Mounting A Bench Lathe

I didn't see whether you were going to mount the beam on a work bench or make a stand. If making a stand, weld four legs to the beam and add leveling feet (bolts and nuts) to the bottom. Then you could drill and tap the lathe mounting feet and use longer than necessary bolts. Sandwich the lathe mounts between two nuts and use that arrangement for your fine adjusting and truing. That way you take the uneven surface of the beam out of the equation. Once trued, you can always pour the feet in epoxy grout for added insurance.

I've had my 12" Atlas mounted to a double layer of plywood since 1985. It works but I have to be careful, and I've planned to build a steel mount for it for decades. I would use the beam with a few considerations mentioned above.
Thanks for the reply. I had planned on mounting the beam to my work bench but your idea of just putting legs on the I-beam sound really good and better yet using 3x5 steel tubing like Fig Lee suggested and adding legs. If it will really help with accuracy I will probably do it.
 
There was a long thread on the subject on chipmaker.ru (russian language).
Also on other rigidity and stability issues for chinese lathes and clones.

Lot of engineers taking measurements and characteristics etc..
Overall conclusion is that best base is rectangular pipe, something like 3"x5" profile.
And that it is better then beam etc..

And yes, cast iron implantation in cavity where motor resides yields most dramatic results.
People are claiming taking more then 0.1" at once. In steel!
4 mayor things considered are:
1) roller bearings
2) implantation
3) stifenning ribs
4) rectangular pipe for the base

Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for the reply. I had not thought of a rectangular pipe but I can see where it would be better than the I-beam. This now is what I plan to use and I may add legs to the 3x5 and make a stand as the other poster mentioned.
 
The beauty of adding legs, aside from the benefits mentioned above, is you can add storage space, drawers, etc. under your new lathe stand.
 
How beneficial would it be to mount a bench top type lathe to something like a piece of large I-beam or some other type of flat metal to make it more rigid? or are they pretty much good enough mounted to something like a sturdy wooden bench? I was thinking of the I-beam because I have a piece laying around.

Ray

Personally I would just mount it to a flat bench.Save the I-beam for a large anvil or whatever. I-beams are not flat,actually all I-beams that are full length are cambered in the center.In a short piece it would not be noticeable but still there.
mike
 
I tend to agree with Mike. Especially for a lathe of this size, the I-Beam seems like serious overkill and over-complication.
This is an 8 X 14 lathe that we're talking about here. Any good flat decent workbench would be more than sufficient.
Save the I beam for an anvil or coffee table. Just IMHO.

Chuck the grumpy old guy
 
I mounted mine as so
LatheBench.jpg

The smaller lathes are pretty flexible and as much as people go on about rigidity, there's not much to the things. I have not noticed any change in accuracy from this thing sitting loose on a steel top bench to a fixed mount on a softer Maple top. It's been on that bench for several years and it's repeatable to .001 on aluminum. I'd get a nice bench for a small one and if extra support was desired, cover the top with some 1/8 cold roll sheet.
 
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