Do you put additional weight in your lathe stand

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jay if you don't bolt it to the floor, I definitely would add weight. I have to disagree with Bill on this. I built a stand for the 15" C-man with the leg about 32" wide and the top was 1' wide. It was pretty stable till I put a unbalanced piece on it. Then it wanted to dance across the floor. My $1.298 is if you are going to do lidded boxes, mini birdhouses, Christmas ornaments, pens, etc. you probably don't need the weight. If you are going to do bowls with that Nova up to 16" yes you will need the weight. I turned a 14 3/4" bowl out of a out of balance blank and had to turn the speed down to 200 or below just to get it to sit still.
I added 320 lbs of tube sand and then could run around 400 rpm. Haven't had a problem and haven't looked back since. Again this is just my opinion.

[Glenn Clabo]

Jay,
I bought my DRV and mounted it on a maple top bench. It worked great until I put a big chuck that was a little rough. I then built this...and I haven't found anything that makes it dance. Built with big lumber and lot's of voids. All the voids have sand = 400 lbs. With the weight of the lathe....it's all smooth.

p.s.-Mount it with about an inch of wood under the mounting hole so you can get to the chips...

[Frank Fusco]

Jay if you don't bolt it to the floor, I definitely would add weight. I have to disagree with Bill on this. I built a stand for the 15" C-man with the leg about 32" wide and the top was 1' wide. It was pretty stable till I put a unbalanced piece on it. Then it wanted to dance across the floor. My $1.298 is if you are going to do lidded boxes, mini birdhouses, Christmas ornaments, pens, etc. you probably don't need the weight. If you are going to do bowls with that Nova up to 16" yes you will need the weight. I turned a 14 3/4" bowl out of a out of balance blank and had to turn the speed down to 200 or below just to get it to sit still.
I added 320 lbs of tube sand and then could run around 400 rpm. Haven't had a problem and haven't looked back since. Again this is just my opinion.

Bernie, even for small objects, when I added weight, the whole unit smoothed out. Even with nothing on the lathe, just running the motor is sweeter and smoother. I believe the sand bags absorb the natural vibration. I disagree with Bill also.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree Frank. When I put the sand on my lathe it is smooth as silk. It doesn't make any difference what I put on it. Tonight I put a big, unbalanced piece of walnut on. It never budged.

[Bill Lantry]

Hmmm... which Bill?

Jay, I've got a good 400 pounds under mine. The reason I made it so heavy was this line on another forum: "At one time or another, we've all chased our lathes around the shop..."

There are things I don't mind chasing, but they don't include 300 pound lathes, with big chunks of wood spinning on them. By going this way, I got heft, plus storage, plus mobility.



Which leads to the next point: placement. It's my experience that no matter where I decide to position a tool, I end up moving it after a while, and what seemed reasonable beforehand ends up with me scratching my head wondering "What was I thinking?"

So I've pretty much given up on planning, and just realize what ever I do is temporary, and plan for that...

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Simpson]

Agree or disagree but you are citing examples of uncommon activity for the most part. Sure if you are over taxing the design with hugh chunks that are out of ballance then they will want to move in every direction. But If you consider the common use of a lathe from large bowls (cut round when started) to delicate finiale work, a stable lathe does not need weight. Flopping raw edged pieces do. Bill, you turn some great stuff and wierd shapes and yes you should have a hunkered down mass to support that pressure. But for the most part a regular turner needs only a well designed stand and not a over weighted monster. I have seen where fellows who are pen turners have bags of sand holding down their bench... what on earth for? because someone said they needed stability? or because they might one day want to turn a chunk?

Address what it is that you plan to do. (be realistic) Sure we lurk at sites and see some nice pieces and think..."I'd like to do that" but be realistic and consider what you are going to actually do. If it is the big pieces and strange stuff then bolt it to a Sherman Tank if you need to, but in a hobby shop or furniture production shop or art Studio, most just need a correctly designed stand. I have never turned a flopping log and don't intend to. I have turned Natural edges but am not turned on by them. I have turned some large Salad bowls but I make sure they are well fastened and ballanced before beginning. I don't slap in a chunk and cringe when I turn it on and hope it doesn't come after me. That doesn't float my boat.

What I am saying is that a well designed stand does not have to be weighted down for normal use of a lathe. Much the same as with a TS.... say you have a small tabletop saw and need to slice a sheet of Plywood. Do you add sand to the base to keep it from turning over from the off center weight of the board, No, you extend the table make it wider/longer to support the mass. Same with the stand.

[Stuart Ablett]

Bill I see what you are saying and I agree with you that the foundation of a good, well designed stand is where you have to start. A well designed stand, with a good quality lathe bolted to it will be rock solid when you are turning most spindle work and bowls for say a store bought blank that is without flaw and already trued up. I agree with you that in this case, the extra weight is most likely not needed at all.

Now let's change the parameters a bit. A not so well designed lathe, in a shop where the amount of space really limits the kind of stand you can have.

I have seen a number of workshops much more cramped than mine, they seriously do not have the space for a nice, big, wide, splayed leg stand, they have to make it somewhat narrower, add to that, the lathe they have is not top drawer, not even middle drawer. In other words the not so good quality lathe they do have, even without anything attached to it, vibrates badly at some speeds. This kind of lathe is most likely to have belts and pulleys to give the speeds, to the speed cannot be tweaked to go just above or below the vibration. I think that you will agree that most every lathe on the market has some RPM where the frequencies are just right to cause a vibration, correct? Wit a VS lathe, you can just tweak the speed and the vibration goes away, with a lathe that uses belts and pulleys, that cannot be done.

I think you would be open to the possibility that in a case where the space is limited, and a wide stand cannot be built, and where the lathe is not the sweetest smooth running one out there, that a few well placed bags of sand will make the lathe turn a lot smoother.

Now, in my case, I knew that I wanted to turn bigger weird stuff, if you look at this recent thread, you will see a badly out of balance piece I turned and the final results are really nice. If my lathe did not have 400 lbs of sand etc on the stand, it would have been a lot more difficult to do, as it was, keeping the speed somewhat low, I was able to get this one into shape without much drama.

You are right Bill, in perfect situation, a well designed stand is the good foundation that should be laid down for the lathe, but, the world is not perfect, not even close (for me anyways), so it is not always possible to make the best stand, so sometimes you have to help your less than perfect stand, and add some weight.

The other thing I want to mention, when I had the C-man tube bed lathe, the difference that was made in changing from the standard good quality v-belt to a linked belt was amazing. For the guys out there with a standard belt and pulley system on their lathes, I'd really suggest looking into a linked belt.

Oh, here is an unencumbered look at my lathe stand, to fit into the space I had, I needed to make the legs less splayed at the tailstock end...........



I do not think this sacrificed much in stability, but, in a perfect world, it would have been wider at the tailstock end.

Cheers!

[Chuck Beland]

Question,
I was lead to believe that if you bolt yours to the floor you could possibly bend,twist something out of alignment, or cause serious damage to something.


Chuck

[Chris Barton]

Hi Jay,

I have a PM3520a with bed extension and a Oneway 1224. Both are heavy enough to deal with most anything I will turn on tham au naturale. But, weighting down a lathe is more like customising a car, you have to do it, you want to, or it provides a measure of usability that's not available on the lathe as delivered. It's all a matter of perception.

[Billy Burt]

My Mustard Monster seems fine as built. I did not weigh it down by intent, but I did build a bottom tray for it and have it filled (and I mean filled) with turning stock. I can't tell the difference between the before and after.