basic lathe tooling questions for new lathe

[f350ca]

(04-06-2012, 08:47 PM)candiamel Wrote: OK, so here's the next question.
I see that some lathes are mounted solidly, even on large slabs of concrete set onto a bench.
The vectrax has access holes and threads on the base to install mounting bolts or pads.
Should I install a bolt into that base and crank it down to make the machine level, or slide a thin piece of steel shim which is what seems to be all the rage for leveling machines?
Bob

Not sure how heavy your 14 x 40 is. The Taiwanese one I had was around 1200 pounds, drilling and lagging it to the floor made a huge difference, reduced chatter dramatically at high speeds. I used small metal plates under the levelling screws and torqued the bed level, didn't take much effort.
My big lathe and the small Colchester I have now seem to be heavy enough that they just sit there.
Greg