Turning bowls on my shopsmith

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Shavingsinmypockets

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Patrick Harrison
I was wondering if anybody knows of a good way to add weight to my shopsmith lathe to help keep it from walking all over the place when i turn something large. Im thinking of adding like 250-300 lbs to the lathe. Also how do i bolt it to a concrete floor? thanks for any help!!
 

Kalai

New User
Chris Kalai Allen
Hi Patric, you can pour a cement slab with some bolts sticking out and then bolt it down or you can try to use some concrete fasteners that you can get at the hardware store or you can use sand bags or even the lead from old car batteries, I hope this gives you some ideas:) Aloha

Chris
Kalai
 

FuzzWuzz16

New User
Jim Fossler
Patrick,
I've turned several bowls on my Shopsmith and I don't believe you'll need as much weight as you think. I used to use about 100 lb. I found two 50 lb. bags of gravel and would put one at each end of the upper ways and then turn. When I put the weight on the lower portion of the unit (lower ways or on the legs) I found that the upper ways flexed and moved enough to offset quite a lot of the gain in weight.

One other way you can do it is to make a simple box that will hang from the ways and fill it with something heavy (lead weights, concrete, etc...).

Final note: if you are going to do a lot of turning on the Shopsmith, you'll find that the main shaft will have to be replaced every year or two, depending on the amount you do. I've had to replace mine twice.:BangHead:

Good luck with it and post pictures.
Jim
 

froglips

New User
Jim Campbell
A method that might also help is going up.

Bill Wallace, a Raleigh based turner/teacher/artist, uses a scissor jack and posts to transfer the load up into the building. He mentioned this was the most effective thing he has tried to stabilize his lathes.

For a shopsmith (of which I'm an avid user), you probably do not want to put stress on the headstock over the way tubes. Might try this scissor jack plan on the front and rear accessory mounts (top of the grey legs).

Here are some pics I took of Bill's setup:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1058/P101000117.JPG
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1058/P101000220.JPG
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1058/P101000315.JPG
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1058/P101000414.JPG

Good luck!

Jim
 
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Shavingsinmypockets

New User
Patrick Harrison
Ok thanks i think ill try 50-60 pounds on top of the lathe to help keep it from walking all over the floor when i turn something
thanks guys!
 

Steve Martin

New User
Steve Martin
I bought one of those adapters that allows you to slow large or really out of balance pieces. After I started using this speed reducer, I found that I had less of a need for ballast. Plus I felt much safer getting started.
 
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