Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Stacey s
>I was looking at adding some ballast to my woodfast lathe and was wondering if anyone else that has one of these lathes has done this. If so how did you acomplish this?
Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
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Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#2Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Dinyar Chavda
>Hi Stacey:
I'm sending you a couple of old articles/e-mails on this issue separately.
Craft Supplies selss (used to sell?) essentially a hollow metal box that you could attach to the headboard side, and then fill with sand/shot, etc.. A bit pricey.
I took bags of sand and managed to slip them through the bottom of the lathe over to the leg on the tailstock side. Plus I pured sand into smaller bags and placed it in the headstock leg.
Dinyar
Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#3Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Stacey s
>Thanks Dinyar,
I will give those a look when I get home from work. I realized in my recent attempts to turn some large natural edge pieces that I definitely needed to add some more weight to the base. Have a good weekend.
Stacey
Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#4Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Dinyar Chavda
>Stacey:
One more thing. Make sure that all four ends of the lathe are in firm contact with the floor. This may be obvious to you, but it wasn't until John Williams suggested that I add shims wherever needed that the lathe became a lot more stable. The newer Woodfasts have a levelling mechanism that mine doesn't, which gets round this problem.
Dinyar
Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#5Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
stacey s
>Yes I have had a problem with leveling it also. I think I have finally found a flat spot on the floor for now at least. What did you use to shim up the lathe with.
Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#6Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Dinyar Chavda
>Just made wedges out of hard wood. Periodically. I bang them in, as they do tend to move (as the lathe moves!)
Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
#7Re: Adding Ballast to Woodfast Lathe
Whit
>When I built the stand for my Nova DVR is made provision for about 400 lbs. of sand under the lathe but, in my ignorance, built it about 2" too low. I did install leveling screws on each leg (I've never seen a "level" concrete floor). My first solution to raise the lathe was hardwood blocks but they seemed to have some give. I replaced them with 2" thick x 3" x 3" steel blocks with a small recess drilled on top so the leveling screws wouldn't slide around/off of them. Finally, since athe floor in my shop is tile, I removed the tile under each block for an even firmer and less slippery surface. Maybe overkill, but I don't fancy things dancing around the shop.
Whit