Atlas 12x36 - setting up

Y

Yeti

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I am about to set up my lathe in a lew location. It will stand on a concrete floor with floor heating pipes installed. I am therefore afraid to drill in the fixing bolts.
All manuals say that bolting to the floor is vital and still you see many lathes on the web not fixed and even on wheels.
So my question is if the fixing to the floor is vital or just recommended? Are there any other solutions?
 
It is not required. Mine was simply mounted onto the top of a wooden bench. The bench was very stiff but not bolted to the floor.
Pierre
 
There are concrete epoxy adhesives out there that would be suited for your application. You could weld some all thread to square steel plates and glue them to the floor and get the same or better pullout strength as drilled anchors. Rezi-Weld is a product I have used with good results. It can be purchased at your local concrete accessory supply house.
 
Yeti,

It depends upon what sort of bench or stand or base it is mounted on. If the base is heavy and wide enough that you couldn't turn it over if you tried, you can certainly get away with not bolting it to the floor. The original cast iron leg base that Atlas (and Sears) sold was neither heavy nor wide enough to meet this criteria. And some of the roll around bases that I've seen photos of looked like accidents waiting to happen.

Robert D.
 
Thanks for the replies. The lathe in question sits on a cabinet with the motor underneath. Model 3996. The concrete epoxy adhesive is worth looking into.

93478352.jpg
 
Yeti,

Where is Kopavogur?

With a 3996, if the concrete epoxy is impractical, you should be OK. Especially if you put a toolbox and your accessories on the shelf below the catch pan. What I think that I would do is to purchase six machinery mounting pads with 5/16" studs sticking out the top. You can shim between the top of them and the bottom of the cabinet mounting pads to rough-level the cabinet. And they would provide some degree of vibration isolation between the lathe and the concrete floor.

Robert D.
 
Robert,

Thanks for the tip.
Kopavogur is like a suburb of the capital Reykjavik, Iceland, but a separate community.

Atli H
 
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a Lot of lathes have the motor and sheaves out the back making them very tippy so bolting is vital. Yours with the cabinet mounted motor should be stable. If it seems to be too tippy people often just connect them to the wall so they can't tip over if anchors can't be used.

Steve
 
Atli,

OK. That explains the heat tubes in the slab. I have several vintage military radio related friends (hams) in the Reykjavik area.

Robert D.
 
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