Designing a wood bench for a lathe

That's where I'm leaning. If it gets bad I can always weld something up. Now I just need to get to cutting and tapping the levelers so I can install them when the poly cures. I'm thinking to use long wood screws into the cross supports to attach to the bench. Maybe make them long enough to overshoot the supports as well and run bolts on the end through the bench with large washers on the backside as well. I'd have to make sure the bolt heads are away from the foot or otherwise can't interfere with the leveling bolts though. Might be more trouble than it's worth. I guess I could fire up the belt grinder and shorten the heads.

For the level adjustment bolts, how much length do I need? I wasn't planning on much, maybe 1/2" long.
 
ttabbal said:
Now I just need to get to cutting and tapping the levelers so I can install them when the poly cures. I'm thinking to use long wood screws into the cross supports to attach to the bench. Maybe make them long enough to overshoot the supports as well and run bolts on the end through the bench with large washers on the backside as well. I'd have to make sure the bolt heads are away from the foot or otherwise can't interfere with the leveling bolts though. Might be more trouble than it's worth. I guess I could fire up the belt grinder and shorten the heads.
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Sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you just said! o_O

ttabbal said:
For the level adjustment bolts, how much length do I need? I wasn't planning on much, maybe 1/2" long.
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I don't know how warped or twisted your lathe is but I suspect it isn't going be out by much. When leveling, we are moving in fractions of a millimeter once the lathe is close to level. My leveling bolts have about 3/8" of possible adjustment but I only use a tiny, tiny fraction of that. My vote would be to provide that 1/2" of travel (you don't need to use it all) but I would personally use a fine pitch thread. I would also be sure to have room for locking nuts to ensure they don't move from vibration.
 
ttabbal said:
Where do you see it moving? It is standard dimensional lumber recently purchased. I'm not opposed to adding metal supports, but I'm not sure where it makes sense to do so. Every joint is glued and screwed with multiple screws, and every board is trapped by at least one other board in addition to the plywood sides and top.
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The plywood will most definitely help for sure. I didn't see that portion. (Speed reading and looking at the picts.)
The 2x6's are what stuck out to me. The bench will support a heck of a lot of weight.
I have a 10" logan. When I first got it (20+) years ago I mounted it to a slab of bowling alley that was well 'aged'.
The second bench I fabbed in 2000 when I moved here to TN was similar to yours, except I used only (4) posts and used 2x6's on the front, rear, and top. Then I screwed the bowling alley slab to the 2x6's.
The first winter two of those screws gave out. They weren't 1/4" lag but just slightly smaller than that. And the friction style drawers I added on the sides were stuck.
It didn't affect the lathe except for the tailstock end of the slab was loose on top of the bench.
And that was in a basement shop with HVAC. (I miss that shop... not the house, just the basement shop...)
I like @ttabbal's suggestion above for the levelers...
 
mikey said:
Sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you just said! o_O
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Yeah, I was rambling a bit there... :)

The idea is that since I have extra supports under the lathe feet, I would screw the levelers to those, then thread the leveler for the hold-down bolt for the lathe foot itself. The support is a sandwich of a 4x4 with a 2x6 on either side, vertically oriented. The levelers will be perpendicular to those support beams. So for the pic above of the foot, the center would have the hold-down bolt, the leveling bolts would be to either side, countersunk screws in between them to screw to the support beam. Though I have been thinking about using a pair of lag bolts there.

The other thought I had was to do that and also have a pair of holes that would be to either side of the support beam under the lathe. Those would be through holes drilled through the 3/4" ply top and supported on the back by washers or maybe a piece of steel plate to spread the clamping load.

The bit about the bolt heads interfering with the leveling bolts was that they might be tall enough to cause a problem. However, I forgot about the locking nuts. Those should space things out enough that it wouldn't be an issue. I don't expect I'll actually need to do a lot with the leveling bolts to start with. It's a new lathe and likely isn't really twisted much if at all.

I am planning to use fine pitch bolts for the leveling. 1/4-20 is easy to get locally. 1/2 drops to 13tpi for local. If I order I can get 1/2-20. Looks like my local fastenall has 1/4-28 and 3/8-24. Probably about 1" long, about 1/4" for the plate, another 1/4" or so for the nut, leaving plenty of adjustment. I'm leaning toward 3/8-24.
 
ttabbal said:
Yeah, I was rambling a bit there... :)
.....trimmed......
I'm leaning toward 3/8-24.
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Are you talking 3/8-24 between the lathe and the plywood? or from the posts to the floor?
 
middle.road said:
Are you talking 3/8-24 between the lathe and the plywood? or from the posts to the floor?
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Between the lathe and plywood top. The bench has 1/2-20 leveling feet I will adjust first.
 
ttabbal said:
Between the lathe and plywood top. The bench has 1/2-20 leveling feet I will adjust first.
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Ah, got it. (if the phone would quit ringing I could read through properly ... :) )
 
Hmmm... Apparently, washers for 1/2" bolts are just that size. As standards go, I guess it could be worse.

Since I have a lathe.... Any reason not to mount it up without washers, put a stack of them on a bolt, and turn them to fit?

Got the machine cleaned up, lubricated, and spent a little time getting acquainted with the controls. Everything feels smooth and there's a thin coat of oil on all the moving parts now. There wasn't too much of the thick grease on it, and what was there cleaned up without too much trouble.
 
You can grind off one side of the washer to a D shape to get you going...
 
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