Floor for lathe

C

chris k

Guest
I am looking for some input on the nature of concrete floor needed to set my lathe on .
It is a Colchester lathe that weighs aprox 1ton .It currently sits at a farmer friend work shop and has been there for at least 10 years.It is located nearly 15 miles away.I have bought a house that has an attached garage and have been bantering the idea of moving it home. The garage has a concrete floor which I am assuming is 4" thick .
Is this going to be enough to support with out problems ? ANYONE --ANYONE?

THANKS,
CHRIS
 
The

book that i got on my Summit 11 X 32 lathe that weighs about 1600 hundred lbs calls for a 16" thick floor pad. I don't have that much under mine. When I worked at Cessna Aircraft, ( 32 years as a tool & die maker) they always cut a hole in the floor just larger than the machine footprint. dug down to the depth needed and poured a new pad for the machine to the thickness called for by the machine manufacture. I am still thinking on doing this when I finally move my lathe to a permanent location. I would make the pad 12 to 18"
wider than the footprint of the lathe. Use a fiber expansion pad between the lathe pad and the floor. Also on another note bolt 4" X 4" X 4 foot long boards to the bottom of the lathe to move it to keep it from tipping. The local grain co-op here in town sent a fork lift down to unload my lathe. About a mile. For free, I felt really lucky obout that. Good luck. Max
 
floor

Thanks for your input Ben .It has been very nice of my freind to allow me to have my lathe set up at his shop but damn inconvienent for me. It has been a good old lathe and built many a good shooter.

I have put heat in the garage and it is wired for 220 v

Chris
 
chris k said:
Thanks for your input Ben .It has been very nice of my freind to allow me to have my lathe set up at his shop but damn inconvienent for me. It has been a good old lathe and built many a good shooter.

I have put heat in the garage and it is wired for 220 v

Chris
Click to expand...

Sounds like a celebration is in order! Hope it arrives soon.

I can't see a problem with a 1 ton lathe on a 4" concrete floor. I had a 2,200 and a 3,000 lb milling machine on a 4" floor in my garage in CA and that is a smaller footprint all in one spot.

Fitch
 
1 ton is very little weight on a concrete floor. If there is a problem, the floor was very poorly constructed, has a void under and has no steel in it.

You would know by now, since the front wheel of a vehicle would have broken it...........in terms of force/unit area is probably similar or more to a small lathe.

Extremely unlikely.

Ben
 
Max Shaffer said:
book that i got on my Summit 11 X 32 lathe that weighs about 1600 hundred lbs calls for a 16" thick floor pad. I don't have that much under mine. When I worked at Cessna Aircraft, ( 32 years as a tool & die maker) they always cut a hole in the floor just larger than the machine footprint. dug down to the depth needed and poured a new pad for the machine to the thickness called for by the machine manufacture. I am still thinking on doing this when I finally move my lathe to a permanent location. I would make the pad 12 to 18"
wider than the footprint of the lathe. Use a fiber expansion pad between the lathe pad and the floor. Also on another note bolt 4" X 4" X 4 foot long boards to the bottom of the lathe to move it to keep it from tipping. The local grain co-op here in town sent a fork lift down to unload my lathe. About a mile. For free, I felt really lucky obout that. Good luck. Max
Click to expand...


Smart Man!

Listen to his advise about isolation pads. Find a mill wright and talk to him. Setting up machinery to get the best out of the machine is and art and science in it's own right. Not to mention the effects from vibration, by the way, many times garage floors are often only three inches thick. There is a lot of care that goes into setting up and leveling that has to take place. All backing plates need to be cut from a level machine or when the move comes later in life, you will have a out of balance condition when the chuck is in motion. And that is assuming you place the machine on a level surface. Many of us that own and use machinery have no clue about any of this. It's just not as simple as some folks would like you to believe. Do some research on this subject.

