WTK Has Anyone Tried to use the cast-iron leveling pads that come with the PM 1340?

chiroone

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I’m wondering if anybody has tried to use these cast-iron leveling pads that come with the PM 1340. By the look of them, they’re quite crude and I’m sure they’re going to have to be drilled possibly even topped before using them. Anyone had any success with these? If not, which ones would you suggest to get, I am going to need six of them

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I used the ones that came with my Grizzly. Similar but they are maybe a little less crude shaped. They worked fine.
 
Those look just like the ones that came with my PM-1440GT. I used them on an uneven, sloping concrete shop floor, and they worked just fine. No problem leveling the bed with a precision level -- and a re-check one year later shows the same "level-ness."

Here is a shot of the lathe just after leveling and before final assembly.
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So Bill, did you tap the pads and then use the nuts that came with the bolts to block it down ?
 
So Bill, did you tap the pads and then use the nuts that came with the bolts to block it down ?
I thought about tapping them and securing them to the floor, but talked to Matt about it and he said not to worry about it -- and just use them as-is, which is what I did. There is enough mass with the machine to keep it from jumping around, even with unbalanced set-up's. I had done the same thing with the knee mill and even with the much lighter, top heavy 1,000Lb Smithy.

But when it came to the smaller, lighter 10X24 200Lb Atlas, I had the level the bench and secure the bench legs to the floor to keep it from moving around. Then shimmed -- and bolted -- the lathe bed to the top of the bench to level it.

Here is one of the 1440GT feet. Even with the required additional shim under the pad
it hasn't moved.

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And here is one of the legs of the Atlas bench
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When you put the pads down, insert a piece of 30 LB roofing felt (tarpaper) under them, it makes them "marry" with the floor.
 
I used mine, but turned the feet down to flat to get rid of the as cast surface (leaves the three pads that didn't seen even), then milled the bottom if the hole to make it parallel with the foot side. Bottom of the hole was cast roundish, flat bottom lets the adjusting bolt sit on a square surface. I suppose a ball nose in the hole, and rounding the end of the bolt would allow the pad to swivel to compensate for an uneven floor. I also raised the lathe using 3" square tube and 3/4" plate welded to the bottom, tapped for 1/2-20 bolts - similar to what mjks did (at 6-4, apparently I'm taller than most Asians), this also spreads the footprint out front to back for better stability. Interest comment about felt to "marry" the pads to the floor.
 
I have don the tarpaper thing to my lathes for many years, kinda bonds them to the floor.
 
They are not made to be tapped, they are made so the divot is a bearing surface for the screw and allows the foot to have some angular movement if your floor is not level. I use some 1/8" high density polyethylene sheet under the feet so they do not dig into my epoxy coated garage floor. Otherwise consider S&W swiveling leveling feet (BSW-2 or similar), the 1340GT takes the 1/2" size but you need to chase the threaded holes with a tap according to others because the pitch is slightly different.

 
I actually have a sheet of Kydex that’s a quarter inch, I wonder if that would be a acceptable substitute for the polyethylene sheet or even the tar paper
 
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