AVM MAS 140 lathe

The easiest way would be to use a toe-jack slipped between two of the wooden slats (this may require cutting a bit of a notch to let it through) to lift the lathe off the pallet, then cut a notch in the outer edge of the pallet to allow you to slide it out round the jack.

If you don't want to buy a toe-jack and can't rent one cheaply (they're about £20 for a week here) then you can probably make an attachment which fits onto a standard bottle jack, as I seem to remember you have welding equipment. I would use 10mm or 15mm plate if I was fabricating one.

When you get the first end free of the pallet, lower that end onto thick wooden blocks, then free the other end and step down slowly in small stages at both ends.

You might want to make some coupons of steel (20mm is a good starting point) to put the leveling bolts down onto, this will:

1. Let you take the jack out easily,
2. Protect the floor from deforming,
3. Reduce the chance of 2. causing the lathe to shift out of alignment once you do that.

Buy some Termites...?

There's definitely a similar thread or 2 in here, the guy lifted the lathe and cut the pallet away

FWIW, I would be inclined to leave the lathen on nthe npallets until it has been moved to it's site

If you can get a crane and a suitable sling, both pallets can be removed at the same time..

If not, could you lift the one cabinet and place rollers under it, ( Pry barand packing? ) to ease dragging out the pallet beaneath?

Having then lowered that end onto the floorrepeat the action, at the other end.

If not can you a couple of sturdy friends to lift the one while you darag out the pallet before moving to the second pallet.

Don't be afraid to "jack and pack"

Howard

I had another idea with the jack. I bought a normal one, 10 tons. I could weld a 30x50x2mm bar on the jack screw. As in the picture below. In this way, I think I could lift the right side of the lathe if I fix the jack between the pallets. Of course I would put a piece of wood under the jack. But is that bar strong enough to hold 4-500kg?

The lathe is already on it's final place. I'm not sure that the part with sturdy friends would work
It is quite heavy and they would have to sit on the pallets anyway.

When my Warco GearHead 1330 was delivered, it was left on substantial wooden blocks, so I could retro-fit some levelling feet.



I lowered and moved it on my own using rollers, and a wheeled heelbar like this
https://www.safetyliftingear.com/products/steerman-rpb-1500kg-roller-pinch-bar/cm-rpb15-rs/cm-rpb15-rs

Mine was a much older one with solid wheels, which I'd bought many years previously.

Bill

Finally I managed to lower the lathe. It was like solving a puzzle. This jack is great.

Edited By Sonic Escape on 12/03/2023 16:48:27

Hurrah!

Hopefully, the adjustable feet will allow you to take out anyb twist from nmthe bed.

If not, at least the bolts at the tailstock end are accessible, mto mallow myou to do this.

Now you're ready to start making swarf!

Howard

Nice work!

That looks like it was really very awkward to accomplish, so I hope you have a suitable sense of satisfaction at your achievement there.

Well done you. Always feels good to accomplish those major one-off tasks successfully.

And all you needed was a jack

Welcome to the brotherhood

Edited By Ady1 on 12/03/2023 16:56:54

It definitely feels good! Now I feel like I can lift/move anything

On this occasion I discovered some screws that seem to be for adjustment. But I don't understand one thing, if the lathe is going to sit on a rubber carpet then does the adjustment still make sense? I can't put the lathe directly on the tiles.

That's a good question for a lathe needing adjustment

The loading still needs to be equally distributed, any bed twist must be eliminated

More experienced folk than me will know the details concerning a bigger machine like yours

some searches to help you on your way

Edited By Ady1 on 12/03/2023 17:50:46

As a simple example the smaller Pultra 1590 lathe uses its base for leveling purposes and to resist bed twist under load

The lower base section is actually essential for completing this small lathe setup, it creates a steel box when it is bolted to the lathe, together the base + the lathe are much stronger

Bigger stronger machines like yours need to be straightened up manually by the user

Edited By Ady1 on 12/03/2023 18:25:45

The first thing I will check is how unbalanced the lathe is. For now, I still have a few parts to clean. After that I will see what needs to be done.

You do need to remove any twist from the bed; especially if you intend to turn anything long.

If the bed is twisted, even slightly, the lathe will cut a taper.

Instructions on using what is known as "Rollie's Dad's Method" are given in Ian Bradley's "The Amateur;'s Workshop" and "Myford Seven Series Manual". Those both tell where to add packing to remove the twist.

The usual method is to bolt down the Headstock, and to adjust or shim at the tailstock end.

Howard

Hi Sonic,

Looks a nice piece of kit that, as has been said - spend a bit of time getting the lathe true, there are some decent vids on youtube, just search 'lathe leveling' or similar, it's not about getting the lathe level in the spirit level sense, more about as Howard says above, getting any twist / bow out so it cuts true.

Good luck and enjoy it, you'll have many hours of fun turning perfectly good metal into chips while learning all about it!

Remember that inside every piece of 1" bar there is a 12 mm part waiting to be liberated!

Today I tried to turn something for the first time. I used a 20x200mm stainless steel bar. I started with a carbide brazed tool. I cut 20 microns each pass. Three in total. The feed was manual and very slow. The result was an uneven surface. There is a pattern in the diameter variation. Especially in the left half. You can also feel it when you touch the surface. The speed was 200rpm maybe. It took some 2 minutes each pass. The metal chips were very long, some were more than half a meter.

I switched then to a HSS tool. I made two passes removing 20 and then 10 microns. That strange pattern didn't appeared again this time. Also I used auto feed. I figured out how it is working. There are two ways to enable it, using the lead screw or one of the additional rods, but this is another story. Each pass took 2-3 min.

Carbide tooling does not have as sharp an edge as HSS, so it requires more force to cut, which puts more pressure on the job. This causes the job to deflect and give poor cutting and poor finish. Your test piece is a bit too long and too thin at 20 x 200mm. Usual standard is 25mm x 100mm, or maybe 150mm maximum. Also stainless steel is often problematic to machine nicely because of work hardening on light cuts where the tool rubs.

It looks like you have achieved a good result in the end. Good stuff!

Edited By Hopper on 19/03/2023 01:06:43

A lot of cheaper brazed carbide cutters are not sharpened well. The cutting tip may not be as good as the more easily visible edge further along the cutting edge.

The usual way to check for taper is to make a long-ish dumbbell shaped work-piece. Supported between centres is always best (as that eliminates any possible chuck imperfections). Skimming only the wider sections at each end makes the job faster and easier with less temperature differences and possible cutter degradation during the process. An easy-cutting, leaded steel or aluminium bar would be my favoured material, along with a polished carbide insert or a very sharp HSS cutter.

Edited to add that much heavy machinery was mounted on sheets of felt.

Edited By not done it yet on 19/03/2023 06:28:26

Not in this case, ie checking the alignment of headstock spindle and bed. Leave the tailstock out of it. That is a separate adjustment done after the bed alignment is finalised and the lathe is turning parallel on a simple bar or dumbell held in the chuck only.

After that is finalised you can turn a test piece between centres and adjust the base of the tailstock to move the tailstock centre to get it to cut parallel between centres.

Two different things.