steamer wrote:
--If you live in an earthquake zone you should take into
consideration the way the thing will fall. No matter how well you anchor it
there's that to consider. Best thing is to position the machine so that the
long axis will be the direction it's most likely to travel, to minimize the
possibility of tipping. I've found that with milling machines it's best to
leave them un-anchored and just let 'em "dance". I took some photos after
the big quake of '82 (I think that's when it happened), showing how far my
mill moved. Lathe was anchored in the way I describe and did just fine.


I am in New Jersey (as are the machines), we are located in the Ramapo
Valley about a mile due south of the NY/NJ border. Earthquakes are
pretty rare here but they do happen. The most well known fault line in
New Jersey is located very close to us... it is named the Ramapo Fault.
It may not be the major fault line. In 15 years of living in this area I
can't say that I have ever experienced one.

Before moving to NJ I lived in Oakland, CA. I remember well the 1989
earthquake (aka Loma Prieta aka World Series) that really shook things
up in the Bay area. At the time it hit I was at home. I lived just below
the Mormon Temple in Oakland. Telephone poles were whipping around like
fishing rods. I don't remember hearing reports of machine tools breaking
loose... I think most people were at home (or at bars) because the World
Series was just about to start. The news was dominated by the collapse
of the upper deck of a section of the Bay Bridge and the collapse of the
elevated freeway in West Oakland... and the fires in Presidio district
of San Francisco.

Perhaps you are in LA area. I seem to remember they had a big one ~1982,
also, perhaps one in the mid 1990s.

-DU-...etc...