Do it right the first time and you will have nothing to worry about.:)
 
if you have the time and money ...pour a small thick pad for it..
it will still take time to settle. it may still move. just make a habit to check it every now and then.
when you first put it in run it let it sit, run it let it sit....check alignment....do it all over.
mine was twisted in moving and took a while to settle.
get a precision level a hundred bucks or close but without a level set of ways all is wasted

mike in co
 
I have a 16X60 in my garage and when I back my truck in I can see the indicators move a few thou. Rest assured a 4 inch slab is going to move.
My minimum thickness for a shop floor is 5'' with a lot of rebar.

Aloha, Les
 
LesWard said:
I have a 16X60 in my garage and when I back my truck in I can see the indicators move a few thou. Rest assured a 4 inch slab is going to move.
My minimum thickness for a shop floor is 5'' with a lot of rebar.

Aloha, Les
Click to expand...


yeah...those volcanos are very unstable.....

i said it before...machine shops along the west coast can watch machines move with the tides........

lots of cement...isolated from the rest of the bldg.
 
mike in co said:
yeah...those volcanos are very unstable.....

i said it before...machine shops along the west coast can watch machines move with the tides........

lots of cement...isolated from the rest of the bldg.
Click to expand...

OK, put the crack pipe down.......that's enough.

I don't think his garage is on the San Andreas fault nor an active volcano...


It's a garage floor....for pete's sake.

Ben
 
Fwiw

When Okuma, Mazak, Deckel or any other big time machine tool manufacturer comes in to equip a shop they pretty much insist that each machine sits on a monolithic slab isolated from all the other machines.

Two reasons.

It ensures they know what's under the machine and this is big when it comes to warranty stuff.

It isolates vibration from one machine to the next.

Both are valid enough reasons I guess.
 
Your garage floor will likely be fine for that lathe. Getting a level precision level is something you need anyway, so keep a check on it from time to time. Things can move a little with the changing seasons.
 
Chris

At you friends place, in the past 10 years have you had any trouble with the lathe due to the floor.

Spend the money on tooling.

Hal
 
Your floor is fine. Put the lathe down on soft 2x6s flatwise, two at the headstock and one under the other end. the wood helps the lathe settle in to where it wants to be, and absorbs vibration.
 
papapaul said:
Your floor is fine. Put the lathe down on soft 2x6s flatwise, two at the headstock and one under the other end. the wood helps the lathe settle in to where it wants to be, and absorbs vibration.
Click to expand...

How do you level a lathe and keep it level sitting on wood? To get mine truly level I wound up using a machininst level, and some .005" shims to get it right. I have a welding and machine business, and probably not the most sophisticated in the world, but I couldn't imagine the amount tolerances would change by sitting on wood. (twisting/flexing of the bed)
 
garage floors

I doubt very much if your garage floor is 4 inches thick; maybe 3.5 inches.

I don't believe it contains re-bar; maybe "steel wire wielded mesh"

If constructed properly your garge floor will also slope down from the rear to the entrance door.
 
Bnhpr said:
OK, put the crack pipe down.......that's enough.

I don't think his garage is on the San Andreas fault nor an active volcano...


It's a garage floor....for pete's sake.

Ben
Click to expand...

its no joke ....machines move with the tides along the calif coast...been there, done that....

he is not on the san andreas fault, he is on a string of islands composed of volcanos..some of which are active...oh yeah...been there dont that too( 6yrs in hawaii...

no crack except in the cement....
if its a 1 ton lathe , he does need to consider its foundation.

mine is only 800 lbs or so......and yes it moves in the seasons on my std garage floor, on the edge next to the foundation.

mike in co

mike in co
 
mike in co said:
its no joke ....machines move with the tides along the calif coast...been there, done that....

he is not on the san andreas fault, he is on a string of islands composed of volcanos..some of which are active...oh yeah...been there dont that too( 6yrs in hawaii...

no crack except in the cement....
if its a 1 ton lathe , he does need to consider its foundation.

mine is only 800 lbs or so......and yes it moves in the seasons on my std garage floor, on the edge next to the foundation.

mike in co

mike in co
Click to expand...

You can't be serious!!!
I live a stones throw from the ocean. I have yet to see anything move in my garage. SONGS is located right on the ocean and the huge machine shop there has never had that problem. Their machine shop happens to cover more than 20,000 square feet.
 
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