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265484 "yorkshireman@y..." <yorkshireman@y...> 2018‑03‑17 Re: Concrete casting to mount an antique metal lathe...
Claudio confesses….  (snippage)

> On 16 Mar 2018, at 20:23, Claudio DeLorenzi  wrote:
> 
> This is for a tiny modeller's lathe, the center height is 3 1/2" (7" swing)
> and it only weighs maybe 220 lbs  including the 'lectrical part.
> You might laugh, but it sits on my old patient exam table (overbuilt,
> welded steel cabinet construction made by Imperial Surgical in Toronto in
> about 1950, back when we still made good stuff in Canada)   I bought this
> exam table used for $50 when I was flat broke, married with children, and
> just starting out life.
> - - - -
> casters.  I want to make the little thing a bit more solid and rigid
> because I've decided to rebuild/rescrape it, and just testing whether to
> get a new spindle while they are still available.
> - - - 
>   To put the size into
> perspective, this thing only needs a base of  1 foot by 3 feet or so- I
> just want it to have torsional stabilty, to prevent any twist on the ways,
> and the concrete "slabette" is just going to sit on some plywood on a steel
> table (which is on wheels- not ideal for a metal lathe).
> Claudio

Installing equipment that makes Norris style adjusters for YBI planes is OK
here. Our Listsmoms may be looking thte other way for a day or so.

If I reinterpret the question - it’s really about ‘how to ensure a lightweight
lathe bed stays flat and square?’

And, given its size and weight, and imagined parentage at Myford,  I’d start by
quantifying the problem. - How much out of square or whatever is it?  is your
patient bench flat and square, or is it imparting some twist?  If it was made
for bodies. then there was no need for it to be true in the first place.
Perhaps you need to weight it with sand bags, and mount the lathe on a
waterproof MDF slab of say 2 inches, with rubber pads to absorb direct
vibrations going to the stand, then merely shim the feet.
If you move away from the patient table, then some serious timber for a sturdy
base, with five hundredweight of sand bags in the base, retractable castors, and
suitable shimming, should do the job.
Bear in mind also, that the passion for accuracy in the machine is relevant to
the movement of the slideways related to the central axis.  Any of us using a
pole lathe will attest to the fact that ‘accuracy’ in the accoutrements of tool
rests and so forth isn’t always needed.  I came to wood turning from
engineering, and it was a while before I shook off the need for the pole lathe
to be ‘accurate’ in construction.  As long as the work turns without vibration
and the centres don't wave in the breeze, and something for a rest stays
still(ish)  we’re good to go.

Tempting though the urge os to go buy a shovel, a hoe, a barrow, a concrete
mixer, and all that stuff, you may have everything you need to hand.  I’ll bet
you even have some feeler gauges and a dial indicator ready to go.

Or, 
If it were me - I’d go find some steel fabrication place and have them cut a
slab of steel and drill it for the securing bolts.  - but I’m way too carefu’
wi’ t’ brass  (unwilling to let pennies go to other folk, Paddy)  to do that
unless the work I anticipate doing on said lathe needs super accuracy.


Richard Wilson
a galoot in Northumbria, where the North Sea is trying to throw more snow ashore

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