Fixing center of balance wobble in diy lathe stand

[thisdesignedthatParticipant @thisdesignedthat]

Just set up my new Amadeal 290 lathe and built a DIY stand for it from leftover 2×4 timber.

The stand itself is sturdy enough but because I built it quite tall (I’m 6ft3) the stand is 1m tall and only 0.6m wide so the entire table will rock slightly when I crank the carriage wheel.

Any ideas how to fix, I want to keep the stand’s footprint as-is because I have much more to fit into the shed. The floor is only 18mm plywood so bolting it down to that will probably cause the floor to lift (the shuttering ply I used it garbage quality)

Im think maybe a bracket of some sort into the wall studs

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Let me start the unfortunate ball rolling …

I regret to say that the most [and possibly only] real solution would be to cut a hole in the shed floor and build a decent foundation-block for the lathe and its stand.

These are currently the stiffest items in the structure … so just bracing them to the walls would be futile.

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I’ll stop the ball before it picks up momentum.

My 280 is Fine in my wooden shed

Screwing it to the wall will help.

Though mine is free standing on the metal cabinet which is not fixed to the floor or walls

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Probably too late now but laying the floor on rigid foam insulation would have made it much more stable and warmer

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

Your stand looks sturdy enough. Maybe you need to strengthen the floor (ie make sure there is a joist under each leg of the stand)

Stuart

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

First ascertain what is moving and which way. Does it rock front to back or side to side? Is it the stand rocking on the floor, the top of the stand rocking relative to the legs, or the lathe rocking on the stand top?

Once you know what’s rocking, then think how to stiffen it up in that dimension.

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

Would it be difficult to take the plywood up, screw in a bit of thick wood between the joists (theres probably a technical term for this) so that you have a sturdy “joist” to bolt the stand down to wherever you want? Would be somewhere between bolting it to the wall (probably good enough) and retrofitting foundations (definitely good enough) in cost and difficulty

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

Let me start the unfortunate ball rolling …

I regret to say that the most [and possibly only] real solution would be to cut a hole in the shed floor and build a decent foundation-block for the lathe and its stand.

These are currently the stiffest items in the structure … so just bracing them to the walls would be futile.

MichaelG.

Thanks, i know this is a common solution but its far too much work for just a hobby lathe setup like this.

On JasonB Said:

I’ll stop the ball before it picks up momentum.

My 280 is Fine in my wooden shed

Screwing it to the wall will help.

Though mine is free standing on the metal cabinet which is not fixed to the floor or walls

ill try make some heavy steel brackets that I can screw into the studs and then attach the back of the table too

On John Haine Said:

Probably too late now but laying the floor on rigid foam insulation would have made it much more stable and warmer

The shed itself is very sturdy, I doubled up the floor joists and used c24 timber, its got 75mm PIR foam laid in floor, walls and ceiling

On Stuart Smith 5 Said:

Your stand looks sturdy enough. Maybe you need to strengthen the floor (ie make sure there is a joist under each leg of the stand)

Stuart

The floor is doubled up joists so its plenty strong enough, I probably confused everyone in my original post. The shed flooring isn’t the issue, its just the stand is tal and not very wide, causing the whole stand to rock backward and forwards

On Peter Cook 6 Said:

First ascertain what is moving and which way. Does it rock front to back or side to side? Is it the stand rocking on the floor, the top of the stand rocking relative to the legs, or the lathe rocking on the stand top?

Once you know what’s rocking, then think how to stiffen it up in that dimension.

Its moving front to back, the stand itself is very sturdy and its not wobbling at the joints so it doesn’t need to be stiffened, its just the whole stand rocking backwards and forwards because its too and narrow. hope that makes sense

[Mark EasingwoodParticipant @markeasingwood33578]

Bracket to the wall & a shelf low down on the stand loaded with heavy “stuff”, will probably help.

Mark.

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You may not even need brackets, can you not just screw through the 100x 50 on edge that is at the top back straight into some studs? I assume the back is like the front

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

I’m with JasonB, however I would both screw it to the back wall as suggested and also fasten the tailstock end to the side wall as well. You could either move the lathe slightly left and jam the stand right into the corner, or fasten some sort of block between the stand and wall.

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Just noticed your side diagonal braces are opposite to each other. This would allow a bit more “twist” in the structure than having them both angled the same way, I think? I’d have them going top front to down back, and screw the top horizontal member to the wall-studs as Jason suggests.

Rob

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

I would board across the lower level part of the stand, forming a shelf. Then, put any the heavy vices,  spare chucks, metal for future activity and other heavy item on the shelf. That is what I originally did and it did the trick for me. By the way i like your substancial bench. John

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

I am quite amazed at how often this subject comes up as IMHO most if not all the rotating parts of a lathe are quite well balanced otherwise how are you going to get a reliable and ROUND piece of work?

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Replace the diagonal braces with a sheet, even chipboard from a kitchen cabinet. Although a 2ft bench is wide enough for a lathe it can still tip a bit. So attach a bit of 2in angle iron 3ft long front to back at the floor level with the extra foot length coming out the front. At the RH side it won’t be in the way and at the left stick a useful cabinet to stop you tripping.
Looks like a great shed.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

The bench looks good to me.  Peter asks “what’s moving?”  Could it simply be that one leg is shorter that the other 3, so it rocks?  If so, a wooden wedge under the short leg should fix it.  Or, ‘proper job’, fit 4 adjustable feet and level it.  (I wouldn’t bother unless the lathe cuts tapers.)

There’s a branch of engineering that deals with constraints.  It addresses why tripods are stable and 4 legs aren’t and how to design stuff so it can only be assembled one way etc.   Can anyone remind me what it’s called?

Dave

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Kinematics

MichaelG.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

I’ve made benches of more-or-less identical design and the only issue is that a lathe is very heavy and the bench has to be relatively narrow; it just results in a disconcerting feeling of instability – screwing it to the wall it will be fine.

 

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Are the feet sitting between the joist under the floor if so then you need to find a way of supporting them either by fitting two 4 x 2 across the bottom to help with the load or place two 18mm ply or similar sheets under making sure the ends rest on a joist this will strengthen the floor

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

The Atlas 12 X24 at the museum is on a welded frame on concrete and Mike and I improved it’s stability by adding a sturdy shelf and loading it with heavy angle plates and chucks which helps. We don’t want to bolt it to the floor unless we have to. You could fit a 19mm plywood shelf to your stand. Also, you could add a 6 x 4 or 150 x 100 vertical to each end of the stand legs to add some extra stability without them being too much in the way when you are using the lathe. You could shoehorn a full sheet of 19mm plywood under the stand to spread the load and use angle brackets to screw the legs right through both layers of plywood. And try not to trip over the little step.

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

More diagonals opposite direction ,or sheet ply sections to back and sides screwed and glued .

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The problem might be alleviated by bolting a piece of angle iron, (Preferably 1.5 or 2″) across the end legs

If the legs differ slightly in length, they will sit on the angle iron, differently, so that the angle iron sits on the floor and leg length differences will no longer feature. And the iron will strengthen the bench.

Howard

[thisdesignedthatParticipant @thisdesignedthat]

Thanks everyone all great ideas, ive just put a shelf on the bottom and i’ll fix to the back wall. I like the idea of connecting the bottom legs with angle iron as this should help distribute the load across the floor joists, I’m guessing the legs arent current sitting on the joists which is making the floor a bit more bouncy

 

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