Thread: Wood lathe vibrations. HELP!!!

What all of the rest have said. If it vibrates something is not balanced. The faster the reves then the more vibration. Weight in the legs and something like rubber mats help but any balance and/or alignments issues have to be addressed regardless. It looks to be a reasonable quality machine so I suspect something other than a quality issue. Any wood that is not perfectly round will cause vibration so until it is roughed down to round it will vibrate. The more mass the wood the worse it will be This is to be expected so roughing is done at a slower speed to start with. Rule of thumb is mount wood then spin up. If it dances about slow downto the best compromise. The more balanced the wood gets then the vibration gets less. Does the thing vibrate without any wood in it?
On another note there is nothing wrong with dead centers and the only lube they need is a bit of candle wax scraped on or even soap. No need for grease or oil that will make a mess. I suspect that your problems are the reves were too high as that would cause burning at the dead center and vibrations would be larger. You say a faceplate was used so I think you were turning something like a bowl or heavy in any case. If you are starting out just do spindle work for a while to get the feel of the tools. Faceplate work has some risks so not for the beginner.
If there is a turners club near you then go get some lessons. Just reading your post I have visions of a bad injury.
Regards
John

? how out of balanced is your wood , does it turn (when lathe is off ) too a certain point all the time if so that's where your out of balance point is .

Just a quick update. I haven't got back to the lathe yet, Work has been flat out. I did check that every thing was running true and with out anything mounted on it there wasn't any vibration at all so it was just my dodgy mounting that made the vibrations. Ive just got myself a new grinder to sharpen my lathe tools and look forward to getting back into the shed as soon as work dies down a bit.

Originally Posted by asheddie

Just a quick update. Ive just got myself a new grinder to sharpen my lathe tools and look forward to getting back into the shed as soon as work dies down a bit.

Work, the curse of the turning class.

Hi Asheddie,

Suggest you start by isolating the problem to the machine or to the stock. Very carefully mark up,punch and mount up a spindle blank of say 50mm by 50 mm hardwood. Run the lathe at about 1200rpm. If you have any vibration there then you have a problem that isn't with the stock.

Out of round or differential density across the blank in bowl stock can certainly cause major vibration also front to back dynamic balance issues in the stock that cannot be detected with the lathe stopped may be at play but how about nailing things down a bit before seeking solutions. If you heavily load the stand of a lathe that isn't sitting on a planar floor you will just introduce a new set of problems. Good Luck Old Pete

Does it vibrate without anything mounted? if it does at max. speed get that fixed first