Advice please

Just bought a new Precision Matthews 13X40. Got it in my shop and ready to set it up. Because I'm 6' tall and a suffer with a bad back I find that I am more comfortable when my chuck is at 50-51" center height. To get the PM up this high leaves a nearly 4.5" gap between the floor and the bottom of the stand. It is on 6 feet now with 5/8" bolts but the whole thing flexes too much for my taste. I looking for suggestions on how to meet my height needs and have a stable machine. My thoughts are:

-set the cabinets on 4"X0.25" square tubing or I beam and shim between the tubing and the stand

-turn spacers to fit over the bolts to add more diameter and support

-Replace the feet with 5/8" jack-bolts bolts and level the machine as close as I can and pour grout around them for the footprint of the cabinets

-make my own feet from say 3" or 4" round stock at the height needed and shim as needed

What would y'all suggest? Thanks in advance!

Reply to
Gerry
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Gerry, I'd make some forms from 2x6 and pour in concrete. A lot more stable than other suggestions, and cheap. If you are concerned about stuffness, you could put some rebar into the existing floor, but a bit of acrylic addmix might get a good enough bond, if the floor is not too grimed up.

Dave

Reply to
Mechanical Magic

Pitch the stand and make a new one. I think any scheme to raise the installed height with the original will be pretty unstable. Heres mine:

JR Dweller >Just bought a new Precision Matthews 13X40. Got it in my shop and

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Reply to
JR North

Adding a full frame 4" tube or 4" beam base will add the height you want plus some additional rigidity. Sticking it up on any version of individual riser blocks/jack bolts is going to make it pretty wobbly.

Some> Just bought a new Precision Matthews 13X40. Got it in my shop and

Reply to
RoyJ

Greetings Gerry, What Dave said. Pour some concrete risers. I have done this for two lathes. A 13x40 and a 15x48. First I figured out how much I wanted to raise the lathe. Then I made up two wood forms, one for the headstock end and the other foe the tailstock end. The risers are about 16" by

20" by 6" tall. I wrapped the forms with some thin plastic painting tarp so that they wouldn't stick to the floor. With the forms in the exact place where they would be when the lathe is installed I poured the concrete and placed 1/2 inch thick steel discs in the concrete for pads for the lathe leveling feet. After the concrete had set for about a week I put the lathe on the risers and removed the forms. Both of the lathes I've done this with have not needed to be re-leveled because the risers are not wobbly or less rigid than if they had been placed directly on the concrete floor. The only drawback to risers is that the foot brake is raised too. I guess I could lower the brakes but it's not too much trouble to raise my foot another 6 inches. Eric
Reply to
etpm

That's pretty much what I have in mind. I think I will remove the feet that on on the machine now and replace with 5/8" studs to hold the lathe up and level. Then form an area under each cabinet and fill with sand and cement up to the bottom of the cabinet. My only concern is if I ever need to move the lathe I will have to bust the cement to be able to get a floor jack under it to lift, unless I leave a area open big enough to get my floorjack under the cabinet. Knowing that cement shrinks as it cures, is that a big enough reason not to use cement? Do I need to pout a cement base then top off with a purpose made epoxy grout? We're only talking about 1500# BTW, I need to do the same thing with my mill/drill as well. It would also be a candidate for a new base made from tube or angle. Sheet metal machine bases suck unless you have them grouted in place, and maybe even then.

Reply to
Gerry

Gerry, I think it's time to get a folding shop crane. Moving a lathe with a floor jack is not something I would do.

I think grout is fine for rigid bases, like a mill or drill press. But I prefer shims under a new lathe, easier to true up the bed, if needed. Cast Iron can do some strange things over time, and you have no idea how long the castings were aged.

Dave

Reply to
Mechanical Magic

There are non-shrinking grouts used in structural applications.

Stu

Reply to
Stuart & Kathryn Fields

Indeed And at a later date can simply be demolished and have floor back to normal

Reply to
Gunner

The one issue with putting a lathe up on a metal frame work is that sooner or later, you are goint to hit a resonate frequency and that sucker is going to start singing, and it May show up in surface finish.

Unless you fill the tubes with concrete, which is what the major mini lathe (industrial sized 5C machines) usuallly do..fill the engineered frames with concrete or concrete/plastic mixtures

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

"Gerry, I think it's time to get a folding shop crane. Moving a lathe with a floor jack is not something I would do."

Was not moving it with a floor jack. I was lifting it enough to install casters on the base. This allows me to move it around the room to it's new location, and set in place with casters removed and replaced with feet. I'm not happy with the stability of the feet, which brought me to the original question. Long distance movine was with a pallet made from 2X12 and a pallet jack and fork lift. An interesting job to get it off my trailer, assembled and into my shop!

Reply to
Gerry

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