# All projects on hold for now...



## lazylathe (Oct 9, 2011)

Hi All,

Well i have been thinking about this for quite some time now and have finally taken the plunge!
The bench i built for the Myford is not up to snuff for any accurate work....\It is too tall and narrow and not well enough braced.
Also top heavy with the lathe and lots of vibrations.... 

So i was given the go ahead by SWMBO to do some renovations to the basement!! ;D
First the old dance mirror had to be taken down.





This is the space i will gain!




It is about 28 feet long and is all mine!!!





The reason the insulation is cut is because we had a few leaks and i had to patch them...
Inside was easy enough but outside was a lot of deep hole digging and fixing....
But it is all done now! Just waiting for the indoor patching to dry before closing it up again.

I am still in two mind about what type of bench to make??
Either wooden or out of steel?
I have access to a friends MIG welder and his welding expertise!
He is a professional welder and does really good work.
I have a 1/2 inch thick steel plate to use as the mounting base for the lathe so far, should be nice and stable!

Looking at building some other benches so that i can have all my machines along that wall.
Maybe the mill in the corner so that i can put up some shielding to keep the chips contained.
Would also be nice to have the Atlas 6" and the Taig set up and easily accessible!

And then there is a South Bend lathe i want to have a look at too!
It is a Model A, so a bit bigger than the Myford.
This will come in handy soon!!

Lots of work ahead with the nasty brown stuff!!!

Hope all the Canadians are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!!!
The weather is awesome!!!!

Andrew


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## doubleboost (Oct 9, 2011)

I would be using steel for the bench
Do it once do it properly
Build some storage in to it
I am having serious space envy looking at your basement
John


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## steamer (Oct 9, 2011)

this works well for me....about 300 pounds empty.





Dave


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## Niels Abildgaard (Oct 10, 2011)

The ideal lathe foundation is stiff in torsion and bending and has high damping.2 inch concrete,marble or granite is about same mass as 1/2 inch steel and much better.
Get the Southbend and anchor it on the six points that are available on the underside of lathe bed.
Only my Rockford will be better in the whole world and Your Myfords can easily find a good home close to where you live.


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## dmac (Oct 10, 2011)

Sorry for the thread jack but speaking of lathe mounting, does anyone mount their lathes on rubber mounts at floor level or do you sit them straight on the concrete floor. 

I was thinking that some form of rubber mounting might be quieter and reduce vibration.

Mine should be here for Christmas and was wondering.

Thanks

Dave.


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## dmac (Oct 10, 2011)

I was think something like this.






Taken from here http://www.vibrodynamics.com/english/ml-02-08.html


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## Niels Abildgaard (Oct 10, 2011)

Hello dmac

If your lathe is built like a Colchester Chipmaster for example,You can put them between lathe and floor,but it is not really improving anything unless You do a lot lot of wildly unbalanced face plate work and have sensitive neighbours.
If Your lathe is more like a Myford putting such isolators directly between flimsy lathe bed and rest of world is not a good idea.
What lathe or picture please. 

Niels


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## lazylathe (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi Niels,

Not everyone, including myself can have the lathe of their dreams!
Or in fact one that will be perfect in everyones eyes.

What i have now is the Myford and that is what i was asking for help with!
Not asking to sell it and buy something that will suit everyone.
Have you ever seen any work done on a Myford?
Some of it is beyond amazing, in my opinion.

Also being as i am totally new to the world of machining i do not think i am being unreasonable asking for any input
on topics i am unsure about.

"Flimsy" bed or not my Myford is not going to "find a good home close to where you live"!

Andrew


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## Niels Abildgaard (Oct 10, 2011)

Hello Andrew

I have had a Myford myself and my advice is to put it directly on a stiff and heavy block of something.
The Myford manual had a lot of advice on leveling and bolting to top of stand made of 3 mm steel or thinner
I made nice work on my Myford but my Rockford do it better and faster.
I am old and time is limited.

Regards


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## Catminer (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi Andrew;
 My suggestion would be to use the steel top on a wooden framework.
For my last lathe I built a steel bench with three sides enclosed and the front open with shelves, used 10 guage steel.
Very stable but turned out to be a good sound amplifier, OK in the shop but not the house.

Peter


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## lazylathe (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi Peter,

I am leaning towards wood for the bench, maybe some steel for extra strength and support.

This is what i had envisioned for the top.
Not to scale or anything, i just drew it up quick in Solidworks.
I am still working on the whole bench design.

