Bolting lathe to the floor

[Mike Cruz]

I'm at that stage where I'll be bolting the lathe to the floor. I have a 12" old Delta.

What distance from the wall should I mount it? I know that I don't want it too close because I want plenty of room to swing my gouge. But how much is sufficient? Assuming that I have plenty of space (of course not so much that I can put it in the middle of the room), but enough that if you said the center of the drive should be 24", I could do it. I might be able to go more, too.

I have hickory flooring in my shop and while I don't mind bolting the lathe down (once), I'd rather not have to move it around and keep drilling holes. :o

Thanks for you help!

[Dennis Ford]

I like to stand on the back side some of the time for hollowing. If you don't have that much room, put it close enough to the wall that you can reach under and clean up shavings. If you are going to bolt it down, level it so that the bed is not twisted.

[Norm Zax]

Way back there was a concensus that bolting lathes is risky since if it shakes under a certain load or while off center turnng, it wasnt built for that stress (self weight, motor and barings).

[Mike Cruz]

Hmmm. Interesting though. Hadn't thought of that. I suppose my plan to bolt it down came from the warnings that I've gotten from a few people that have told me the stories of their lathes coming to life with off center/imballanced blanks.

Remember, I'm new to this, so I'm going by advice, not experience...

[Leo Van Der Loo]

There's nothing wrong with bolting your lathe to the floor, just as with having heavy ballast on the lathe but in boxes etc and bolted to the lathe, as the floor is just the same but heavier.

Actually a lathe could theoretically shake itself apart by having it standing loose, and have it shake, like the bridge over the river (forget the name sorry) most people have seen on the news years ago, showing the bridge shake apart in the wind, and the lathe could do the same by the front and back end of the lathe shake in opposite directions, like a dog shaking its body.

I have my large lathe bolted to the floor, my small one I like to do also, but haven't yet, as I do need some way to be able to take it off easily, so I can take it along and turn when away from the shop.

I would set the lathe perpendicular to the wall IF you have the room for it, otherwise at least far enough that you are able to stand and turn from the other side of the lathe, when that suits you.

[Gary Herrmann]

One of the turning magazines talked about this just recently. The gist of it was bolt it to the floor, if you know you're not going to move it. This assumes it will be leveled.

[Jesse Robinson]

I can get some isolator mounts that are used on aircraft engines. They are 2-3 inch thick and about the same diameter. That should help absorb some of the vibrations. Let me know if you think it will work and I will round some up for you.

Jesse

[Thom Sturgill]

Angle it? For convenience it might be nice to angle the tail-stock out for hollowing, but think about the probable trajectory when (not if) a piece comes off the lathe. They are usually thrown to the rear and bounce. If the tail-stock is further from the wall than the headstock, the angle of return will cause the piece to bounce back right about where you are standing....

On the other hand, If the headstock is angled out slightly then the return angle will place the piece to the left and hopefully you will be out of the line of fire. DAMHIK.

Make sure that you have enough room to stand comfortably at the end for hollowing. I think that this is also why Leo suggested turning it perpendicular to the wall - more room for the piece to fly away from you and not bounce back into your face.

[Mike Cruz]

Thanks, everyone.

As for perpendicular to the wall...unfortunately, I don't have the room for that. In a way, I would love it because it would free up some wall space. But I think it would be too much in the way like that. I will take a look at the posibility, though.

I didn't even consider the posibility of wanting to walk around to the other side of the lathe. Hmmm. I'll have to see if I can mount it that far out. Not sure. If I can mount it that far out, I might as well go for the perpendicular.

Jesse, I appreciate the offer, but I have rubber mats (3/4" thick) that I can put under each leg to suck up some vibration. They are the same ones I have under my compressor legs and they do a pretty nice job.

So, if I can't do it perpendicularly, and I can't do it far enough away to walk around, what would be the minimal distance from the wall so that I can comfortably still get my gouge in bowls without whacking the wall?

[Rich Aldrich]

There's nothing wrong with bolting your lathe to the floor, just as with having heavy ballast on the lathe but in boxes etc and bolted to the lathe, as the floor is just the same but heavier.

