Hi,

This is a rather general question, but here goes:

I hung around the woodworking newsgroups for a long while, and there
were regular discussions of the advantages of weight. You want as much
mass as possible to absorb vibration. Heavy machinery was quality
machinery. Etc.

Now, is it just weight? That is, if I take my table saw at home, which
is one of those hybrids that's like a cabinet saw but with an open
base; it's fairly stable as-is. If I box in the legs with sheet metal
and fill it up with concrete or lead or whatever, is it now the same as
a one-ton oliver table saw in terms of running smoothly?

So if I've made designs to build a rose engine over the summer (I've
decided to go through with it): it is normally a half-ton machine,
much of that in the cast iron base, I would wager. All that is in
steel and brass in the original will be replicated in steel and brass.
But if I weld up some 1/4"-3/4" sheet metal to form the stand, can I
just fill it up with concrete? Will that make it run smoother and give
me better work?

There's the other question, too, that the machine vibrates itself, but
someone running down the hall one floor above will vibrate the machine
as well; so I want lots of mass on the one hand, but can't have it TOO
rigidly bound to the floor. An engine-turner definitely told me that
he had his machine in the concrete-floored basement of his house, and
when somone walked too forcefully along the floor above, each step
would be an apparent defect. So I might want ot think more about the
complexities of dampening and insulation than merely about just
blithely laying on mass?




thanks for the advice!
-Bernard Arnest