How level does the lathe have to be sitting on floor the long side is close, across the bed it is 1/4+ Getting leveling pads and screws from oneway tomorrow.
Ed
Ed
-
April 2025 Turning Challenge: Turn an Egg! (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Kelly Shaw winner of the March 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Ellen Starr for "Lotus Temple" being selected as Turning of the Week for 21 April, 2025 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
leveling the lathe
- Thread starter Ed Jarvis
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2021
- Messages
- 1,570
- Likes
- 1,372
- Location
- Roulette, PA
- Website
- www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Not necessarily level (to gravity) I wouldn't think , although that helps keep it from moving around, I suspect. More important is having it sit more "square" - all 4 corners on the same plane - I.E. flat. if you had a flat surface on your garage floor (most garage floors have a slope to them to drain off water) then you'd want your lathe to be level to that floor, even if the floor itself is not level (to gravity)
The important thing is that the head and tail stock line up perfectly. It would likely not matter if the tailstock end of the lathe was a bit lower or higher than the headstock. The only issue would be that, if the tailstock was lower than the headstock, it would prevent looking inside of a bowl depending on how much lower the tailstock was. I would think the best possible situation is to get the lathe completely level. By shear accident, the concrete floor in my shop in the area I installed my Powermatic was level in both directions. I wonder what the odds are that a concrete basement floor would be that level even in just a small section.
My Oneway 2436 is parallel to the outside wall with the tailstock on the slight downslope of the garage. I had a slight vertical misalignment and raising the tailstock end with some 3/4” Oak under the tailstock end levelled it and fixed the problem.
As mentioned level is not critical, but it's the easiest way to measure if everything is in the same plane.
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
- Messages
- 9,160
- Likes
- 5,761
- Location
- Lakeland, Florida
- Website
- www.hockenberywoodturning.com
After moving my lathe I just put a level on the bed long ways and crossways and adjust the feet until the bed is level.
This is sort of trial and error.
Then I put on an unbalanced blank and bring the speed up until there is noticeable vibration.
I then go to each foot raise and lower it a to see if any movement reduces the vibration leaving it in the minimum vibration spot. I think this was from ONEWAY but maybe somewhere else.
When the bed is level, I can set up my hollowing system with a level on the bar.
This is sort of trial and error.
Then I put on an unbalanced blank and bring the speed up until there is noticeable vibration.
I then go to each foot raise and lower it a to see if any movement reduces the vibration leaving it in the minimum vibration spot. I think this was from ONEWAY but maybe somewhere else.
When the bed is level, I can set up my hollowing system with a level on the bar.
Each leg should be carrying equally, so that there is no twisting of the bed, that will help having head and tailstock in line.
Think about a lathe on a ship, yes they do have them and use them, lathes do not need to be level to be used and work perfectly, look at a so called sit down lathe, and you will see that a lathe can be used when not horizontal.
Having all feet carry the lathe equally is what is important.
Think about a lathe on a ship, yes they do have them and use them, lathes do not need to be level to be used and work perfectly, look at a so called sit down lathe, and you will see that a lathe can be used when not horizontal.
Having all feet carry the lathe equally is what is important.
My Nova is heavier at the head stock end. What has worked for me was to get the head stock end equal, then the tailstock, then go back to the headstock and readjust if necessary. then try to rock the lathe diagonally to see which one or two feet are moving. Then adjust until the lathe is rock solid. I then adjust the tailstock to take away any misalignment in the X horizontal plane. Although the method Mr. Hockenbery described sounds very accurate.
Leveling, as such is not much of a concern. What is important, is that all four feet are in firm contact with the floor. Otherwise, the lathe will rock with unbalanced loads. No compressible material should be placed under the feet.
South Bend lathe company used to publish a book called How to Run a Lathe when they were in business. There is a very good section on setting a lathe up and leveling. not having any twist in the bed is what's important and all four feet supporting the weight equally as stated above. Also as stated above it doesn't have to be level.
Well, one thing I remembered from high school geometry, or 'Gee, I'm a Tree' from my teacher, little did I know way back then where that would lead, '3 points determine a plane' or flat surface. If the feet are not supporting equal amounts of weight, then the bed can twist. So, how do you do this? First, your floor needs to be at least kind of level. Garage floors all tend to have some slope in them, and when I did concrete work, it was at least 1/8 inch/foot of fall. That may make the lathe want to move after you level it out. I do level the lathe on both ways. both length wise and side wise on both ends of the bed. Next, I will back one foot off just a little so it is floating. Remember, 3 points determine/make a plane.... Put an unbalanced piece of wood on the lathe and starting at 0 rpm, start moving the speed up till the lathe starts to vibrate. Then adjust the one high foot down a bit, until the wobble pretty much goes away. I then generally adjust that one foot down maybe 1/8 or so of a turn and tighten the locking nut down. The reason I add that extra 1/8 turn is that when tightening up the locking nut, that seems to raise that one foot a tiny bit. I do mark out on the floor where the feet are because any time there is an unbalanced piece on the lathe, it will want to walk around some, and no floor is dead level, not even the ones I poured when I did concrete work and I was 'too dang fussy to be a concrete guy'....
robo hippy
robo hippy