Mobility for Nova 1624 II Lathes

[Thomas Canfield]

My club just received 4 Nova 1624 II lathes with the leg stand and needs to come up with a way to make them mobile for storage between use. The lathes will be stored in a large closet (room) that has double door access, but also need to fit through a 36" door to take to other sites and to load in elevator. The lathes are too heavy to just manhandle. What has anyone done to make their unit movable?

[Russell Stanton]

Attach a 4" non-swivel caster (Woodcraft 141053W) to each leg at the headstock end. Then bolt two lengths of black cast pipe to the legs at the tailstock end to act as handles. The trick is to attach to casters so they just clear the floor when the lathe is in place for turning. When you lift up the handle the casters contact the floor and you roll the lathe away.

[Phil Rose]

I lift mine with a car jack, one side at a time, and put a tri-dolly under each corner.

[Mack Gambrell]

I use leveling casters from McMaster-Carr they have a thumb wheel to raise and lower my lathe

[Thomas Canfield]

I use leveling casters from McMaster-Carr they have a thumb wheel to raise and lower my lathe

Mack -What size did you use? The Powermatic 3520 is definitely about 2 times heavier. How much lift does the leveling caster provide? I did not see a lot of information on the McM site, but did notice that they are pretty expensive, especially as you go up in size. The leveling feet would provide good steady support, but would be a little unhandy jacking up to move if done often. It looks like you were able to get the threaded stem to work which would be a plus.

[Mack Gambrell]

I got the 2445T12 drilled and tapped the legs to 1/2"
Each caster good for 300lbs.
They are perfect for me I don't plan on moving it too much and keeping the weight off the wheels will keep them from getting flat spots.

[Thomas Canfield]

I am waiting to see the 2" locking casters that have been ordered. One member was at AAW and talked to Nova rep and he said that is what he used on his. They found the metric stem bolt to fit so should know something soon when they arrive and the other 3 lathes get assembled.

[Harold Walsh]

I put 2" locking casters on mine because I roll my lathe outside from my basement to turn. They work just fine and have had no issues using the lathe in this manner.

[Richard Dooling]

I lift mine with a car jack, one side at a time, and put a tri-dolly under each corner.

Shoot Phil,

I think you've just solved my problem. This is a good, simple solution. My lathe is currently on leveling casters and it's hard to extend and retract the wheels. There's also just a little bit of play if you grip the ways and push/pull the lathe. This will let me use leveling pads instead.

My knees and I thank you!

[Thomas Canfield]

Thursday ahead of meeting, the last 3 lathes were assembled and the 2"locking casters installed. The photo shows the last 3 with Club president John Stegall smiling behind. The lathes are easily moved on the casters, and fairly stable when casters are locked. I did a demo turning pens but that was not a very good test compared to an out of balanced larger diameter piece. Looking forward to having the lathes for club turning classes.
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[Bruce Scism]

Thomas, I'm a new member to this forum and came across your post regarding mobility for your NOVA 1624 II lathes. I have recently had to downsize my shop into a garage space and am looking to put locking casters on my NOVA (same model as yours). If you don't mind, would you respond to a couple of questions to point me in the right direction. I have ordered double locking casters from Woodcraft: 3/8 spindle bolt on a 2 1/2" caster (I couldn't find a 2" model). My question is this, did you simply take out the bolt that came in the legs and that attached to the stem for the original swivel casters? Or, did you leave that stem on the leg and remove the bolt from the locking caster that you purchased and screw it onto that stem? Seeing this in print, it sounds like a stupid question and I apologize but I can't see down to the end of the leg and so am concerned about removing that bolt and not being able to remount it in the future if I needed to because of the difficulty in locating a washer and nut inside the leg cavity.

Anyway, I would be greatly appreciative if you could respond and give me some pointers on the best way to do this.

Thanks in advance, grateful for your consideration and time,

Bruce Scism

[Thomas Canfield]

Someone else in club bought and installed the locking casters. I am pretty sure that the thread is metric and the normal casters will not work. I do believe that he found the metric locking casters at Amazon. Remove one foot and check the thread before ordering.

[richard shelby]

A picture is worth a thousand words:
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I do my turning mostly outside , weather permitting. Room for gouges, calipers, etc.

[Bruce Scism]

Which (what) casters did you install (i.e., double locking swivel, 10M stems) ? Was it as simple as unscrewing the standard leveling caster and screwing in the locking caster?

[Thomas Canfield]

Yes the casters were double locking and it was just a matter of unscrewing the leveling screw and installing the caster with thread. You do need a lock nut on caster stem to get it leveled and locked. Of course, not all areas are level so level in area where lathe will be used and not worry about the stored position.

[Harold Walsh]

I put 3" swivel locking casters on my 1624 II. I purchased them at Woodcraft. The legs where the levelers fit are metric threads, which is no problem. I just bought metric bolts that screwed right in. I do my turning outside my basement and they work like a charm.