Wooden top with the metal plate inset. The chip tray will go on top of the metal plate.

Andrew


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## Herbiev (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi Andrew. Thats a lot of extra space you got there. Well deserved after digging outside to seal the leaks. I would go with the steel for the lathe and the "brown stuff" for shelving and cupboards etc. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the new workshop. 
Kind regards
Herbie


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## fcheslop (Oct 10, 2011)

HI Andrew, My old ML7 that's just been replaced was mounted on a very substantial wood bench with a 1/8 steel sheet on top of the 2inch thick top the rear legs were 6 inch by three the front legs 3 inch square all joints were wedged mortise and tenons but it used to move with changes in humidity/temp and I was constantly re shimming it back in to wind at least 4 times per year i suffered with it for 30 years I wouldn't recommend a timber bench
The new machine another flimsy bed ML7R :big:is on the makers stand with the raising blocks and was an absolute doddle to set up so I think a heavy duty metal bench is the way foreward
best wishes Frazer


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## kvom (Oct 10, 2011)

Butcher block makes a nice mounting surface.


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## pete (Oct 11, 2011)

There's multiple opinions about lathe benches and maybe all of them are correct for each user. So here's mine. Mass is a good thing, Any extra weight you can add to solidly anchor a machine tool down is a good idea. With a solid anchor then rubber mounts shouldn't be needed. The perfect lathe would be blasting down a couple of hundred feet to vigin bedrock and carving a lathe bed out of that granite while it's still part of that undisturbed material. Everything would be attached to the earths crust. Your not ever going to get better than that and it's highly doubtfull anyone has tried to do this. So were back to what can work in the real world with real world costs.

Solid wood is fairly easy to get, strong enough, Fairly easy to work with, But it fails badly for being used as a mount on a accurately set up machine tool. It's impossible to seal wood so you don't get expansion and contraction due to humidity changes in the air. You can slow those changes down in solid wood but you'll never eliminate them. MDF, Plywood also change due to humidity, But those changes are very much reduced compared to solid wood. Storage is a issue in any shop, All those expensive lathe accessories come with a built in extra for free. Weight, All that extra weight in a lathe bench helps add that needed item to anchor a lathe down. 

Yeah home built wooden benches with multiple drawers are seemingly the cheapest way to go, But your time and effort have to be worth something. For my "It seems like it'll never be done" shop reno I'm using steel multi drawer mechanics rollaway base units with the castors removed. A few of these will be placed side by side and I'll bolt the units togeather. Two layers of 3/4" high quality plywood bonded togeather with epoxy and a sheet steel or Arborite material contact cemented to that and it won't be 100% perfectly stable but it shouldn't be too bad. Screw the tops to the rollaways and everything is really solid. For a bench top type lathe I figure it's about the cheapest and most rigid,stable way to go.

I ran some rough numbers subtracting what the woodworking tools would cost and even with that, I can't build a hardwood lathe bench for the materials and hardware costs for even close to what I can buy half decent rollaways that come pretty well ready to use with built in locks and all those drawers that would take forever to build. If I had everything I needed for a decent woodworking shop, I'd still do the same as I am now. But even with me doing the above my shop floor is still your standard stick type construction so that will affect my lathes stability no matter how I construct my benches. That's just something I have to live with for now.

Pete


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## lazylathe (Oct 11, 2011)

Hi Pete,

Something like this idea?

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...mium+Series+Base+Garage+Cabinet.jsp?locale=en

This is the one i had been thinking about:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow.../Mastercraft+Metal+Base+Cabinet.jsp?locale=en

There are a few places around here that are selling granite counter top material.
I would remove the wheels and add height adjusters to each corner.
Build up the top with two slabs of granite and bolt lathe to that.
Should be pretty stable.

Still undecided though...

The basement where my workshop is does not get very humid and is on the house heating and cooling system.
It stays a pretty constantly cool temperature during the whole year.

Andrew


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## steamer (Oct 11, 2011)

Actually, my comments were directed towards a bench, and not a lathe bench
All my lathes. Except the waltham are floor mounted.

