Lathe on suspended wooden floor

[Jakmac]

I have recently had to move from my old work shop to a new one with a suspended floor. I set up my lathe (Axminster ATVS2030) today and ran it with a 10” bowl blank. At 300 rpm the lathe began to vibrate and the floor began to vibrate too.

Has anyone had this issue and if so how did you solve it?

I have tried putting the lathe feet over the joists with both feet at the headstock end over parallel joists ( bed running parallel to the joists ) , then I rotated it 90 and tried with the feet from each leg over the same joist ( bed running across the joists )

The second position allowed the lathe to get to about 420rpm before vibration started.. at 600rpm it was less bouncy but by no means steady.

The building i am in is rented so the possibility of pouring a concrete pad is out of the question... plus it’s about 3 foot of crawl space so would be very expensive..

Any help or advice would be massively appreciated.

Cheers. Jack

[ericroy]

We had a similar problem and managed to solve it by screwing the lathe onto some 2" thick pine planks. Difficult to know if our floor design was the same as yours, but might be worth a try if you have access to suitable material? Only downside is that the lathe is now two inches higher.

Fifty years later the lathe is still mounted on the timber despite being moved many times!

[seventhdevil]

a big slab of something heavy will do the job, like iron....

[Jakmac]

Being 6’4 I already have to raise my lathe by two inch.
I probably should have mentions it already sits on two 2x4s under each leg.
We’re your 2” planks running from leg to let parallel with the bed. Or like mine on each end?

[Jakmac]

Seventhdevil ... sorry mate do you mean lay a sheet of metal on the floor and have the lathe on top of that??

[ericroy]

Being 6’4 I already have to raise my lathe by two inch.
I probably should have mentions it already sits on two 2x4s under each leg.
We’re your 2” planks running from leg to let parallel with the bed. Or like mine on each end?

They were squares about 18 inches in size, one at each end.

[seventhdevil]

Seventhdevil ... sorry mate do you mean lay a sheet of metal on the floor and have the lathe on top of that??

yep...


with a springy floor you will need something nice and heavy to stop the inertia of the object creating a resonance so the more mass in the material the better.


i had a similar problem in an old shed i used to work in so understand your predicament. do what i did and buy a jet 3520b.

i'm 6'3" myself and it's nice and high on the spindle height and the weight of the sucker stopped it moving. after that i built a concrete floor workshop but understand that doing that is not an option for you.

[APH]

Brace it off to the wall. Worked for me.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

If there is a crawl space underneath can't you just put some props in?