To Anchor or not to anchor........

[Fumbler]

Team, in my recent posts I have put up my new turning station, (which apparently isn't flat, and not sure if its being transmitted from an uneven floor and the bench is then becoming uneven, or shoddy tradie who built the bench......, anyhow, I noticed when I sat the lathe on the bench top I had to adjust one foot to level it out. the second thing was wander, when I was doing some roughing out / heavy action, the lathe seemed to bounce and shift slightly so I feel I may have to anchor the lathe to the bench.

I have a dilemma and that is:-
1) i need to find the flattest part of my garage and move the bench there, easier said than done as concrete floor has more levels than a multi storey car park
2) if i anchor and i move the bench it may twist the lathe bed? (or will bolting up from underneath flatten my bench ie. the cast iron bed is stronger?
3) keep as is and if i move the bench, i can always adjust the feet of the lathe if i notice any rocking. especially if the table does actually follow the floor, and just put some corner brackets around the lathe feet to prevent it dancing across the table.

I'm leaning towards option 3, but open to any further suggestions.

thanks

Richard

[orraloon]

I would anchor it to the bench. As the bed is one piece with no extension i dont think it will move. If you are worried about it then just slack the anchor bolts a bit if you do have to move the bench. It's easy to do a point to point check with the head and tailstock centers after a move to see that all is in line. Shim the short bench leg to get a firm footing before tightening down the lathe and adjusting it's feet. I would avoid large uneven bowl blanks until it is bolted down.
Regards
John

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

On my Leda mini I put retainers on the bench,

Let's say my feet are 1" round (they're not, but... it makes it easier to pull the following figures outta thin air. ;) ) I grabbed some 8mm ply, cut out four 2" squares and drilled 1-1/4" holes in them. Put 'em in place on the bench top, with the lathe in position and glued 'em down. I may've also tacked each corner, I don't rightly recall.

But it stops the lathe from dancing off the top, while still allowing me to adjust it for level and lift the lathe off for maintenance, transport, etc.

Mind you, I do also have the luxury of other heavier lathes for roughing down on if a blank is more than the Leda can handle safely.

[Paul39]

My preference is to fasten the lathe to the bench. If the bench to floor interface is tippy, make a square or squares of dense foam - shoe sole, and stick it under the high foot. If the bench walks around too much, put the foam under all four feet.

If you are going to be moving the lathe around off the bench, do as Skew does above. There are machine leveling screws for your bench, or you can make your own:

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=machine+levelling+screws&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I rough out blanks with a chain saw, some quite out of balance gnarly stumps. I don't mind the whole bench rocking or walking, but I do not want the lathe coming off the bench. My 350mm swing X 1 meter Hegner is C-clamped to a 2 foot X 8 foot bench, the 20 inch swing short bed Woodfast comes securely bolted to its own base. When heavily loaded with an out of balance blank, it gently rocks back and forth at the slowest speed until it is round. It sits on two 6 X 6 inch square timbers as I am 6 foot 3 inches and don't like to hunch over while turning.

When the shavings get over my shoes, I put them in bags and throw into the wood boiler. Summer too, wood fired water heater.

[Paul39]

Further thoughts. Put the bench where it is going to be, put lathe on bench and shim bench feet to make lathe sit on all four feet, a level will help find high and low. You want level 90 degrees to the length of the bed so that it does not twist, the length of the bed running up or down does not matter. Shim lathe feet if bench will not twist flat. Screw lathe to bench.

You are not likely to twist the lathe bed of that length fastening to wood.

[Fumbler]

Further thoughts. Put the bench where it is going to be, put lathe on bench and shim bench feet to make lathe sit on all four feet, a level will help find high and low. You want level 90 degrees to the length of the bed so that it does not twist, the length of the bed running up or down does not matter. Shim lathe feet if bench will not twist flat. Screw lathe to bench.

You are not likely to twist the lathe bed of that length fastening to wood.

The lathe does actually have adjustable feet so no issue there. I might try and find the flattest part of the garage and make that my point and as you said shim up the table first to level and deadest flat, hen go from there.

thanks

[BobL]

When the shavings get over my shoes, I put them in bags and throw into the wood boiler. Summer too, wood fired water heater.

you must go through lot of shoes? :)

Back to the OP. My preference is to bolt the lathe to the bench. Because my bench has a stiff steel frame and was not perfectly flat (ie I could just slide 2 pieces of printer paper under one of the lathe feet I did shim that with a piece of shim stock before bolting it down. The bench has adjustable feet so its no problem if the floor is flat.