Quiet floor pads for lathe

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

Harrison L5 any suggestions on some pads to quieten it down on the floor ?

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Get some old rubber conveyor belting, may be 10mm thick and put on the floor under the machine. You do not state floor type so I take it it's not concrete ? Noel.

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

Posted by noel shelley on 14/08/2023 17:18:23:

Get some old rubber conveyor belting, may be 10mm thick and put on the floor under the machine. You do not state floor type so I take it it's not concrete ? Noel.

yes concrete was thinking the rubber pads on car lifts maybe

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The object is to minimise noise (vibration ) transmissionto the floor.

To do this the machine needs to decoupled from the floor by a resilient mounting; within reason, as soft as is practicable. But you don't want to be operating a machine that wobbles like jelly or tries to walk around the shop!

If fixing to the floor, the bolts need to be smaller than the holes, to allow alittle horizontal movememt , while the resilient bmounting allows some slight vertical (Don't clamp down absolutely solid, otherwise the resilient mount won't be able to work. Slight compression. )

Howard

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

was thinking of something like these

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Sorry … I’ve been trying to remember a product name, and my Google-Fu is evidently weak

Years [decades] ago we used some product [probably made from horse-hair] which came wet, and rolled-up in a tin.

This was put on the floor, under the machine feet, and after a day or two the liquid was gone and the remaining ‘felt’ made a conforming, and slightly flexible, layer which adhered to both floor and machine.

The machine could be prised off with a crowbar, but for normal use was considered fixed.

.

Great stuff, if only I could remember the name !

MichaelG.

[Stuart Smith 5Participant @stuartsmith5]

Would any of these be suitable.

**LINK**

Anti vibration mounts from Bearingboys website.

I have bought transmission stuff from them but not these.

Stuart

[mgnbukParticipant @mgnbuk]

Plenty of options here Machine mounts

Alternative sources here. and here. – also from Warco

Nigel B.

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

I have fitted anti vibration machine mounts on my Myford and they seem to work ok.

I got mine from Ebay, exactly the same as Warco but 4 off at half the price of Warco….

Regards

Derek

[Derek cottissParticipant @derekcottiss41883]

Im seriously looking at vehicle ramp pads as in my above link

any thoughts ?

[Anonymous]

Posted by Derek cottiss on 15/08/2023 09:24:32:

any thoughts ?

Wrong product; they're designed to lift vehicles without damaging them. Any damping will be coincidental.

The lathe shouldn't be producing significant vibration so I am not sure why there is a need to isolate it from a concrete floor?

Andrew

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Derek cottiss on 15/08/2023 09:24:32:

Im seriously looking at vehicle ramp pads as in my above link

any thoughts ?

As always a huge amount depends on the requirement. Two extremes:

• Noise transmitted through the floor is annoying neighbours and they are threatening legal action or shoving dog poo through your letter-box. This requires the best anti-vibration measures you can arrange, and it's not simple and is unlikely to be cheap.
• The operator would like to listen to a radio whilst turning, and the lathe is a bit too noisy. Almost anything rubbery under the lathe will help, but anti-vibration mounts and pads will do a better job.

Given the amount of trouble it is to lift a lathe to put anything underneath, I'd be inclined to cough-up for purpose made anti-vibration mounts rather than mess with unknown alternatives. The problem with car-pads and similar is we have no idea what their anti-vibration properties are. Like as not a car pad is too stiff to be much good at absorbing vibration, but the only way to find out is to fit them. Being too soft is just as bad: if the weight of the lathe compresses the pad flat, it won't absorb much noise.

Andrew suggested a noisy lathe might need attention. What's the nature of the noise? Problem might be worn bearings etc. On my Chinese machine the cooling fans are far noisier than the lathe itself. The change gears cause a fair old racket but it's much reduced by spacing them properly. (Not too close or too far apart, roughly a double thickness of A4 printer paper on my machine.)

Dave

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

When we moved in in 2021, I put an offcut of the same heavy domestic we had fitted in the rest of the house by the garage wall and asked the removers to put the WM250V down on it.

Not a big lathe, and I generally cut light and slow, but I do a bit of milling, knurling and interrupted cutting on it, and the carpet works well enough to damp out such noise as there is.

[Author]

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