As to cost, your right if you can buy what you want. At the time what I wanted didn't exist,
So I built it.
Dave


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## pete (Oct 11, 2011)

Andrew,
Yeah those should work, I'm using Craftsman mechanics type roller cabinets, The benches will be in a U shape around 3 walls. My lathe is a bit larger than yours with an 11" swing. The roller cabinets are too high so I need to use shorter cabinets than those under the lathe. You can get shorter units that are designed to be bolted to the sides of the roller cabinets. I'd think granite counter top material would be a real good idea. (Pretty expensive though.) Just make sure the bench your thinking of buying will support the lathe, benchtop, and everthing your going to store in it. The overall weight adds up to a lot more than you'd think. The biggest reason I'm using those Craftsman roller cabinets is because of the weight they are rated for. It would really ruin your day to have a bench collapse under a lathe.

Dave,
Apologies for getting it wrong, Maybe that will teach me to read and comprehend what I read before posting. 

Pete


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## MachineTom (Oct 11, 2011)

That some great space. A couple ideas, with the insulation off, waterproof the walls, you can not believe how much that will do to lower the humidity in the room. Even if they are always as dry as they look, it will have a great positive effect and its cheap. Very important if you are going to put wall board up, it would need to be green board not standard sheetrock.

Add more outlets than you think you need, make all or at least half of them quad's. Heres my Myford mounted to a granite slab, lathe is shimmed and bolted to the stone, the stone sits on the wood frame. There are three shim's between the frame and slab, two at the head stock one at the tailstock. Wood movement will not twist the lathe, stone mass almost equals the lathe mass.






A bit closer


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## pete (Oct 11, 2011)

Tom,
Awesome bench. You obviously put a lot of thought and design into that. I've often wondered if checking with a gravestone company might get thick stone benchtops like yours for a much cheaper price than say building it up with granite counter tops like Andew mentioned. Their set up to cut stone to any size required and have the ability to polish the stone to a high level of flatness going by the light reflections I've seen. It wouldn't be surface plate flatness but pretty close. Moving something heavy and delicate like that might have more problems that it's worth though. LOL, Once your done with it then return to the manufacter for your name to be cut into it. A life times use plus extra out of the same stone.

Pete


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## lazylathe (Oct 11, 2011)

Thanks for posting the pictures Tom!
That looks like 300 pounds of granite!!! A heavy sucker!


My problem is that i have to be able to carry it or get it downstair into the basement and then up onto a bench.
No one around to really help me with the heavy stuff.
Machinery is a bit easier since i can disassemble in the garage and bring it down bit by bit.

I am looking into the granite option although maybe a bit thinner than yours!
Maybe in the 1 to 1 1/2 inch range.

Andrew


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## Blogwitch (Oct 11, 2011)

Andrew,

In my younger (and disregard for safety) years, I carried an RF 25 mill/drill up a flight of stairs to an upstairs bedroom by myself. Stripped into three major pieces, four if you count the motor, and slung around the back of my neck with a strop and going up backwards got it up there. So things like that can be done. 
The mill was built up on a thick piece of stainless to stop it going thru the floorboards, but the noise it made was terrible, the whole house used to shake when cutting say gear teeth in steel.

Going down is a lot easier, a sheet of ply and ropes make it an easy manoeuvre.

But getting back to your lathe mounting. I used to have, many years ago, a Myford lathe, and that was mounted (and still is, in a friends workshop) on a standard chipboard laminate faced kitchen counter top. I have found that a piece of thick counter top, supported by either wooden or a metal frame plenty strong and rigid enough for these smaller machines. In fact, I think it was the makers of my Atlas lathe that suggested 2" thick wooden dunnage was plenty rigid enough to mount the lathe to, and that was about 50% larger than yours.

John


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## MachineTom (Oct 11, 2011)

That granite is 2" and not much more that 125 lbs. I know because I lifted it from my brothers yard, a leftover from a wall project. That, before I got a chair and a 25# lift capability.


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## Niels Abildgaard (Oct 12, 2011)

Hello Andrew,Pete and Tom

Wellcome in the Rock Steady Latheclub.
May I suggest (As older member) to go for as much height as possible if buying a purpose stone from a graveyard stoner?
If one of you will measure approximate bolting down pattern (Myford bolt hole scheme) it is no big deal CADying a suitable stone and calculate mass.
It does not have to be flat and polished but this is nice for cleaning of course.
My first stone was hand cleaved and i used the lathe bed to keep four feeler gauge leaves down during hardening of Araldite.I had put Teflon baking paper between lathe bed and feeler gauge and when assembling and controlling lathe it was enough to put one leave of aluminium kitchen foil under one corner to have cylindricity.Less than 0.01 mm in fact

Niels


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