Actually a lathe could theoretically shake itself apart by having it standing loose, and have it shake, like the bridge over the river (forget the name sorry) most people have seen on the news years ago, showing the bridge shake apart in the wind, and the lathe could do the same by the front and back end of the lathe shake in opposite directions, like a dog shaking its body.

I have my large lathe bolted to the floor, my small one I like to do also, but haven't yet, as I do need some way to be able to take it off easily, so I can take it along and turn when away from the shop.

I would set the lathe perpendicular to the wall IF you have the room for it, otherwise at least far enough that you are able to stand and turn from the other side of the lathe, when that suits you.


My understanding is that the bridge was the Tacoma bridge in Washington state which opened for use in 1940. A 30 MPH wind caused the bridge to sway at one of it's natural frequencies. The bridge stood for about three months before the catastrophe occured. Once the wind started exciting the natural frequency, it only took a few hours for the bridge to collapse. There was an asthetic design change, which actually changed the natural frequency and caused the problem. The calculations were not re-run after the asthetic design change.

In the case of the lathe, you could hit a natural frequency bolted to the floor or just weighted and shake it apart. It takes a little time to build the amplitude, so you would probably get the speed changed or shut it down before damage occured.

I don't see a problem either way, but I have (prefer) balast weight and can move my lathe around - not very far though.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

You got it Rich......mechanical resonant frequency.

[Jim Sebring]

Beause of space limitations, I angled my DVR xp at about a 45* angle to the wall with the tailstock further away than the headstock. It was levelled and bolted to the concrete floor about two years ago. I've seen no hints of harmonic-induced metal fatigue to the cast iron legs. I doubt the Teknatool folks would have put bolt holes in the feet if they expected damage to occur from bolting the machine down. I did Locktite the levelling bolts to keep them from vibrating loose.

One issue not mentioned above is the wall clearance you need to get the knockout rod in and out of the headstock. I have about two inches of clearance for mine.

[Harlan Coverdale]

So, if I can't do it perpendicularly, and I can't do it far enough away to walk around, what would be the minimal distance from the wall so that I can comfortably still get my gouge in bowls without whacking the wall?

17 5/8 inches. Give or take a couple feet. :D

I don't think any of us here can give you realistic distances that will apply to your specific needs. It's really going to depend on how long your gouges are and how you like to hold them. I'd say put the lathe where you think it'll fit and use it for a while. Scoot it around as necessary, as you find reasons to have it sitting one way or another. Once you're happy with it, bolt it down if you want. Personally, in a shop with limited space, I'd want my lathe to be at least minimally mobile, for those times when I need it positioned another way, or need the extra space for something else. Do you have much of a problem now with the lathe wanting to move when you're using it? Not trying to talk you out of bolting it to the floor, but trying to help you avoid drilling a lot of holes as your needs change. ;)

[Mike Cruz]

Harlan, thank you very much for your input. This seems not only along the tracks of what I wanted to here, but also is more to the point of the thread.

I think I mis-titled the thread. I didn't realize that mentioning bolting it down would bring up the contaversy of whether to bolt down or not. I thought that was a given.

What I really wanted to know was the distance to the wall...which addressed. And you explanation seems to have shed some light on why few to no one really answered that...because it isn't a "standard". I thought that saying that I had a 12" lathe would create some sort of formula for the distance to the wall given the limited bowl size. As opposed to an 18" lathe where you might need more room...I don't know...

As for whether or not the lathe is giving me trouble where it is now...nope! But that's because I haven't used it yet. ;) I'm just getting into turning bowls, and this is an old (1947) Delta lathe that I'm cleaning up and getting right as rain. I appreciate that you don't want me to drill more holes than I need to. I just thought this was more simple than it seems it is.

[Harlan Coverdale]

Mike, seeing now that you're a newcomer to turning bowls, I understand your desire and sense of urgency to get everything set up and lined out from the beginning. I know that feeling well. :) If you're like most of us though, your needs will change as you learn. That great piece of old-school Delta iron isn't going to be running across your shop anytime soon, so I'd go back to my suggestion to try it unbolted, at least for a while. That way you can get a feel for whether bolting it down has more advantages than being able to move it around a bit when needed. I think if you took a poll among the turners here, you'd find the majority don't have their lathes bolted down. ;)