wheels on lathe ?

Re: wheels on lathe ?

Lyle Jamieson

Make sure the wheels will retract or remove them while turning. The limitations from turning with wheels on your lathe will drive you crazy sooner or later, usually sooner. You need a good footprint with leveling bolts for security and safety.

Re: wheels on lathe ?

Joe Bradshaw

Hi, Richard. My girlfriend has her Robust Liberty mounted on casters and they have worked out ok for her.

Joe

Re: wheels on lathe ?

Dick Coers

Depends on which lathe you have and what you plan to turn. No problems with pens and Chrisrmas ornaments. I sure wouldn't wouldn't want wheels under my lathe when I load a 75 pound blank to do a natural edge bowl. If there is rubber on he wheels, you are going to get lunch no matter how much weight you add. Consider the extra height from the floor to the spindle centerline, it may be too tall.

Re: wheels on lathe ?

Ralph Lindberg

I put wheels on the 1220 and had no issues as I was just turning pens and finials, since the DW started turning that lathe has "issues". She is turning stuff that bounces the lathe around.

I have solid plastic wheels with brakes on all four, but it sill bounces with a bowl.

But we still need to have the lathe easy for her to move. So we are looking at systems that raise/lower the wheels. The problem is the one I like the best would cost around $300. So we are still looking.

Re: wheels on lathe ?

David Walser

This is a common question. You've already received several answers, ranging from "go for it" to "don't do it". I hope this will be a little more complete:

One of the most important things in setting up a lathe is leveling it. Even a heavy cast iron lathe bed will twist if the lathe is not sitting level on the floor. This will cause the tailstock and headstock to be out of alignment. It's also a source of vibration. You might be able to live with these things, depending on what you're turning, but it's far from ideal.

What does this have to do with mounting a lathe on casters? Since most floors are not level, moving a lathe from one location to another will cause it to be out of level. So, when you are moving the lathe from its storage position to its use position, unless you get it into the exactly the same spot every time, the lathe will be out of level. To me, this means if you're going to mount the lathe on casters, you should use "leveling casters". (Search for them on Amazon for some examples.) Leveling casters allow you to roll your equipment around and, when you want to use it, lower pads (lifting the casters off the ground) to level the equipment and make it stationary.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Re: wheels on lathe ?

robo hippy

All good info here. I don't like turning on a lathe that is up on wheels because they are not stable. Fine for little things, but still that extra wiggle. There are lathe and tool wheel set ups that lever into place for moving, then retract for use. This is the best set up to me. Since all floors are uneven, you need to level up the lathe in the spot where you will be using it, then use a marker to put a round spot where each foot goes. My Liberty is out in my shop, and though it is in a fixed spot, it still wants to walk when I turn bigger things on it. Even one end of the lathe moving an inch or two makes for more wobble. I just move it back to ground zero.

robo hippy

Maybe not level but in a single plane

Dick Coers

The lathe doesn't have to be level. It can be out of level by many degrees and still perform just fine if it is in a single plane. The only tool we can commonly use to check being in the same plane is a level, so the advice is given to level the lathe. Semantics of course, but I just can't help it with my engineering training.

Semantics - two planes

Geoff Whaling

Two orthogonal planes actually - one plane on top off and co-planar with the top surface of the bed ways, second plane perpendicular to the first and through the center line of the bed ways.

Even far more beneficial on a conventional wood lathe design if the center line of the head stock and tail stock spindle are parallel to both and that the second plane passes through both head stock and tail stock centers (points) and axes. OR that the spindle axes are at least off set by the same amount to both planes.

Not so on a VB36 design etc as they are special cases due to their offset single tube bed design. Single tube bed designs require that the head stock and tail stock axes be coaxial and parallel to the bed way tube center line - in a perfect world.

truth is minor miss alignments exist and don't cause any problem for the majority of wood turners and bowl turners. Problems only start to arise if these conditions are not met for particular tasks such as long hole boring ... very thin wall bowls and on some spindle turning projects.

Re: wheels on lathe ? Possible Soultion *LINK*

Stuart Johnson

There have been several posts along the line showing similar way to add wheels.


Retractable Lathe Wheels

Re: Maybe not level but in a single plane

David Walser

Dick -- That was a typical comment from an engineer: totally accurate and pointless!

Re: Maybe not level but in a single plane

Rum

.. totally accurate and pointless ..

Not exactly, if you ponder the implications. If you have a level that is not accurate you can still use it as long as you maintain the orientation of the level throughout the leveling as you are only worried about it being in plane.

This is practically useful for a lot of engineering problems where you are trying to get multiple planes in alignment.

Re: Maybe not level but in a single plane

John K Jordan

I have never put a level to a lathe. I adjust one foot until a point center in the tailstock aligns precisely with a point center in the headstock.

JKJ