Questions on Lathe Cabinet

[Virgil Jordan]

Tomorrow I'm going to build a lathe cabinet for my Jet 1220. I intend to incorporate a boxed in section in the cabinet to pour full of concrete for weight.(About 300#)

My first question is should the weight be high in the stand(close to the lathe) or down near floor level? Seems to me I read something about this years ago but don't remember what the conclusion was.

Second, the lathe has small rubber feet under the legs. Should I try and retain these for vibration damping or remove them and hard mount the lathe to the stand?

Any opinions will be greatly appreciated!

[Brian Weick]

I would put that weight on the floor legs- mount the legs and get rid of the rubber feet. to replace that use some heave duty rubber washers in between the legs and the plate your mounting it to- it should have less of a chance of wanting to dance all over your shop floor
Brian

[Jim Becker]

Weight should always be as low as possible....

Be sure you consider where you will be standing as you design your stand/cabinet, too.

[Pat Salter]

And why concrete? why not sand?? If you ever have to/want to move it you can always vaccum out the sand to remove the weight, move it, replace sand.

[Mark Pruitt]

Ditto what Pat said about the sand.

No matter where you put the weight, be sure to use a thick piece for the top. Glue two or three (three is much better) pieces of MDF together to get the thickness. That will provide a rock solid surface to mount the lathe.

Post a pic when you're finished!

[George Tokarev]

Make geometry work for you by bringing the ends (legs) out about 20% farther than the swing of the lathe. The top should extend only to the edge of the bed plus perhaps a shaving lip to keep the stuff out of your doors or drawers so you can get right in close if you decide to do hollowing.

When a heavy spot rotates over the top it wants to accelerate and do two things, tilt the cabinet forward, which you counter by having those legs spread out extending the footprint forward, and lift the rear, which you counter by having the cabinet extend more behind the lathe, with the heaviest stuff you store near the bottom and back. I designed mine with a 4" deep shelf/box for sand just above the kick, then found I could get by with putting the heaviest tool boxes on the bottom.

What you must have is rigidity, which means good thick sheet goods, not just framing to eliminate racking and flexing, as well as add weight. A sheet of 3/4 chipboard weighs near 80 pounds, in the heavy stuff, so a cabinet made of fully glued and fastened stuff, involving a sheet and a half is already over a hundred pounds. If you don't prep your blanks with weight and balance in mind, or can't get the speed low enough - more important - you may have to put some sandbags below. Remember that all the stress starts on your bearings, if you do.

No flex feet. Wedge them tight, even bolt them to the floor, but make sure you're doing everything possible to keep yourself, the tool and the piece referenced to the same place.

[Dominic Greco]

...I intend to incorporate a boxed in section in the cabinet to pour full of concrete for weight.(About 300#)

Virgil,
I'm going to echo everyone else's sentiments here and suggest you use sand instead of concrete. Sand has the density and weight you need, but will NOT allow much vibration to pass through it. In other words, it will dampen the vibrations and the lathe will run smoother. Concrete has the weight, but due to it's rigid structure, will not dampen vibrations as effectively. Another plus, if keep the sand in bags, you can remove it if you need to move the lathe. I've done this once already and was MIGHTY glad I used sand bags instead of the iron weights I was considering.


My first question is should the weight be high in the stand(close to the lathe) or down near floor level? Seems to me I read something about this years ago but don't remember what the conclusion was.

When I built my lathe's ballast box (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/articles/7/), I placed it as low as I could. This helped to move the CG of the lathe lower to the ground. I also increased the foot print of the lathe stand by adding trestle feet. This increased stance really helps when dealing with big, heavy out of round blanks. As others have suggested, be sure to allow room for your feet. You'd be surprised how much this adds to the comfort of the turning experience.

One more thing about comfort. I assume that you've taken into account how high you want the centerline of the spindle (otherwise known as "spindle height") to be? Richard Raffan recommends that the height be 2" above distance from the floor to your elbow. If you're already set on this, forgive me for stating the obvious.:D


Second, the lathe has small rubber feet under the legs. Should I try and retain these for vibration damping or remove them and hard mount the lathe to the stand?

I would recommend NOT mounting the lathe to the floor. Mouthing the lathe to the floor is a good way of transmitting vibration right to the floor. If this is concrete, over time it will weaken. Plus, you have the problem of NOT being able to move the lathe if you ever find that you want to.

But I would suggest replacing these rubber feet with a set of hockey pucks (yes,...hockey pucks!). These things work great for reducing the vibrations transmitted to the floor. I know of a couple guys who have used sections of old conveyor belt instead of hockey pucks. These worked well too. Or....if you feel like you want something fancy you could always purchase some expensive vibration isolators. They do just about the same thing as the hockey pucks or chunks of conveyor belt!

[Gary Herrmann]

Here's the stand I built. Top is 3 pieces of 3/4" MDF glued up. No sandbags. The stand plus the lathe weigh over 350 lbs. I get no vibration.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=44960&highlight=lathe+stand

[Virgil Jordan]

Thanks to all for the good advice and pictures. I should be able to incorporate almost all the basics except the hockey puck.

It's 85 degrees in Florida today so I got called a "Hockey Puck" and a few other choice names when I asked where the hockey pucks were!!

[Jim Becker]

Virgil, I'm sure you can order hockey pucks online from someplace farther north... :)

[Christopher Zona]

Virgil, I'm sure you can order hockey pucks online from someplace farther north... :)
Virgil,

Canadian Tire (the Canadian version of Wal-Mart) is a great source for pucks. E-mail or PM me if you're interested.