Lathe stand information

[Neil Moore 1Participant @neilmoore1]

Good Morning All,

My name is Neil and I am very new to the hobby as I am approaching retirement, my main employment has been 40 years in heavy automotive and plant engineering and the last 10 in pumps and gearbox repairs.

I have ordered a new Warco WM280V with stand, I am looking to cast a cement plinth for the lathe to stand on and be secured, my question is can anyone tell me the overhang of the tray on all four planes from the stand, I do not want to have the plinth coming out too far at the front (vertically challenged) and the rear chip guard is to be against the workshop wall.

I would be grateful for any advice available.

Neil

[Neil Moore 1Participant @neilmoore1]

New lathe

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Neil,

Welcome to the forum. I have a 290 lathe so should be similar to yours. I didn't buy the stand but I have included the foundation drawing. May be that can give you some help.

Thor

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The support for your machine needs to be rigid if you are to have any hope of consistently accurate work

A flexible bench is waste of material and time.

On a rigid base, you can then adjust the machine so that the bed has no twist, and if you use coolant, that it flows to the drain!

If in doubt make it stronger than you think!

Apparently the benches for lathes on Royal navy ships had to be capable of withstanding a broadside. The only one that I saw certainly was; it was heavier than the lathe that sat on it

Howard

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Nothing is ever easy – my tape measure and foot rule have run away together!

Anyway, assuming my stand is the same as yours, drawing shows how far the tray and backplate overhang the pedestals:

The backplate, control box, headstock cover and terminals overhang the pedestals by a considerable 110mm. As a picture is worth a thousand words!

 

The rear protrudes more than might be expected!

My plan was to put the lathe against the wall. On the day, due to my crane's turning circle being just too wide to swivel past stuff stored on the other wall, I positioned mine sideways on instead. A happy accident because sideways on gives full access to the rear of the lathe and the gear-change banjo, whilst also allowing longer rods to be fed through the spindle. (In my workshop! Your geometry is probably different!)

The couple of times I've not had to move the lathe to get inside the control box reminded me how much bother it is to get behind a heavy machine. However, the big winner is being able to get at the banjo from any angle – much easier than when the headstock happens to snugged up into a corner, as I foolishly arranged my mini-lathe.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 21/12/2020 17:49:12

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 21/12/2020 17:51:18

[Neil Moore 1Participant @neilmoore1]

Gents,

Thank you all so much for your replies and advice, Dave's drawing and pictures have provided answers to my question and what I need to do to obtain the correct base dimensions for my lathe base, it has also brought some things to mind that I was not fully aware of, IE access to the control box, better now than later I must say,

Once again thanks to all who took time to advise a raw beginner to the hobby.

Neil

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Don't forget, now is the time to select the height for the lathe. You don't want to be thinking about your poor back when using the lathe. We added a couple of inches to the lathe and the second mill at the museum, and it helps a lot, short people can always use duckboards.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

It seems a little odd that you are building a plinth – just a plinth. If it is to raise the lathe for better height in a concrete floored garage start off with some breeze blocks until you work out what is the best height – then stick with them. If it is a wood shed where you are letting an hole in the floor that's a good idea but you might pause for a moment. Read the other, many other threads about shed insulation and rethink along the lines of a rather larger base area but cast over 4in of eps to insulate it.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Concerning machine height.

It seems widely accepted that arranging matters so your hand falls midway between cross-slide and top-slide handles when your upper arm hangs vertically and your forearm is horizontal is about right for comfortable working.

Smaller and moderate sized industrial lathes are generally arranged so as to be close this criteria for an "average" person. I'm 5 ft 11, my Smart & Brown 1024 and Pratt & Whitney Model B 12 x 30 are pretty much bang on and comfortable to use. Both however are straight bed machines with the saddle hand wheel on the left, American style. The large saddle hand wheel on the P&W almost swings too low for left handed comfort. Not an issue with typical ME sizes of lathes as, being smaller, everything is much closer in height.

Factory practice was normally to have duckboards for folk to stand on which instantly made everything smaller than a Colchester Mascot too low. Major back and neck ache for me!

There is a school of thought that advises mounting small lathes used for small work around three or four inches higher for better visibility of the work and a less stooped posture when making measurements. Pretty much bringing the samll lathe spindle centre line height up to, or a touch above, that common on industrial machines.

I have (briefly) used a lathe set up in this manner. I guess the horizontal forearm test would have put my hand about halfway up the saddle hand wheel. I'd not dispute that the idea has some merit for something of 3" or less centre height. Potentially more tiring over long periods than the standard version maybe. But small machine controls are close together so maybe not.

Clive

[Neil Moore 1Participant @neilmoore1]

Mmmm, more to consider than I originally though, I think before work starts I need to consider all the point you guys have commented on, thank you all very much for your contributions, do doubt I will be back with more questions in the not too distant, in the meantime have a great Christmas as best possible and stay safe.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Just to throw a few more things in to consider I've had my 280 for about 12 years and it has made many models while stood straight onto the shed's wooden floor and not fixed to it. I did add 2 layers of 18mm ply under the cabinet ends to lift it up a bit but the cross feed handwheel is still about 6" below my elbow and I'm 5' 10". Mine has the earlier cabinet so did not give you any sizes.

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