Lathe table build

All discussion about lathes including but not limited to: South Bend, Hardinge, Logan, Monarch, Clausing and other HSM lathes, including imports

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Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Lathe table build

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thought I would post a few pics of my lathe table build. It’s fab’ed out of old, surplus Alaska pipeline heavy gauge 2 1/4” steel equipment rack posts and some left over angle iron. I glued up the table top out of some 3x5” old growth fir, salmon cannery cribbing that I sourced a few years ago. This is interesting stuff as this cribbing basically contained a large, multi thousand gallon outdoor salt brine holding pen that held all the offloaded salmon from Puget Sound salmon seiners, before the fish was processed in the cannery. So the wood is wonderfully preserved with saturated salt from 50 or 60 salmon seasons. Plus it’s very fine grain, old growth timber- around 1,500 years old. So a very cool surface area to mount the old 1925 South Bend 9” lathe. The wood and the lathe were both cut about the same time.

Here is the overall view. The upper cross pieces will form supports for two drawers mounted just under the table top. The bottom angle iron supports will hold half a sheet of 1/2” or 3/4” ACX plywood - for storage.
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The picture below shows the feet design. A piece of angle iron on the inside will allow the table to be bolted down to the floor with cement anchor bolts. The threaded bolt on the outside ledge allows me to level the table. The outside edge of the floor in my shop is sloped to allow water to flow way from the walls, in the event of flooding. I think this is a common building technique around western Washington, if not a local building code requirement. Whatever the case, it’s quite a nuisance to have to shim all the equipment around the outside walls to take out all the wobble and tilt. This screw arrangement will make adjusting the lathe a lot easier than using shims.

If I had been thinking about it, when I cut the foot plates, I would have made them to extend 3” inside AND outside of the post. Would have alleviated the extra work of prepping, cutting, and welding the angle iron on the inside. Cut first, think about it latter is always a bad policy!
F4C59020-DC4C-4905-9A73-DF6504F358B2.jpeg
Overall dimensions of the table top are: 32” x 62” x 3”.

The frame stands about 38” floor to top of the table. Just waist high, with the bed of the lathe at elbow height for easy manipulation of the work piece and tooling.

And finally, a shot of the table top, glued up, waiting for a bit of sanding and a bunch of coats of oil and varnish. Old school! Lots of fun!
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Next up, some paint and varnish. Then mounting the lathe - which hasn’t been powered up and run since 1935.
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
earlgo
Posts: 1794
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: Lathe table build

Post by earlgo »

Glenn: I like your frame but the stress analysis rules in my past life reared their ugly head.
Rule 1: Use Closed sections - which you did with the tubing
Rule 2: Use Diagonal Bracing -
Diagonal Bracing
Diagonal Bracing
Rule 3: Make Rigid End Connections - which you did with the welds.

The above and a zillion other rules can be found in a work entitled, "Design of Welded Structures" by Omer Blodgett, published by the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio LCCN
The specific info is in the chapter2 "Designing for Torsional Loading".
I believe that your lathe will one day introduce some out of balance condition that will cause your table to oscillate in an unexpected manner if cross bracing is not applied.
The Atlas Press factory stand that my Atlas 12" Lathe is attached to does not have any cross bracing, and I wish it did.
Sorry if this is nit-picky and I mean no offence to you and your nice looking table.
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Lathe table build

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks Earlgo,

I appreciate your heads up. Best time to do it right is now! Looking at the diagram in your reference I think it will be easy to add some bracing. I have some small 1” flat bar and some 1” maybe 1 1/4” angle. Likely the angle iron is the better choice??

Also, what does the author say about where to anchor the ends? Corner to corner, or gusset style, corner to some percentage of the distance of the horizontals?

Thanks
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Russ Hanscom
Posts: 1955
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:10 pm
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: Lathe table build

Post by Russ Hanscom »

Nice, Lover the recycling history approach.

Sturdy enough that you can get a much heavier lathe if you desire!

I got tired of tripping over the anchors and leveling bolts so mine are on the inside surfaces of the legs.
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Lathe table build

Post by spro »

I like the whole notion. Make it straight and square to level, then adjust the bolts. You know there are "pads" for this and the same thread as your bolts. They conform to the floor surface. "X" brace at the back. The side braces should be "X" because we don't know if the top is against a wall.. When you pull heavy drawers out.
Very cool wood top. I know that lathe a bit since I have the 1933 11" version. There is a super heavy motor support atop because they were originally driven by line shaft.
earlgo
Posts: 1794
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: Lathe table build

Post by earlgo »

Glenn: The book says for optimal cancelling of the transverse shear and longitudinal shear stresses the brace angle should be 45° but that is not always practical. If I were you I'd just put the braces where they fit best and be sure the ends are welded securely, i.e. Rule 3. As close to the inside corners as practical would be good. Yes, the angle iron is the better choice because the radius of gyration is greater than in a flat piece. An angle also will not buckle from compression loads as easily as a flat plate, but your situation is not going to be severe enough to cause buckling failures. You just need assurance that the frame won't flex by annoyingly small amounts. I used to tell my ME interns that no-one ever complained if things were too strong. (The exception being the aircraft industry, of course.)
Regards,
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Lathe table build

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Here is some bracing, per Earlgo and Sprorecommendations. Cross bracing with 1” angle on each end. Sort of a Howe Truss on the long backside- welded to each cross member. I used 1 1/2” angle for the longer pieces.

All stick welding. Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, lots of slag and rust begone, then grind,grind,grind, some more. Then After more clean up, time to paint.

This is a very heavy frame. But, with these minor additions of cross bracing -7 pieces overall, the whole table rings like a bell when you strike it with something. It seems perfectly in tune and stable, whereas, before the bracing it just sort of clanged and skid across the floor. Noticeable difference in structural integrity. Glad I took up Earl’ suggestions.

Thanks Spro! Thanks Earlgo!

Glenn
Attachments
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
SteveM
Posts: 7763
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:18 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Lathe table build

Post by SteveM »

Looks plenty strong!

Steve
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Lathe table build

Post by spro »

Plenty tough. The neat wooden top should suppress most harmonics. Shallow baking pans can hold the chips. The rubber straps used for tightening tractor/ truck chains, will cancel ringing ( if it is an issue ).
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Lathe table build

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Hey Spro,

Yes, one reason I went with the heavy butcher block style table top was I figured the wood might dampen or suppress any harmonics from the lathe. I’ll probably use carriage bolts to bolt the top down at the corners and let it the rest float on top of the top angle flare... been looking for a baking pan for awhile. I found one at Costco couple of years ago - knew I should have bought two at the time, but didn’t...

Where would you put the tractor chain straps? Around the legs perhaps?

Also, been thinking about gluing or screwing rubber pads on the bottom of the legs- buffer any lower leg vibration that might occur. Haha. Overkill maybe.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
earlgo
Posts: 1794
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:38 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: Lathe table build

Post by earlgo »

Nicely done Glenn. Sorry for the nit-picking but I tend to be a belt, suspender and adhesive kind of designer. :lol:
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: Lathe table build

Post by spro »

Yes. That wooden top is too cool to be covered permanently. I doubt you will have a harmonic but it is similar to rubber straps/ bungees. Some last for decades and newer last a year. I should have bought some of those older baking pans. Fine rolled edges and score marks from thousands of cooking delights. Heavy gage stuff and I'll bet the new woman is looking for something newer than great grandmother's pan of deep scars. They have been perfect for us guys.
Your South Bend Nine probably grabbed you as mine did. Getting close to 100 years, it speaks of a totally different time. There was flair or style to the castings. No sharp corners and relatively slow, they built the future which is our past.
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