Leveling Feet

[ddickey]

I received the leveling feet. Can someone explain how they work? I know a dumb question but I have never used this type and I don't want to screw up the mounting proper. Does the mill rest on just a nut? If so I would need two more nuts. The other used to lock the one of the sides.?

Also, is there a reason to connect the front and rear mounts with a couple crossmembers (welding)? I've seen a lot of bases with just the front and rear members.

 

[mariner3302]

If the leveling feet are attached at the hole in the foot, doesn't that put an awful lot of strain on that one tab? I was thinking of putting a steel plate between the foot and the actual leveling pad so the weight is distributed around the whole foot and not just the tab. Is that necessary? I see lots of big lathes on youtube with the levelers just on the tab of the foot.

 

[wcunning]

@mariner3302, you would be amazed at the amount of strength in those tabs... My Sheldon-Sebastian has 6 tabs on the insides of cast cabinets and they're more than enough for the whole machine. You also have to think about the total weight of your machine, which based on those legs, is less than a thousand pounds with equipment in the tray and a workpiece in the chuck, so you'd only have 250# on each pad. The more horrifying thing, in my opinion, is how much more stable the machine will be after you get leveling feet in all the holes and weight on all of them evenly. That says that it *was* resting on two or three of those pads instead of all four. Or maybe that was just my experience with my lathe....

@ddickey I'm not sure what you mean about cross members, so I'm not sure what to tell you there. As far as what the mill rests on, it'll be the nut. For my own piece of mind and to make sure that it doesn't wander, I used flange nuts (not terribly expensive, got mine from Tractor Supply) in combination with an extra thick grade 8 washer.

On my end, I did get my lathe up on feet and leveled over the weekend, though I haven't taken many pictures yet, so that's next on the docket. I'll put together a better, more interesting description in a day or two.

Cheers,
Will