leveling a lathe

JordanSharpes · Post by **JordanSharpes** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:54 am

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Jordan, I've been watching these boards for a month or so and decided I should join in.

I recently purchased a lathe and am in the process of setting it up. Those of you who have lathes, how much trouble did you go to to level it? Did you use a machinist's level or just a regular one?

WBill · Post by **WBill** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:32 am

Welcome to the board. First off what size lathe do you have and is it a metal or wood lathe ?

I have a 7 X 12 inch metal lathe and have it sitting on a workbench. I don't know why you need to level it as long as it is on a good solid stand or a sturdy workbench that is fairly level.

Bill

BriarBrian · Post by **BriarBrian** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:15 am

i have a 9X20 metal lathe and heck i never even checked it to see if it was level. i just put it on its legs and worked with it.

Brian
www.briarart.com

jthpipes · Post by **jthpipes** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:37 am

WBill wrote:Welcome to the board. First off what size lathe do you have and is it a metal or wood lathe ?

I have a 7 X 12 inch metal lathe and have it sitting on a workbench. I don't know why you need to level it as long as it is on a good solid stand or a sturdy workbench that is fairly level.

Bill

Ditto :thumb:

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:55 am

I leveled mine up pretty well. I'm not sure of the difference between the differnt types of levels though, so I probably used a normal one. The reason I leveled mine was so that I could allaign the line I drew on the block with the drill bit. My reasoning was that the bit is level, so if the block is level too, the two should line up. Right now, some where in Colorado, Random is itching to talk ablout how these things aren't precisely level, and he's probaly right. But it works for me. And thats what counts right?

ScoJo · Post by **ScoJo** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:09 pm

Not sure I see why it matters. If you are lining up the bit with the line on the block, all that should matter is that they are level relative to each other, right?

Maybe I am oversimplifying here. I mean, you should see the last block I drilled (posted about it in the stummels forum). Oops.

JordanSharpes · Post by **JordanSharpes** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:16 pm

It is an atlas metal lathe, 6 by 18 that I plan to use primarily for stem work. The book that came with it stresses how important it is for the ways to be level. I leveled it with a normal level and shims that I cut from sheet metal. The book said to use a machinst's level (the bubble will move about 1/8" per .003" off level) and very thin metal shims. I thought perhaps this would be over kill since the lathe is meant to be used for cutting threads and that kind of thing. This kind of precision may not be necessary for turning tenons and doing pipe work in general.