Machine Leveling (again)

[GMSteve455]

I've read many of the posts on machine leveling and I'm about to do my 2955-v Logan. I'm a little unsure about what way to go with it and was hoping for some advice.

The machine has two cabinets connected by the chip pan. The cabinets contain fairly substantial supports which the bed bolts to. These supports run from the bottom of the chip pan down to 1/4" flat stock that run along the bottom of the cabinets. These then have mounting flanges with 1/2" holes on them.

I was thinking of getting 1/4" plate steel the same footprint as the cabinet bases and put a layer of neoprene gasket material underneath between the plate steel and the concrete floor. I would then place the lathe cabinet on top of this plate and weld a 1/2-20 nut to each of the cabinet mounting flanges on the top side. 1/2-20 bolts would go down through the nuts to allow leveling and stability. The lathe would rest mostly on the plate steel with the leveling bolts applying pressure where needed to level and stable the machine. Clear as mud? Maybe I'll snap some pictures when I get home.

Comments and abusive remarks welcome.

[GMSteve455]

Here is a picture of what I'm thinking about doing. Just imagine that the galvinized sheet steel is really a piece of 1/4" thick plate under the pedestal. The nut would be welded to the flange and the bolt could then be screwed down to level the machine and make it stable. Check it out . . .

http://www.geocities.com/gmsteve455/mount1.JPG

[Joel]

I don’t believe you are going to get much vibration isolation with the gasket material over such a large surface area (assuming that is your intent). Why not just get some leveling feet with rubber on the bottom, and run them through the flange with a nut above and below?

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by GMSteve455:
Comments and abusive remarks welcome. </font>

You’re probably as ugly as the rest of us.




[This message has been edited by Joel (edited 02-02-2005).]

[precisionworks]

Leveling feet are probably the easiest way to go. Might want to check your center-height before you do this, as this is a great time to raise the machine higher if it's too low for you.

On my South Bend 10-k, I raised the machine by running 2" x 2" x 1/4" square tube under the mounting points on the headstock end and the tailstock end. Then mounted the levelers to the square stock. Your lathe is probably heavier than my SB, might want to go to larger/thicker tube if you do this.

I put red rubber gasket material (auto supply stuff) under each leveler, just to keep the lathe from moving when turning off-center in the 4-jaw.

------------------
Barry Milton

[sch]

Precision is referring to standard machinery
mounts which would mount on studs through
the mounting flanges on your machine and using extra nuts and washers you can very
precisely level the machine. I used the
$2 version in 1/2x13tpi for my 1100# machine
but better versions for $8-15ea can be seen
at www.use-enco.com and doing a search for
machine mounts. You have to drill through some specs but it doesn't matter just choose
anything and at some point you get to product and can go to a pdf of the page
(it will be p 317-8) and can look at various
mounts and thick neoprene pads also.
You exchange money for time and convenience. Leveling with these is a peice of cake. Steve

[GMSteve455]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess my thoughts were that surface area were going to help make the machine more stable and that's what I was going for. I saw a few posts from the archives where someone had done the leveling feet but I wasn't sure how well it worked. The leveling feet sure sound like an easier solution. I'll probably also get some square tubing like Barry suggested which might help to tie the bottom of the machine together a little better as if it were solid mounted to the floor. Back to the drawing board. I'll post a picture of what I end up with.

Thanks for the abusive remark Joel! Glad someone took me up on that one.


Steve