# Lathe support frame and tray project.



## Dranreb (Nov 12, 2012)

As it's raining I can't be 'volunteered' for gardening duties :scared: so I'm posting this instead..it is a n off shoot from here: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/show...d-on-iron-legs-why?p=77909&posted=1#post77909

I made this to hopefully do a better job that a plank of wood, and look sort of the same style as a factory made one might look, it turned out to be much easier to do than I thought it would when I started, I reckon anyone who has a MIG even if they've never bent sheet metal before could do it too.

First I made these inserts to fit snugly inside some RHS steel, the larger bolts fit the cast iron legs and the smaller fit the lathe feet, the skinny washers are to centralize them in the oversize holes I made in the steel for wriggle room.




Holes where drilled in the RHS steel (de-burring the inside is essential) the inserts where slid inside then the lathe feet bolted to them using the skinny washers to centralize. 

View attachment 42290


Short pieces where cut as braces.

The frame was squared up, tacked together and welded together whilst cramped to a flat surface (I used an old lathe bed) to keep it straight, the vertical welds where done first, the top welds where ground before turning the frame over and re cramping to weld the underside ones. All welds where kept around 1" long and spread about to avoid distortion.




The ends where rounded off for appearance sake, in order to get a nice radius I cut pieces off a tube and straighten them into a J shape in the vise, and held in place for welding with some mega strong magnets robbed out of old microwave ovens, I have no pics of this because the god Pic fell asleep at this point and let me forget to take any.




The 'outriggers' under the gearbox are too long in this pic, yeah I know measure twice cut once!




It is essential to always have at least one bolt screwed into each insert at all times before the ends are sealed, for obvious reasons. Tacking them in place  is not a good idea as Atlas castings where not drilled with any  precision...Maybe this is the real reason for the original use of wood, much easier for the customer to alter the holes to fit...line up the rule with the cross brace below to judge for yourself. Needless to say these holes needed work.




Lunch time now, so part two to come later.

Bernard


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## Dranreb (Nov 12, 2012)

Here we go with part two, the dreaded sheet metal bending without making it looking like bad origami.

At first as I don't have a folder, I was going to modify some old metal shelving, but after a few false starts, decided it would be easier to use some slightly damaged sheet rescued from a skip (dumpster)

Four holes where drilled and the sheet was bolted to the frame using lathe feet, which where carefully lined up.

I didn't want the tray to over hang at the front because I would be sure to drop something on it or find some other way to bend it. It was also important to be able to cramp the forming tube tight to the frame to keep the bottom of the tray really flat. You can see here I used a square tube against the feet to align it all up.




The sheet was formed around the tube with a rubber mallet, it's not shown here but I also held a large sledge hammer on top of the tube as I worked along for extra solidity. One of the cramps was moved along too, I was hitting quite hard and didn't worry too much about wrinkling at this stage, just made sure it was rounding up nicely.

This is the back with no square spacer.




After it was pretty well shaped,  before removing the formers, I spent some time tapping the small wrinkles in the top edges with a hammer until the metal was straight and laid tight against the former. I was amazed how well this worked!

View attachment 42309


Next job was the ends.




Part 3 coming up after another cup of tea..

Bernard


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## kd4gij (Nov 12, 2012)

Looking good man  I like it


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## Dranreb (Nov 12, 2012)

kd4gij said:


> Looking good man  I like it



Thanks, it came out better than I expected.

Something went wrong with pic 43209 I edited to rotate it and it disappeared, would a mod be able correct this please?

Part 3, the even more dreaded corners...

Cut a right angle point on a strip of sheet metal and belted it a few times into the hole in my adjustable wrench with a ball hammer, trimmed it to fit the corner cutouts, tack weld trim, tack weld trim a few times and it looked OK, repeat four times.




The QCGB balcony was welded on but doing a round internal/external corner beat me.
Turned it over and ground welds smooth, pin holes in the welds were noticed and I have to admit to using a bit of JB weld to seal them. waited till it was half set then wiped it smooth with some thinners on a cloth. 




Stood back to look at it and noticed that the top edge was not exactly level all round, so I applied some black marker pen around it, then cramped a straight edge (used a level but anything straight will do) across the two corners, checking the height carefully.




Scribed a line under a spacer (ruler) that was deeper than the irregularities, did all round by the same method.




Then out with the flap wheel to take off excess, sand smooth, then paint and job done.




The finished article for those who missed it last time..







My thanks to the gods of Nit and Pic for overseeing this project 

Bernard


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## swatson144 (Nov 12, 2012)

Amazing freehand work! Astonishing.

Well done!

Steve


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## OakRidgeGuy (Nov 12, 2012)

Dude, that is just awesome work!


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## jumps4 (Nov 12, 2012)

you really did a nice job it looks great
one would think the lathe came with it.
steve


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## Dranreb (Nov 13, 2012)

Thanks for the nice comments guys, I do lean towards the free hand, as my grip on figures and precision, (which I am finding is much needed for good lathe work) is something I really struggle with, we all learn from each other here although the flow is rather one directional in my case.

