lathe ground fix

[Richard King]

If your having problems tightening leveling bolts many times when I level a lathe I need to re-tap the leveling bolt holes as they get burrs on them. I have also seen people forget to loosen the jam lock nut. There is a trick on bigger lathes to lift them. This only works on the bigger machine with a center pedestal. Jack up the tail stock end so you can slide in a hard wood (oak) 2" x 4" board under the middle pedestal and let the jack down. This will allow the head-stock end to teeter up. You may need to move the tail-stock and saddle down to that end so it raises up, being the head-stock end is heavier. I use this method a lot as it is safer then jacking the machine up super high. Lathes are so top heavy and can tip over so easy. Good luck. Rich

 

[4GSR]

Back in the turn of the century up until the early 1930's or about, in most machine shops, especially here in the South, the machines were set up on dirt floors, raised up to float cement under them and around the first inch or so above the legs or base of a machine. This was its foundation for the life of the machine. Were they leveled back then? Have no clue. I owned a early 1910 No. 3 Brown & Sharpe horizontal mill years ago that I had to chip the concrete off the base and out of the holes for setting anchor bolts, to get it to bare iron to paint. Also had a early lathe that the legs were enbeded in concrete, too, with the same problem of cleaning up too.

 

[flutedchamber]

i like to get me some of those machine leveling feet but i wonder what the rubber /neoprene is not compressing
and you need to correct the machine every time

I put a set of 6 under my Nardini 1760E five years ago. I leveled the lathe after a week, month, two and four months. After the initial settling between the first and second month, I found no change. I check it every six months just to be sure.

If you hard mount your lathe (or any machine) with anchors, what you are doing later is grouting the joint. Usually a mix of cement and fine sand is used, a bit richer in cement than you would use for brick work. This makes it creamy and less prone to crack from vibration.

 

[Splat]

I've used hockey pucks with carriage bolts to level my mill last year. I just checked it about a month ago and it's still level. I plan on doing it to my Heavy 10 too. It's a helluvalot cheaper than getting actual leveling feet. Go here and scroll down to "Hockey Puck Leveling Feet".

 

[Armor]

That was the way we did our Folders, grout the whole base once set and trammed in.


Jeff