How important is levelness of the table for lathes?

[Pcmaker]

I'm building a table for my 11x27 lathe that I ordered a week ago. How important is the level of the table top? The wood bench I made isn't too level.

Also, do you think this will hold 1200 pounds? Made out of 4x4s and some 2x4s.

I'll be setting my lathe, my mill, along with other tooling on top of it. I'll be using 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood glued together as top

I don't have a machinist's level. I just have a regular bubble level from Home Depot

 

[Mitch Alsup]

I would add some diagonals to stiffen up the square/rectangular sections.

As to holding vertical loads--yes it is fine
As to handling horizontal bumps by heavy things--I am not so sure.

 

[francist]

I would not put 1200 pounds on that stand as it is with no leg in the front, especially considering the near-perfect placement of the knot dead centre of the front apron.

-frank

 

[Technical Ted]

If I was making one for myself, I would want full support under each of the four corners of a mill and under both sides of each base section of a bench lathe. So that would be a minimum of 8 legs directly under the critical areas (4 mill, 4 lathe). I wouldn't be very comfortable with an open front design like your picture. I'd put some supports going all the way to the floor as I stated. Besides just being level, you want things to be stable. A non-stable base would lend itself to chatter and other issues down the road. I rather over build than under build something of this importance.

Also, it's not so important that the bench be level... it's the machinery that needs to be level. The lathe should not be twisted, which is different than being level. There are a lot of previous posts on leveling a lathe. You can always adjust, shim or whatever to level your machines after you install them on the bench.

Of course all this depends on the size of your machinery, which I have no idea what you have... so if they are very small, you may be able to get by with less. It would depend on how much they weigh, among other things.

Just my two cents,
Ted

 

[benmychree]

A bench made of wood will not be stable with changes in humidity, having said that, indeed, it does need more legs and suitable bracing, such as plywood back and end panels; I agree with the other posters.

 

[WCraig]

I'm building a table for my 11x27 lathe that I ordered a week ago. How important is the level of the table top? The wood bench I made isn't too level.

Also, do you think this will hold 1200 pounds? Made out of 4x4s and some 2x4s.

I'll be setting my lathe, my mill, along with other tooling on top of it. I'll be using 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood glued together as top

I don't have a machinist's level. I just have a regular bubble level from Home Depot

I believe you said, in another thread, that you're using pallet wood? How dry is it? Pallets are often made of the cheapest, sopping wet wood that they can get away with. If your wood continues to dry out over a year or two, it may decide to warp, twist and otherwise ruin the flat, straight support you want for your tools. That would be "A bad thing"!

Also, you may want to put levellers under the legs. If the floor isn't perfectly flat and level, the bench top won't be for long.

I'm not sure if it is designed for this, but you might want to see what the Sagulator says:

https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/

Effectively, your top is a shelf supported on the two ends. Alternatively, I know there are calculators out there for joist deflection. Maybe one of them would help.

Craig

 

[ttabbal]

What they are talking about is the reason my bench has 8 legs. 4 for the corners, 4 directly under the machine feet. I also made sure to build it in such a way that fasteners and glue aren't used to hold the weight.

As for level, it's nice to keep things from rolling off the bench. The lathe doesn't care so long as it is not twisted. We talk about level as it's a common reference we're familiar with. I leveled mine with a carpenters level and it's fine. Then I leveled the lathe with a machine level and used the 2 collar test to align it the rest of the way. Reminds me, I need to do it again.

 

[Pcmaker]

I believe you said, in another thread, that you're using pallet wood? How dry is it? Pallets are often made of the cheapest, sopping wet wood that they can get away with. If your wood continues to dry out over a year or two, it may decide to warp, twist and otherwise ruin the flat, straight support you want for your tools. That would be "A bad thing"!

Also, you may want to put levellers under the legs. If the floor isn't perfectly flat and level, the bench top won't be for long.

I'm not sure if it is designed for this, but you might want to see what the Sagulator says:

https://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/

Effectively, your top is a shelf supported on the two ends. Alternatively, I know there are calculators out there for joist deflection. Maybe one of them would help.

Craig

It's 4x4 Fir from Home Depot, not pallet wood. I don't know where you got that from

 

[Superburban]

As for level, it's nice to keep things from rolling off the bench. The lathe doesn't care so long as it is not twisted. We talk about level as it's a common reference we're familiar with. I leveled mine with a carpenters level and it's fine. Then I leveled the lathe with a machine level and used the 2 collar test to align it the rest of the way. Reminds me, I need to do it again.

Agreed, we use "Level", because the lathe was basically designed to run level, and level is easy to aim for. The real goal, is no twist. It could be 10 degrees forward, as long as the whole thing is 10 degrees forward. Exaggeration, I do not think the tail stock would hold center well, at 10 degs, even though there are slant bed lathes. I would bet there is more to them, then just turning the lathe forward.

 

[dtsh]

A wooden bench is perfectly acceptable; however, as others have stated you need to add more support.
A triangle is one of the strongest shapes, add diagonals inside the vertical squares and another leg in the front, at minimum. If you load it up with that design and the front support gives, it will toss the lathe right in your lap and that's not going to end well.

You want all of the horizontal members to rest directly on top of a vertical member, like you would a jack stud in framing, so that none of the load is supported by fasteners. You will likely need to double up a few more vertical members, such as inside the corners to support the cross members because it looks like they are effectively unsupported by anything but fasteners and that's where a significant portion of your load will be. Imagine removing all the fasteners, any piece that holds load but wouldn't stay up without fasteners needs to have a support member directly beneath it supporting it in place. With the short cross members at the benchtop, should a fastener or two fail, what keeps the lathe from falling and injuring you?