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lathe mobility

D

Dennis Taylor

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May 13, 2004
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does anyone have a mid size lathe, mine is a Jet 1642, that is on wheels or some assembly to allow it to be moved around the shop?...mine is against a exterior wall in a garage/shop, and need to have the ability to move the lathe around in the shop, now is isn't on wheels and sliding it around isn't easy work, is there any suggestions out there?...thanks in advance...Dennis
 
Is it already on a stand or bolted to a table?

If stand, there are a variety of adjustable rolling tool bases out there. You can pick them up at Rocklers, Woodcraft, or even at the local Home Despot or bLoews. Most have locking wheels.

The other option is a nice piece of 1" plywood cut to size with locking rollers on the bottom and lathe stand bolted to the top. Total cost at about $40.


Dietrich
 
use at your own risk

In a class with Stuart Batty he mentioned that his lathe "walked" on a concrete floor when he had an unbalanced piece chucked in. He claimed that he used this to move his lathe when he needed to. I tried it with my Powermatic model 90. It works but to get it to move at any reasonable speed (6 inches per minute) the speed became so high and the vibrations so strong that I am scared to use it for safety reasons and to prevent damage to my machine. It may work with a lighter machine.
If you try I'd like to know the results but please don't call from your hospital bed.
 
move your lathe for $10

I have some of the teflon and rubber pads for use in furniture moving. Put the pad of the floor, (teflon side down) and with the aid of a little saw dust, the lathe moves quite easily on a concrete floor. I have the Jet 1642 at over 400 pounds and this is how I move mine when I need to. The pads you can find at Menards/Lowes/Home Depot for only about $10-$15 for a 4 pack. The only problem is lifting the lathe to slide the pads underneath. With a lever though it isn't difficult, I do it myself.
 
I have a PM3520 (as everyone knows), and have had to move it a couple of feet on occasion. I just give it a sharp nudge and shove it. If I was going to move it to the other side of the studio (garage) I'd probably just get SWMBO to help and we would both nudge it.
 
My own system, on the very rare occaision of needing to, is the same as Jeff's: a sharp push.

Our club recentlybought a new lathe and we needed for it to be mobile for retrieval from, and returning to, the store room in the Village Hall. My Father-in-Law, another turner, designed and built a simple steel stand with wheels at one end and detachable handles at the other. The lathe alone weighs in at 220lbs and the stand adds probably half again, and yet this system has proved highly mobile even in tight spaces. There are times when you have to use the wheels as a pivot, such as pulling it out of a restricted space, and then push or pull the whole thing like a wheelbarrow, but it is still mobile.

As for stability, there hasn't been a problem so far, and if you needed more stability it wouldn'tbe difficult to have a set of chocks set up for the legs to act against.

Here's a picture to show you the set up. The handles slide out and fix into clips on the legs for storage whilst in use.
 

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Andy Coates said:
Our club recentlybought a new lathe and we needed for it to be mobile for retrieval from, and returning to, the store room in the Village Hall. My Father-in-Law, another turner, designed and built a simple steel stand with wheels at one end and detachable handles at the other. The lathe alone weighs in at 220lbs and the stand adds probably half again, and yet this system has proved highly mobile even in tight spaces. There are times when you have to use the wheels as a pivot, such as pulling it out of a restricted space, and then push or pull the whole thing like a wheelbarrow, but it is still mobile.
Click to expand...

Time-honored method for tools before they started selling mobile stands. My dad's contractor saw had casters on the motor side and rubber on the front ever since I was a kid. Works even on homebuilt stands. The old lathe had a wheelbarrow setup similar, and never seemed to walk much even with a minimum speed of ~650. One recommendation is to use steel wheels on concrete floors. They tolerate a bit of litter better than hard plastic or rubber, so those times you're moving the machine not to clean, but to get it out of the way will go easier.
 
I made a tool cart for a moulder once. I placed two fixed casters on one end and two swivel casters on the other. Problem was that it wanted to move when I wanted it to stay still.

So I placed a foot operated "jack" type leg that popped overcenter and locked one end of the cart to the floor.

If you could find a swivel roller that would do this, it would eliminate the need for the wheelbarrow handles. Just pop the leg with swivel caster down to the floor and push the machine where you want it to go.

I think you can buy this type of thing from MSC or Grainger or McMaster Carr.
 
tdrice said:
In a class with Stuart Batty he mentioned that his lathe "walked" on a concrete floor when he had an unbalanced piece chucked in. He claimed that he used this to move his lathe when he needed to. I tried it with my Powermatic model 90. It works but to get it to move at any reasonable speed (6 inches per minute) the speed became so high and the vibrations so strong that I am scared to use it for safety reasons and to prevent damage to my machine. It may work with a lighter machine.
If you try I'd like to know the results but please don't call from your hospital bed.
Click to expand...

