Slate slab to mount Myford ML10

Recently acquired ML10 and a drip tray but no stand. Was intending to sit it on an old Ikea pine table in the garage but am worried about possible warpage , then noticed an old slab of slate of the right length and width and about 25mm thick in the garden, and thought after counterboring it for coach bolts I could attach lathe to this using lead or copper washers to avoid cracking the slab. The whole assembly would probably weigh getting on for 90 - 100kg and I think you wouldn't need to screw slab to table as well

Just don't drop anything heavy on it I use one for marking out chipped it a few times.

Not sure why people want to go to extremes for mounting a small lathe.

A sturdy bench of dimensional lumber like 2" x 4" (4 x 2 in UK and Aus I think) with a piece of 3/4" / 19 mm plywood on top will more than do the job. The 4" dim of the lumber in the top frame should be stood upright for min deflection and max strength. If you face the plywood with a sheet of light galvanised or painted steel you will have easy cleanup and no oil soaking into the wood. For leveling, if you wish to, shims will be fine under the feet of the lathe.

If you have access to an electric welder a bench made of short lengths of angle iron (ex bedframe or similar) and again faced with sheet steel and / or plywood will also work fine.

Extreme materials and weight are NOT required. Slate from the garden may or may not be flat. Don't assume it is.

Just my two cents - your mileage may vary. JD

Won't it be hard work keep climbing on to the roof to work it ?

@Jeff Dayman : Well I already have a bench of sorts and I haven't got any welding gear. I wasn't thinking of clamping the bed directly to a piece of gash slate directly but using studding like here http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrish/cancelled%20account/tsetup.htm

For an ML 10 lathe a slab of 25 mm Blockboard would be quite adequate, all the hype about levelling and stressing is just that. Place the lathe on the board and lightly tighten the holding bolts.

There is no way you would distort the lathe bed unless you use a spanner 1 Mtr long, just use the lathe and forget all about holding down problems.

I feel the slab of slate is a step too far and would not be a good method of mounting the lathe. Others may have different ideas but my experience with Lorry bed mounted machines is that as along as its stable then get on with it!

If in fact you did mount on slate and you cracked it how would you then proceed?

Clive

Well I agree with everyone else that it isn't really necessary, but I'm going to swim against the tide and say go for it if you want. Extra mass and rigidity cannot do any harm especially on a small lathe. If it does crack, just unbolt the lathe from the slate and start again with something else. Don't see cracking as likely, as Neil has already mentioned using e.g. lead washers, but even better might be to epoxy the studding into the slate.

Personally I'd probably just find a (free or cheap from small ads) offcut of 38mm (or thicker if you can find it) laminate kitchen worktop. Make sure it's fairly new or has been kept dry - it can warp otherwise, but if you seal any exposed chipboard it will be pretty stable. Gives a good wipe-clean surface which stands up well to swarf. Much easier to drill and handle than a slate slab, but heavy and rigid enough to be going on with. Get a nice light colour to keep the workplace bright - that's the main downside I can see with slate, it generally being black...

When I bought a Compact 5 mill drill a pressie of its' own two way milling table It had to be mounted on something. After thought I decided a 2 foot square paving slab had a number of pluses. It was tolerably flat (as much as a bench top, it was significantly heavy (but not daftly so) adding to the overall inertia, at the same time it was still moveable and tilt -able ( to aid the cleaning advocated in another current thread ?).

In 25 years I haven't found the need to try another method.

John

Assuming rigidity rather than strength is the desired property, it's interesting that slate has a similar young's modulus to steel, much stiffer than granite. It should also be pretty stable!

Neil

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Good point, Neil

Fairly intuitive when you look at the structure:

• Slate approximates plywood
• Granite approximates chipboard

MichaelG.

Turns out the slate piece is not really wide enough for the the lathe mountings which are on 6in centres slab is only 7in by 44in, however as I need a bit more height to get the bottom of the drip tray to 33in above floor I will get some 40mm worktop or whatever and chop the slab into big enough pieces for the lathe mounts with the studding installed and then coachbolt these to the worktop. If the whole lot vibrates too much in use I can screw  into worktop from below table.

Thanks all for input !

Edited By Neil Holms on 10/03/2015 12:35:27