Lathe leveling/parallelism using shop made levelers..

Creativechipper said:
I am starting to think I could use a 2x6 wooden block and put leveling feet on the blocks, x2 blocks one for each end of the lathe? I would use steel plates but dont have the steel nor the tooling.

Do you all think wooden leveling blocks with adjustable feet would be a good work around? Kinda the same as mounting on a wooden bench right?

Something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CG2Z4J...eV&pd_rd_r=6X8CKRZETE9Y6M30HHEA&pd_rd_w=EWYuC
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Man! It seems like as soon as those blocks of wood saw some oil...ugh. Maybe even wet season vs dry could be problematic. I totally want this mod, but never see a time I will have free time to do it. It's on my list thjough!
 
BaronJ said:
Hi Guys,

Whilst I see that you have put plates under the feet, which is good, I was a little shocked to see just how thin and weak the casting is, particularly at the tailstock end and to see a groove right across, running through the hole for the bolt. That is exactly where I would expect the casting to fracture at some point in time.
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Baron,
I looked at the picture showing the “groove” closely and it appears to be a sharpie mark not a groove.

The Chinese don’t want the lathe to last longer than a few years, so they can sell us another one. They don’t support repair parts longer than around 10 yrs.

You won’t be seeing these things in usable condition at much more than 20 yrs or so for the better ones. Not at all like my 73 yr old Logan!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Ok Terry, I've been obsessing over this for days. I don't want to do it as I just put the lathe in a month ago. Leveling the table...not so bad. Mounting and leveling the lathe (which is not as related to table level as you would think).....not fun. Adjusting/calibrating the lathe and finding the tailstock size is .004 bigger...less fun and so on... Now that I see this is kinda a have to do with these table top mini lathes, it means starting all over. Ugh.
I have a question as I cut/drill all these pieces. Why do you need to bolt the bars that have the adjustable legs to the table top? I mean, they share the center mounting hole that connect lathe to block to table top. My simplified (lazy) version is this;
There will be a plate that covers the mostly open leg of the lathe, but just like the block that the legs are mounted in, I will rely on the center hole to keep it in place. Is there a fault to this reasoning? The pressure of the center mounting hole will keep all the stuff together and inline? No?
 
GunsOfNavarone said:
Ok Terry, I've been obsessing over this for days. I don't want to do it as I just put the lathe in a month ago. Leveling the table...not so bad. Mounting and leveling the lathe (which is not as related to table level as you would think).....not fun. Adjusting/calibrating the lathe and finding the tailstock size is .004 bigger...less fun and so on... Now that I see this is kinda a have to do with these table top mini lathes, it means starting all over. Ugh.
I have a question as I cut/drill all these pieces. Why do you need to bolt the bars that have the adjustable legs to the table top? I mean, they share the center mounting hole that connect lathe to block to table top. My simplified (lazy) version is this;
There will be a plate that covers the mostly open leg of the lathe, but just like the block that the legs are mounted in, I will rely on the center hole to keep it in place. Is there a fault to this reasoning? The pressure of the center mounting hole will keep all the stuff together and inline? No?
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It might work. The center bolt is just a thru hole so it'll do nothing to keep any of the components from rotating. For the little amount of time and effort it took to do I wanted to make sure the leveling plates and foot plates were not going to move and the leveling platesw were square and would remain square to the mounting hole.
 
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That's a good point. I think I'll weld a lip on the plate that covers the open foot of the lathe (so it catches on outside and can't turn) and perhaps a small pilot screw to give a second point on block for same purpose. It maybe crazy, but I'm lifting the lathe a good 3" off the table with this setup. The icing on the cake was going to be how easy it would be to clean under it. So much to do....so little time...
 
I think you want to mount the bottom plate to the bench to keep it from climbing the adjusters as you turn them. Maybe one extra through hole to bolt plus a washer and bolt on the center hole that runs through lathe to keep it flat on the bench.
I can't believe there is not a set of lathe leveling plates available readily when we buy the lathe.

I am thinking a thick 1/2" steel rectangle with 4 leveling feet and a bigger footprint than the lathes current footprint. put a slot system so it could handle different bolt patterns and bolt your lathe to the plate then use the 4 plate feet to level each end. Is this already available somewhere?
 
I'm thinking you leveled your machine to a foundation that will move over time and with the seasons. Warpage, sag, swelling, twist, cupping or all of the above may negate your efforts. Additionally if you roll your foundation to a new location any variation in even-ness from it's previous location will, over time, transmit itself to your lathe. Keep the level handy.........................Bob
 
bhigdog said:
I'm thinking you leveled your machine to a foundation that will move over time and with the seasons. Warpage, sag, swelling, twist, cupping or all of the above may negate your efforts. Additionally if you roll your foundation to a new location any variation in even-ness from it's previous location will, over time, transmit itself to your lathe. Keep the level handy.........................Bob
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I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said. However, all lathes need to be checked and aligned from time to time and this will make that process quick and painless. I also have no intentions of ever moving it. I may do away with the wheels and/or make some brackets for levelers on the bench. The workbench has many things in it's favor such as the available storage right at the machine and the fact that it weighs 455lbs. empty. Those things put it far ahead of the sheet metal cabinets that these are typically mounted on in my opinion. The top is over an inch thick and made from many laminated strips of fingerjointed hardwood that are sealed. That should help to stabilize it even though I agree that it is likely to move at least some.
 
Hi Guys,

My lathe is on a steel cabinet and not bolted to the floor but sat on a large piece of hard rubber on top of the tiles. About the only time I check that it is turning true is if I need to do any work longer than a couple of inches. I can easily turn a pair of collars 6" apart where the difference is down to a tenth of a thou. Not that it stays that way for long. A heavy cut will change things.
 
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