The sharp eyed may have noticed that I made some threaded insets to fit old washing machine adjustable feet to my lathe legs, with these fitted the lathe seems very unstable, I could easily push it over. Is this normal without bolting it down or is it because I have narrowed the effective base line by 
around 3"?

Bernard


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## swatson144 (Nov 13, 2012)

Dranreb said:


> the lathe seems very unstable, I could easily push it over. Is this normal without bolting it down or is it because I have narrowed the effective base line by
> around 3"?
> 
> Bernard



Narrowing by 3" couldn't help. As built a lathe is top heavy. An atlas and some others are top heavy and have a lot of weight high and to the backside. Some people just put a bracket to the wall so it feels more stable. If the shop is in the house and the use of the lathe "livens" the house just use outriggers.

Steve


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## Dranreb (Nov 13, 2012)

Altas legs do seem to be narrower than other makes I have seen, and I've seen pics of them with casters in the leg holes!

Think I'll make something to put the adjuster feet further apart, if any one knows a neat but ridged way of doing this I would love to see it, all suggestions welcome.

Bernard


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## swatson144 (Nov 13, 2012)

If you are just concerned about it tipping over backwards (away from the operator) then maybe just a strap and levelers that nearly touch the floor. Just so it can't tip over.

If you find that the lathe could be a little taller for you then some SST to bolt to the legs would serve both purposes. Widen and raise. 

Steve


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## wa5cab (Nov 18, 2012)

If you do not want to bolt the legs to the floor (which Atlas apparently assumed would be done), I would suggest two lengths of about 2" or 2-1/2" steel channel, length to reach from the front legs to about 6" behind the motor. Bolt the channel to the legs and your levelers to the ends of the channels.

Robert D.


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## Dranreb (Nov 18, 2012)

wa5cab said:


> If you do not want to bolt the legs to the floor (which Atlas apparently assumed would be done), I would suggest two lengths of about 2" or 2-1/2" steel channel, length to reach from the front legs to about 6" behind the motor. Bolt the channel to the legs and your levelers to the ends of the channels.
> 
> Robert D.



Thanks Steve and  Robert, I thought of something similar, but I have decided to make a simple adjustable prop at the rear up to the counter shaft frame bolts.

It seems I have to add support under the suspended wooden floor, so bolting down is not an option at the moment, as I need adjustment.

This is how it looks now, angle and ply shelf added. 

Next job is to try and adapt the top slide to fit on the T slotted cross slide, it can be seen resting in place, but height is a problem here, much thought needed . The T/s slide is much longer than the original so doesn't wear the carriage in the middle the same way, but was only made to fit a QC tool holder.


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## wa5cab (Nov 18, 2012)

Looks nice.  I see that you painted your oil can to match.  

I think maybe what you are calling the Top Slide is commonly called the compound.

Isn't that slide what Atlas called a Carriage Turret?  I just acquired the next later version (there was a third later version) for my 3996 12".  Looks pretty much like yours except that the rear turret is square.  Downside of adapting the compound to it is that you lose the angle scale.  I haven't had mine on the machine yet (I bought it because of the turrets) and don't have a feel for the heights involved but would the cut-down top of the standard cross slide fit in the available height?  If so, you should be able to locate one loose to purchase.  In fact, there are two on eBay this morning.

Robert D


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## Dranreb (Nov 18, 2012)

LOL been looking for that can everywhere....gotta find a red or some other colour can for the way oil..

I have a spare 10F in bits so I can adapt parts if possible, like you say the angle scale is a problem.

I have only placed it and that rather flimsy tool holder on there to check the hieght, hadn't got any further with thinking about it, keep the suggestions coming please.

 I never had the front turret for the T/s/s, had to adapt one to fit, the rear tool post is seriously good for smooth parting off, I would never use the front again for this, I was given a NOS meaty looking tool that just about fits into it, it's a little wider than I would like but it works so well I'm sticking with it, need to make a boat for it.


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## awm_1 (Nov 21, 2012)

Nice job!
thanks for the great post.


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## Dranreb (Dec 30, 2012)

Well I decided that it was just not stable enough and drastic measures had to be taken, so the floor had to come up!

Before taking it up I marked the leg hole centres on the floor and drilled four holes in the floor board.

Dug a hole and filled it with concrete, inserted threaded rods held in position through the replaced boards.




When that was set I cut square holes in the boards and shuttered up for a couple of risers, during this time I was starting to worry that my OCD was beginning to show...




Put the insulation and boards back then put a leveling skim of cement in the holes to correct the concrete shrinkage.




Amazingly the rods hadn't moved!




And was it worth all the effort? You betcha.. I thought the lathe ran better directly I bolted it to the frame and legs, but now it is so quiet I can't believe it's the same machine! Just got to final level it now, and I should be able to start making something a little more challenging than I have done up till now...


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## pdentrem (Dec 30, 2012)

Very nice. I like the tray! Mine was just mounted onto a flat sheet of Al. Did not stop stuff from falling off but was a good shelf in it's own right.

Bolted to the concrete is the best thing to do for a light weight lathe, will also help the chatter a bit as it will change the frequency that the lathe resonates at.


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