Finally Got her on stilts!

  1. I knew instantly what the title meant. I have several of my machines raised. My full sized manual vertical mill is on an 11 inch high steel base.. Machines are built for smaller fellows.
 
Looks great! Should be plenty solid. I have a small lathe I have thought about building a platform to make it a few inches higher. Food for thought!

Mitch
 
I just got my hoist back from my son so I could raise my PM1236 to my height. Was a piece of cake with the hoist and the bases prepared. I still have to fasten it to the concrete floor and level it but at least I got the hard part done.
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I like it. One question, are you planning on painting the bare tubing or is there a clear sealer already on them. I like the height too. So many times when I was working in the shops the machines were different heights. Never knew what the engineers were thinking when they designed controls. At GE we had several women machinist as well some men under 6 feet tall. At 6 feet I had to stretch to reach the top of B-port mills to tighten the draw bar for the collects. I like the foot brake I wish that was a standard on all machines.
 
Bill: The "stilts" are already painted. I had some Lycoming engine paint left over from when I painted the engine on my Tripacer N3739A. I don't have the plane any more so thought I would use it up before it went bad. I think lathes made for the US market should all be made for our height. I'm not real tall 6ft but most men and a few women are around that height.
I like it where it is now. I just have to fasten it to the floor and level it now.

Bob
 
Bob,

Yes, I like those big hunky pieces of tube stock and also, when I made my bench, I spent a good bit of time calculating heights that would be comfortable for me. There was a big improvement in my personal comfort when it was all said and done... -A very worthwhile effort indeed.

Also, I want to point out, there is much more involved than just leveling the lathe with a spirit level. This has been covered many times here are there are some articles that cover the generally accepted procedures. In a nutshell, folks tend to level the lathe to some reasonable degree which may involve just enough "un-leveling" to cause the catch pan to drain properly. After that, there are techniques to make leg shimming adjustments until the lathe is cutting perfectly. Please lookup those articles and save yourself a whole lot of time and frustration...


Ray

PS: You'rd doing nice work. Keep it up...
 
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