I heard the same story from Stuart. Being that I have the same machine he does, I thought I'd try his discovery. IT WORKED!

I do a fair amount of off center and off blalance turning and it is amazing how a machine over 750 lbs can jump around with even the smallest amount of off center weight. So this weekend I finally bolted my machine bown. What an imrovement! I thought it was a quite and smooth running unit before. Bolting it eliminated every bit of minor vibration. I'd recommend that you secure your lathe and make your other shop tools mobile. Of course you should varify with the manufacture if bolting it down is OK. I've heard that some machines shouldn't be.

- Scott
 
S. Clark said:
I heard the same story from Stuart. Being that I have the same machine he does, I thought I'd try his discovery. IT WORKED!

I do a fair amount of off center and off blalance turning and it is amazing how a machine over 750 lbs can jump around with even the smallest amount of off center weight. So this weekend I finally bolted my machine bown. What an imrovement! I thought it was a quite and smooth running unit before. Bolting it eliminated every bit of minor vibration. I'd recommend that you secure your lathe and make your other shop tools mobile. Of course you should varify with the manufacture if bolting it down is OK. I've heard that some machines shouldn't be.

- Scott
Click to expand...

Think about how bad a car can vibrate at speed with only tire off balance by just and oz. or two. Even a very heavy lathe comes no where near the weight of a car, and large turning can be off balance by pounds, not just oz. Doesn't surprise me how much they can move around.

However, if you intend to mostly use precut dried blanks or spindle turning it should be fine. I would still find some method of having it on solid ground instead of on the wheels when turning. I have the same lathe and when turning some green natural edge bowls it will move some, so I bolted mine down.
 
Mobile Jet 1642

Dennis Taylor said:
does anyone have a mid size lathe, mine is a Jet 1642, that is on wheels or some assembly to allow it to be moved around the shop?...
Click to expand...

Dennis

Here's my mobile Jet 1642. I bought one of those Universal bases that uses a piece of plywood as the body. Just used a short chunk of plywood between a pair of wheels on either end. Bolted each assembly to the legs using the existing tapped holes. Works dandy. However, this does add a couple inches to the height. The center is now 46 1/2" above the floor. I'm only 5'8" so this is pretty darned high. On the other hand I don't have to lean over as far when I'm hollowing out a deep box :rolleyes:
 

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Greg,
Am also 5-8, and mine is about right elevation with the legs on the floor (minus the screw-in feet). Good looking cabinet and tool rack.
 
Hydraulic table

I use a hydraulic table to move a 20" woodfast and General 260 around.
This is not an every day event.

Normal duty for the Hydraulic table is to raise heavy turning blanks to the bandsaw and act as an auxhillary bandsaw table while they are cut round. But it can slide under a lathe and when table is raised lift the lathe and roll it aarond like a flatbed cart.

If you only move the lathe occaisionally and need to lift some other heavy stuff,
I reccommend a Hydraulic table.

Happy Turning,
Al
 
pencheff

the mobile base is the one of the cheaper bases, you just didn't use the long rails correct?....the tailstock end has the fixed wheels, and then the headstock end has the pedal's that you left up to sit the rubber feet to the floor, is that what I see in the picture?....where did you find the base that uses plywood, it looks like the front & back has a slot for the plywood to fit into...right or wrong?....Dennis
 
Mobile Jet 1642

Dennis Taylor said:
the mobile base is the one of the cheaper bases, you just didn't use the long rails correct?....the tailstock end has the fixed wheels, and then the headstock end has the pedal's that you left up to sit the rubber feet to the floor, is that what I see in the picture?....where did you find the base that uses plywood, it looks like the front & back has a slot for the plywood to fit into...right or wrong?....Dennis
Click to expand...

Yes, it is essentially just four corner pieces that have a 3/4" gap between two metal plates (see below) into which you insert a piece of plywood that fits your need. I cut a piece of plywood just wide enough so that the legs of the lathe fit precisely between the corner pieces. The toughest part was drilling the holes for the bolts that bolt the base to the legs. That and actually lifting the lathe high enough to get the base under it to insert the bolts. I used a 2 ton shop crane/engine hoist :cool2:

I put the lift assembly under the headstock so that in the "down" position the headstock end is sitting on the floor. Since I'm still a newbie turner and not (yet) attempting to spin 100lb out of balance blanks this is working quite well for me. It is very stable.

I got the mobile base from Woodcraft, it's rated at 600 lbs capacity. My local Lowes had a Delta model that was similar but only rated for 300lbs.

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5114
 

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