Lathe Mounting on Existing Bench

[rronald]

I have a 1130V ordered. My plan is to mount it on top of the pictured bench below. The 1130V is advertised as 525 lbs.

The bench is 8' long (toolbox, vice, and battery will be gone soon). It's 24" wide, with only a few inches of top overhang. It's a very heavy bench, but it consists entirely of MDF. It's glued with epoxy and I think it's all sealed with paint or epoxy. It has 6 upright pieces (along the the length) that support the top for the full width.

Ideally I'd weld up something the same size.....but the weight and shape and drawers are just about perfect for the lathe. I put a level on it....very close to perfect in both directions.

Am I crazy to mount the lathe on the bench?

 

[7milesup]

An 1130 size lathe isn't that big. I would say that your bench would be fine if it has the rigidity.
Lathes don't care if they are level. Lathes on ships are never level. What lathes DO care about is twist in the bed. Is the bench consistent from one end to the other?

 

[rronald]

I'm in the DFW area and our foundations tend to move around on our clay soil as drought shows up and retreats. So things sitting on the foundation are subject to change. Unfortunately.

However, that bench is across a fairly stable area of the floor. So it should be fairly stable too. I guess I can start this way and if I need to build something that's flat w/o depending on a flat floor, I can worry about a replacement later.

Thanks for your input!

 

[tweinke]

When I bought my 1130V I ordered the stand too. In hindsight I probably should have built my own stand. The factory stand will surely hold the lathe off the floor, but it is about as rigid as a noodle. Rather depressing for the money spent. I will be modifying the stand to try to get it less flexible. I would think your bench would be fine.

 

[rronald]

An 1130 size lathe isn't that big. I would say that your bench would be fine if it has the rigidity.
Lathes don't care if they are level. Lathes on ships are never level. What lathes DO care about is twist in the bed. Is the bench consistent from one end to the other?

It occurs to me that the ideal top for a stand might be a "torsion box". Two skins of ply or mdf with a 3"to 6" tall grid of beams between them. Their goal is to create a perfectly flat surface. Only downside is that it would raise my existing bench top at least 3 or 4 inches. The difficult part about building them is that they must be constructed on a flat surface.

 

[7milesup]

When I had my 1022 lathe I utilized a large piece of rectangle tube steel as the top. I believe it was 8x2x1/4" wall.

Here are a couple of pictures of the stand I built for my 1022. The first picture shows the stand upside down FYI.

 

[Aurelius]

I've got to imagine that's a copy/paste error. The shipping section for the 1228 is listed as exactly the same weight and crate dimensions.
For my 1228, I put it on one of those Husky workbenches and it works surprisingly well. I was rated for over 100lbs so no issue there and I just used the chip tray as a template and drilled through the wood top and just bolted it down.

 

[rronald]

I see the shipping weight being the same. I also see that they list the 1130 as heavier than the 1228. Which seems odd. The extra 2 " in length wouldn't seem to matter as much as the larger headstock.

• the 1130V is listed as 575 lbs in the Main Specifications section. The manual lists it at 515lbs.
• the 1228VF is listed as 490 lbs in the Main Specifications section. And in the manual.

 

[Kronin]

The bed on the 1130v is 7 inches, versus 6 1/4 on the 1228vf. I would think that would add some weight, but not sure how much.

 

[tweinke]

The Chinese manual that came with my 1130V states 280Kg that should be about 617 lbs. The online manual that PM has states 515 lbs. so take your best guess is what the weight actually is. Is it with all the accessories, bare machine, or what? I know it's more than I can lift and it seems to have a fair amount of gravity when hanging from an engine crane. Somebody should actually weigh one lol. Pretty sure a well-made bench will be fine.