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(01-03-2016, 11:09 AM)Sunset Machine Wrote: My non-engineer impression was that it would be like mounting the mill on leaf springs.
100% ................ You are a star.
DaveH
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I think I'll start out setting the base on the floor and shimming if necessary. If it doesn't seem like it's going to be stable then I'll look at adding some leveling feet.
Ed
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The following 1 user Likes Highpower's post:
EdK (01-03-2016)
(01-03-2016, 07:19 AM)Mayhem Wrote: Put it back together, stick the leveling feet under it as per Willie's picture and make some chips already
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stick the leveling feet under it, THEN put it back together! Trust me....
Willie
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Hi Willie,
I would be concerned how you have your mill mounted on the leveling feet. All of the weight is on the small areas around the four bolt holes in the casting instead of being distributed along the bottom edge of the mill base casting. I'd be concerned about cracking the casting. Unless I'm not fully understanding how you have the leveling feet attached to your mill. That's why I was looking at using some steel plate to set the mill onto and then threading the plate for the leveling feet. Obviously I'm no mechanical engineer so I'm probably way off base.
Ed
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(01-03-2016, 03:59 PM)EdK Wrote: Hi Willie,
I would be concerned how you have your mill mounted on the leveling feet. All of the weight is on the small areas around the four bolt holes in the casting instead of being distributed along the bottom edge of the mill base casting. I'd be concerned about cracking the casting.
My basement floor has a
severe slope in it toward the floor drain and it would have taken one heck of a heck of a lot of shims and grout to get the mill level, and it would have not been pretty. Have a look at the gap between the pad and the right rear corner on my mill. Plus using the pads means nothing is permanent if I ever move things around. But I had the same concerns as you do Ed. I kept finding countless pictures of lathes and mills all set up in the same manor when I was looking for the machine pads and thought they can't all be wrong - can they?
The base casting is pretty thick where the bolts go through compared to the thinner corner "legs". I just found the largest O.D. washers that would fit in the corners on the underside to help spread the load out as much as possible. I worried about it for quite some time, and eventually forgot all about it because I haven't had a single problem. As far as stability goes, I think I could take a running start at tackling the mill and wouldn't even budge it. Which is why I wondered about the weight of your mill because the spec sheet on mine says 1650 lbs., and your mill is bigger than mine.
Bottom line is I say go with whatever YOU feel comfortable with. But I have a feeling once you see that 1/2" plate sag with the weight of the mill on it you won't feel so comfortable.
I am not an engineer, nor do I play one on the Interwebs....
Willie
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(01-03-2016, 05:16 PM)Highpower Wrote: But I have a feeling once you see that 1/2" plate sag with the weight of the mill on it you won't feel so comfortable.
Willie,
I've abandoned the idea of using the 1/2" plate.
I just took a level to the basement floor where the mill will be sitting and it's almost dead flat, which kind of surprised me because there's a stress relief joint in the cement running right where the base of the mill will sit.
Ed
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If you didn't keep your shop so clean you wouldn't need to worry about levelling it. My mill rocked for a year or two till the dirt built up under it, now its steady as a rock.
Free advice is worth exactly what you payed for it.
Greg
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Finally warm enough to work out in the garage today. Got the knee off but couldn't figure how to get it detached from the cherry picker with the knee lead screw still attached. It would have been a piece of cake if I had someone to assist but no luck. So tomorrow I'll remove the lead screw while the knee is dangling from the cherry picker.
Ed