Lathe Leveling

It's a 14"x40" LeBlond. Has six feet, four at the head and two at the tail. I'm using two high precision machinist levels.

My Monarch 10EE is very easy to level because it has only three feet.

Today I'm going to try some of the Oxtool tips and then take a test cut. If it is within a couple of thou over a foot I'm calling it good.
 
The manual has specific instructions on leveling and they say it is very important that the lathe be level.

I've never been able to get my head around why leveling is so important. Like Downunder Bob says a ship is never level, well almost never.
 
...cool! I know that model, but haven't seen on in 45 years. nice lathe. Same procedure as I mentioned before Ignore the two feet on the centre line - lift them up enough to do your bed straightening on the 4 corner ones. Then snug the other two headstock ones. That lathe willl easily hold to sub-thousandth-per-foot.

Using a machinists' level is the easier way to get very close to a straight bed. In one sense the bed never needs to be "level" but getting it level is easier than trying to guesstimate the twist in your bed, and fixing it when it is way out. Level in Z and Y, to the best of your ability and then don't sweat it. Do the c ollar test and fine tune the twist and you're done. The oxtool vid is very good in this respect. You can also watch both videos by 'build something cool' channel (Dale Derry) His explanation is slightly more accessible.
 
I do not even look at left to right leveling of a lathe mounted on a visually flat floor, the only thing it might impact would be the ability to use a level to check for taper, and I think a mic is a far better tool than that for the job... Twist of the bed is what we are looking for when leveling a lathe.
 
I told the concrete guy I wanted the floor LEVEl and I left him my 12" Starrett level to make sure. He had never seen such an instrument and asked if it was some kind of gunsite.

The floor ended up "carpenter level" level with a nce finish.
 
For true, the lathe doesn't care at all if it is parallel to the horizon, i.e. "level", but it does care very much if the ways are parallel to each other end to end and for that, a Master Precision Level is our go-to reference to get them close before the test cuts.

jack vines
 
I wonder whether it is practical to bolt a plate to the 2 leveling holes on TS wide enough to extend past the right side of the cabinet and then just put one leveling pad aligned with bedways centerline?

Kind of trigger my interest to sort of copy the 10EE system.
 
I got the LeBlond pretty much right on fore and aft and "close" in port and starboard. Ran a 10" test bar of 2.5" aluminum. Absolutely no TIR.

I'm calling it good and not going to mess with the P&S. I did order a toe jack to make leveling easier in the future.

My Monarch was leveled in less than five minutes but I haven't yet run the test bar.
 
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