Thread: Lathe Levelling

As long as they do the job is all that matters.
It is good practice to try and make things all the same. I usually rough multiple parts out and then finish them all with the compound tooling, etc set up to do the operation on each part the same.


Dave

Do you use feelers when setting your levels?

Originally Posted by azzrock

those feet look great bob.
here is my lathe feet. you may notice there not all the same.
this is because i hardly ever use measuring equipment unless
i have to..
this lathe i cant see how its bolted down at the head stock end .
the other end appears to be not bolted down.

ive roughly leveled the lathe bot it still got a long way to go.

Aaron,

I'm not convinced that the Adjusta-Feet are the way to go on my Hercus. Apart from the possible need to buy extra footware, they feel a bit spongy. On the Douglas they allow the machine to rock at the two higher ram speeds. I imagine the height and the compressible rubber insert would be responsible for flex. I need a foot with a ball and socket type connection to cope with the concrete floor irregularities. If I had a ball turner I would round off the end off some bolts and have them sit in a hemispherical sockets cut with a ball endmill into steel feet. Maybe a ball turner should be high on the list.

Has levelling been a pain in the neck with all those feet?

BT

Levelling the machine cabinet base should take less than 1/2hr for these small machines.

So Peter,

How have you levelled your Hercus? Is it a twin pedestal model or one that has the unified sheetmetal base/cabinet ?

I had a look at the levelling instructions in Peter Hercus' Text Book(s) of Turning this morning for the 260 and for the 9. On the 260, the final adjustment takes place between the bed feet and the cabinet with adjusters incorporated in cast iron bed feet.

The description for levelling the 9 is less detailed. The headstock pedestal is bolted to the floor and the tailstock end floats. This assumes the floor is level.

Bob.

BT...

Ray (wheelinround) put me onto this crowd for mounting feet....I dropped in on them a while back and found they had heaps of mounts in stock, but they also do mail orders.......they have the ball mounts you mention per... Ball A-Justa-Foot - adjustable ball jointed foot also known as adjustable articulated foot......worth a call perhaps..........Lee

Hi BT,
I could turn some up for you.
After a lot of thought I didn't try to have a ball shaped socket for the ones I have made. It makes making the ball much more tricky. If its slightly out one way it will sit on a point at the bottom of the socket, out the other way it will sit on a line around the top of the socket(and risk jamming). I just made the sides of the socket 45 degrees so it sits on a line about 3/4 of the Dia.
Stuart

Originally Posted by barkersegg

BT...

Ray (wheelinround) put me onto this crowd for mounting feet....I dropped in on them a while back and found they had heaps of mounts in stock, but they also do mail orders.......they have the ball mounts you mention per... Ball A-Justa-Foot - adjustable ball jointed foot also known as adjustable articulated foot......worth a call perhaps..........Lee

Been there...https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/justa-foot-146916/

For the price of $4 you got, I wouldn't be bothered making them, even if you have to buy $60 worth of them.

I remember seeing them a a H&F sale for $15 and had a few members asking questions about if they where still there as it was a good price, so for $4 they are a bargain.

Dave

For the Hercus lathes that I have done I use shims (my shims range in thickness from .005" through to .500".
I use a Engineers level,feeler gauges and tape measure.
My shims are generally 2" to 3" square.
I have not as yet bolted a Hercus lathe to the ground.

Originally Posted by pipeclay

For the Hercus lathes that I have done I use shims (my shims range in thickness from .005" through to .500".
I use a Engineers level,feeler gauges and tape measure.
My shims are generally 2" to 3" square.

I have not as yet bolted a Hercus lathe to the ground.

Have you levelled a double pedestal model and if so, where did you place the shims, the external corners?

I pack under the 4 corners for levelling and then if clearances are excessive under the other corners of the cabinets I place shims under those as well,but not enough shims to disturb the others,a wedge type shim is allways handy.

Originally Posted by pipeclay

I pack under the 4 corners for levelling and then if clearances are excessive under the other corners of the cabinets I place shims under those as well,but not enough shims to disturb the others,a wedge type shim is allways handy.

Thank you Peter.

Originally Posted by pipeclay

Do you use feelers when setting your levels?

i did use feeler gauges to set the level up. i haven't used them leveling this lathe.. i tried some shim material before bot it wasn't flexible enough.