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I need to be able to move my new lathe from time to time, but I had several people advise against putting wheels on it. Despite this advice, I figured I'd show how the "Mobile Mustard" idea worked out. Full credit for this goes to Pete Jordan. He did the same to his lathe, and it looked like the solution for my needs.
First, I had to drill out the holes in the PM legs to fit the 12mm stud from the wheels. I did that before assembling it:
Here's one of the wheels as they came from the supplier (www.zambus.com). The threaded piece sticking out is the 12mm hardened steel stud, with a recessed hex hole so it can be removed:
The stud was too short to stick up enough above the lathe foot to get a purchase with a nut, so I removed the studs and replaced them with hardened bolts, with more length than I knew I needed. I figured any excess was no problem:
Here's how it looked mounted:
Now, the proof in the pudding. The red thumbscrew raises and lowers the rubber pads on the bottom of the caster. The rubber is firm, but much more grippy on my epoxy floor than the nylon feet that came with the lathe (or the bare cast iron). Here's a shot when it's on the wheel. The pad is about 1/8" to 3/16" off the floor:
And here's a shot with the pad lowered. Using just my two thumbs, I can get enough torque on the red thumbscrew to raise the lathe up so the wheels are about 1/8" off the floor.
When it's on the wheels, I can move the lathe one-handed across the garage. In a minute or less, I can screw down the feet, and it's not going anywhere. With the factory feet on the lathe, I was able to slide it across the floor a few inches at a time to move it. With these new rubber feet under it, I can't budge it. I'm not guaranteeing it won't walk if I'm spinning an off-balance blank, but I'm real confident it'll be staying put longer than if it was on the factory pads or cast iron feet.
It also raised the spindle height to 47 1/2", which is a good thing for me. Looks kinda funny though...like it's wearing white shoes.
First, I had to drill out the holes in the PM legs to fit the 12mm stud from the wheels. I did that before assembling it:
Here's one of the wheels as they came from the supplier (www.zambus.com). The threaded piece sticking out is the 12mm hardened steel stud, with a recessed hex hole so it can be removed:
The stud was too short to stick up enough above the lathe foot to get a purchase with a nut, so I removed the studs and replaced them with hardened bolts, with more length than I knew I needed. I figured any excess was no problem:
Here's how it looked mounted:
Now, the proof in the pudding. The red thumbscrew raises and lowers the rubber pads on the bottom of the caster. The rubber is firm, but much more grippy on my epoxy floor than the nylon feet that came with the lathe (or the bare cast iron). Here's a shot when it's on the wheel. The pad is about 1/8" to 3/16" off the floor:
And here's a shot with the pad lowered. Using just my two thumbs, I can get enough torque on the red thumbscrew to raise the lathe up so the wheels are about 1/8" off the floor.
When it's on the wheels, I can move the lathe one-handed across the garage. In a minute or less, I can screw down the feet, and it's not going anywhere. With the factory feet on the lathe, I was able to slide it across the floor a few inches at a time to move it. With these new rubber feet under it, I can't budge it. I'm not guaranteeing it won't walk if I'm spinning an off-balance blank, but I'm real confident it'll be staying put longer than if it was on the factory pads or cast iron feet.
It also raised the spindle height to 47 1/2", which is a good thing for me. Looks kinda funny though...like it's wearing white shoes.