On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:06:48 +0000, Philippe Habib wrote:

I have some beginner questions about leveling machines. When you use feet
or something like that you are sending all of the weight to the point
where the feet attach to the machine. Does that stress the machine
because you're grately decreasing the surface in contact with the floor,
from the whole base of the casting to the small area the top of the foot
makes contact with the machine? Do I need to grout the area between the
rest of the casting and the floor?

I have a lathe which has a base made of ~ 3/16" steel plate (factory made).
The feet of the lathe are steel plates which extend down a few inches and
are bent at 90 degree angles to provide a contact surface with the floor.
Holes in this section of the feet allow the machine to bolted to the floor.
In order to level the machine I got some short lengths of 1" threaded rod,
nuts and washers to use as screw jacks in the holes in the feet.

Now that they are installed the lathe is very "springy". Not what I wanted
at all. The reason for this is that with the leveling screws in place the
feet no longer make full contact with the floor. The contact point of the
feet has been reduced to the 1" diameter area of the screw underneath it,
which allows the feet to flex.

Also, I have some levelers that use a sliding wedge with a horizontal
screw to go up. My thought was that I'd have a bolt anchored into the
concrete, put the leveling pad on, then the machine and a nut to draw the
machine down to the leveling pad. That way the machine could not go up or
down. I'm in earthquake country and I don't want a top heavy thing
tipping over.

This sounds like a better solution, although I haven't tried it yet. I don't
think it would be very difficult to machine up some wedge type levelers,
but I haven't had the time to do it.

I understand those solid mounts won't provide any vibration isolation.

No, I don't think they would if they are just solid steel.

--
"Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs
that disturb and ruin my work ..., so that I shall be able to cleanse
myself." -- Rabbi Shlomo Eliahu



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