6 feet deep and bolt them to the floor but they used rubber feet to help absorb vibration.

Sid

Sid we had big presses that I did repair work on, they were isolated from the rest of the building by 10" gaps all around and rubber between it.

But for some machinery the rubber is there for protection of the concrete rather than the machines.

Got a picture here of some paper-mill machines, each 30.000hp, you can see the concrete for those machines, the very high speeds can induce vibration that can destroy the concrete footings if not setup properly, anybody think it would be better to set them loose on the floor maybe ?? :rolleyes:, thirty thousand horsepower of it :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

[Dave Ogren]

I have my VB 36 bolted down also, with high density rubber between the machine and the concrete. You can not use a VB with out bolting it down. The base on a VB is an extremely stiff weldment and the machine is very top heavy. Out of balance is not acknowledged by a VB. You never feel it.

In my 40++ years owning a manufacturing plant the big difference to me is how light and fragile a wood turning lathe is compared to a metal turning machine with the same turning capacity. I owned a 20" lathe that would turn 26 9/16" dia. that weighted just over 9,000 lbs. and it was a light duty machine. On most metal working lathes that I have seen the bed and base (legs) were one (1) casting which gave it rigidity. It is rare to turn anything out of metal as out of balance as we do on our wood machines.

In my opinion I would bolt any wood lathe to the floor. Using a high density rubber pad and make sure the machine is extremely leveled up.On a metal lathe you put a bar between centers the maximum the machine will hold (length) and with an indicator mounted on the crossslide keep checking the whole length and shim till it is perfect. Then you will never have a problem. I know that is not possible, and not really nesessary, with a wood lathe. I know that you would see a tremendous improvement in how the lathe functions by bolting it down.

Good luck and happy turning,

Dave