Mobile Mustard

Vaughn McMillan

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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:

PM3520B - 07 799.jpg

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:

PM3520B - 16 800.jpg

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:

PM3520B - 17 800.jpg

Here's how it looked mounted:

PM3520B - 18 800.jpg

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:

PM3520B - 19 800.jpg

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.

PM3520B - 20 800.jpg

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.

PM3520B - 21 800.jpg
 
... Now that you mention it..... they do look a little bit "Pat Boone--ish" :eek:

:rofl::rofl:
You're showing your age there, Greg. :p Someone else told me the white shoes reminded them of Michael Jackson. (Although after an exhaustive search of Google Images, it appears MJ didn't wear white shoes as much as one might think. Instead, he wore white socks with black shoes and black pants that were a bit too short.)

I guess I could always paint em'. Hoover purple might be nice with the mustard. :rofl:
 
Well most "Casters" would not ........cut the mustard.......... but the ones you got are certainly NOT "Most Casters" :D

Easy to do now, but wait until you get 4" of curlies on the floor and you have to dig the wheels out first :) :wave:

No ETA on the Sparky? :huh: :dunno:
 
Very cool Vaughn but, I'm confused. Are you implying white patent-leather shoes have gone out of style? I always wear mine with black socks and Bermuda shorts to do yard work :rofl:
 
If they work, they work. Don't knock success. BTW, I still can't get used to that low set bed extension. Just looks wrong. :rolleyes: But, like I said, if it works, it works. BTW #2, that extra height might be nice. My old lathe was raised over 4" so I wouldn't have to hunch over to work. That was hard on the back. I'm short and don't understand how tall guys work with short tools. My new lathe is taller and I believe I will be leaving as is. We'll see.
 
I'm with Stu on this one.

I had to dig out the wheels to see which wheels to recommend to you. What up with the no curlies? You are not afraid of getting the new floor dirty are you?
 
...Easy to do now, but wait until you get 4" of curlies on the floor and you have to dig the wheels out first :) :wave:

No ETA on the Sparky? :huh: :dunno:
Yep, I'll probably have to shovel a path just to get to them, but when I need them, they'll be handy. ;)

Sparky is due to start tomorrow, so I should be getting the new rig dirty in the next few days.
 
Vaughn, I see from the pics you got the AC-300S casters, I've just sent the CarryMaster guys an e-mail, I sure hope the ship to Japan.

What did the casters cost?

Cheers!
 
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