Vibration with Mill and Lathe on Toolbox

JPMacG said:
I have my lathe and mill mounted on toolboxes too - similar to yours. I found that replacing the casters with hockey pucks made a huge difference. But I see that you have already removed the casters. Is the base of the lathe flat against the floor or does it rock on the floor? If it rocks, some sort of leveling might help.
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It is just sitting on the concrete. I don't think it is rocking, I have shims on one corner. I cant really feel any vibration at the bottom either. Those are nice and that is probably the route I should have went.
 
Sundewzer. In my opinion the brackets just told you that the problem isn’t the lathe. The problem is the stand. The wood brackets stabilized your stand. As others pointed out, the toolbox isn’t really designed for a load which occurs with a lathe. Ideally you’d have steel frame surrounding the box with adjustable machine base feet. But, we all deal with what we have at times in our life.
If it was me, my next step would be to address that toolbox at the base. You mentioned a shim in one corner. I can tell you my first lathe was an Atlas 618 lathe. Not a huge lathe but it was mounted on a sawhorse type of stand with 4 casters on the legs. Damned thing was horrible.
I took off the casters and ran 2x4’s boxing in the legs at the base where it contacts the floor. That was like night and day and we are talking about a much smaller lathe than yours.
In my opinion you first must totally fix the box at the base. The best solution would be “non shrinking grout”
Grout that box all the way around where it touches the concrete floor. Shim it level first then grout it. Home Depot sells non shrinking grout. After it dries then level the lathe. None of this is ideal in my opinion. But it’s the best quick fix for your situation.
 
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Non-shrink grout is a hydraulic cement grout that, when hardened under stipulated test conditions, does not shrink, so its final volume is greater than or equal to the original installed volume. It is often used as a transfer medium between load-bearing members.


Quikrete 50 lb. Non-Shrink Precision Grout


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silence dogood said:
I'm not sure, but it looks like that we are getting somewhere. Here is an idea. Try putting one of those little super magnets on the light side of the chuck. You will have to experiment where that is. Also, just do a little bit of weight at a time. If the vibration gets less, then we are getting some place. Do you have a face plate? If you do, see if it will vibrate with that. I'm asking because the lathe vibrates with two different chucks. I'm asking, because I don't think it's the chucks. Besides, I'd hate to mess with a chuck unless we are absolutely sure. I don't know if it's a gear or pulley on the left side of the spindle. What ever, I would check that very carefully. It could be out of balance or have a wobble. Come to think about it, do this first. See if there is any wobble on the belt pulleys.
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There is a belt tensioner and I messed with that but I wasn't able to make it better or worse. It did come with a face plate, i will put that on next along with trying to add some offset weight to it as well.
 
First, I agree with Tim9, you need to make a more solid base for your lathe to sit on. I just remembered that there was a thread concerning chattering (think chattering as sound). The fellow had the headstock off and then put back on. Something had gotten in one of the blind holes where the bolt went in. He was able to torque it, but was not tight. Removing the what ever solved the problem. It may be a good idea to check the bolts, nuts, and set screws on the headstock and make sure that they are set right and tight. Happy New Year and may you soon be making chips.
 
Thanks everybody for all the help and suggestions. I will definitely go over the headstock and check for any loose items. I don't want to grout anything in this shop as we are planning on moving in about 6 months.

I downloaded an app on my phone that graphs acceleration and found the worst RPM. I did some test cut on steel at this RPM and the finish is great, much better than before I mounted it to the wall. I wish I would have thought of using the app ahead of mounting it so I had some data points.

One other thing I wanted to point out that I didn't think of at first is the DRO and arm has it own natural frequency. I hit one RPM where I though the DRO was going to jump off lathe but the headstock was fine. That is when I thought of downloading the app so I wasn't relying on visual cues.
 
The grout won’t do any permanent damages. Once you’re ready to move and disassemble it, a hammer and chisel will pop it right off the surface of the current concrete floor. It doesn’t really stick to the floor. But it will form a sturdy base of contact between the box and floor thereby cutting down on the vibrations. It might cause some discoloring but nothing really serious. It’ll chip right off once the box is moved. Grout is really just compressive acting. It has minimal adhesive characteristics. Grouting will be quick, simple and cheap solution to your issues. Until you stabilize that base you’re pissing in the wind.
 
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If it were me, I'd put the lathe on the floor and run it at all speeds.
If there is still objectionable vibration, something is seriously wrong with the machine.
 
Good idea Choiliefan.
 
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