Myford 254 anti vibration feet

I’ve just taken delivery of a myford 254 lathe. In another thread on levelling the Myford anti-vibration feet were recommended. Myford ltd advertise these

https://www.myford.co.uk/acatalog/4-MACHINE-ANTI-VIBRATION-PADS-1768.html

As suitable for the 7 series lathes. So two questions

Are anti vibration feet worth fitting?

Would these feet also be suitable for the 254?

Many thanks

Ralph

Hi Ralph

I've got a 254+ which is single phase and does run smoothly, however I have got it mounted on anti vibration pads, which makes it very easy to level, and increases the height slightly which I find comfortable. I can't remember where mine were bought from, they were previously fitted to another lathe, but they look identical to the 80mm ones advertised on the RDG/ Myford website, they may have come from Warco. Been in use for a couple of years now with no problems, I check the levelling every now and then and once settled it has stayed stable. Hope you enjoy your 254, very pleased with mine gets quite heavy use since I retired.

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 24/04/2023 17:57:36

Mine's just sat on the floor. Levelling is a misnomer when used about lathes, the requirement is to bolt it down without twisting it. This is done by adjustment between the stand and the bed. You could have the bed at any angle, using a precision level is just one way. If the antivibration feet have resilience, could it allow the whole thing to rock about when you've got an out of balance bit in the 4 jaw. When I had an ML7 I just put the stand on baulks of timber to raise it up, I've used concrete blocks under other lathes as has been done on a recent thread.

What are anti-vibration feet for? I feel something is wrong if a lathe vibrates so badly it needs special feet to tame it?

Best reason I can think of for fitting them is to reduce the domestic nuisance of a tool that annoys her indoors. No anti-vibration feet in my workshop, I'm sure the divorce was a coincidence...

Dave

Maybe my use of the term levelling is misleading, perhapa I should have said eliminating twist in the bed. The 254 and stand assembly doesn't seem that rigid to me, as I can easily induce twist in the bed by adjusting the levelling feet. I just use a precision level across the bed at each end and adjust any twist out. The machine turns and bores as parallel as I can measure so I'm quite happy with the set up.

Mine sits on original factory feet.

In theory, the cabinet should be secured to the floor and then the lathe is levelled on the cabinet. When I say, "levelled" is does not have to be level. After all, you want the suds to drain to the back right. What you do not want (obviously) is a twisted bed.

I have never loosened my lathe's attachment to the cabinet - the combination seems to be pretty rigid. If I were to slacken off completely one of the feet, the cabinet would simply rock - it does not twist.

You would be pretty lucky to have a perfectly flat floor in your workshop, and even if it were now, it may not remain so. I suggest that the advantage of the feet is that you can get the cabinet stable on the floor and adjust for run-off. They are nothing to do with vibration.

Edited By Chris Pearson 1 on 24/04/2023 21:39:58

The adjustable anti vibration feet spread the load on the floor and allow reasonable levelling. On my works lathe I cross levelled one end and then longitudinally the other two.

Worked for me, no exact levelling needed.

“Anti-vibration”? In my book that is just another marketing ploy to separate those, that don’t know, from their money.

They may, as mentioned above, help in certain situations but are mostly an excuse for proper shimming/levelling and securing as necessary.

My lathe (a predecessor to the 254, one might suggest, but not a myford) is on a stand with a base that would not be easily distorted by bolting down to most surfaces - the fixings would stretch or the substrate would likely fail or be distorted. Small hobby lathes are not supplied with stands like mine, these days.🙂

The base to the stand is more than 1/2” thick, with near full bottom, and approx 6” high, if you are wondering about its construction. The rest of the stand is 1/8” steel sheet steel, formed such that it is really rigid, and with 1/2” thick cross bars for where the lathe is bolted down to the generously sized drip tray.

A pic of a stand, such as mine, is at the top of THIS page as shown on the lathes dot co site.

At the time of my posting, it appears that this document has only been downloaded 169 times … so I thought it worth linking for reference: **LINK**

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/4654/22084.pdf

.

As for the use of ‘anti-vibration’ feet versus mounting on bedrock … That will forever remain a matter of what best suits the location and the user’s circumstances … ‘real life’ requires us to make many compromises.

MichaelG.

Anti-vibration feet are intended to prevent external vibrations from reaching the machine. Conversely they prevent vibrations generated by the machine reaching the outside world. In a home workshop with only one machine running at a time anti-vibration feet are probably unnecessary.

Andrew

Many thanks for all the replies. As you could guess from the question I’m a newcomer to this size of machine tools and starting to learn new skills in retirement. I’ve decided to try the anti vibration feet to adjust the cabinet and aid drainage from the tray. See I’m learning … I didn’t say levelling ….damn I just did!

Ralph

One of my old books describes what's necessary to insulate a lathe in a busy factory at a time when line shafts were driven by a heavy reciprocating steam engine, every decent workshop forged with 10 ton steam hammer, and the building was surrounded by a clanking railway marshalling yard - no rubber tyres on anything.

Anyway, you dig a 6 foot deep hole in the floor about 2 feet wider than the machine in all directions, and line it with a thick brick wall. Thus the machine stands on a heavy plinth with no physical connection to the actual floor of the building. The air gap insulates vibration in both directions.

Just struck me that the Myford 254 name must be a reference to the metric system, 25.4mm = 1". Poor old Myford, fancy them imagining that any of their customers would want to pay big money for a modern metric lathe...

Dave

S.O.D. I have a 254S and of course the designation is merely 10 inches expressed in the metric system. Incidentally mine is an Imperial machine, and not metric. All them little thous and tenths are stored in it for posterity. LOL.

They are put together with metric nuts and bolts.

I picked up a nice ex schools metric Viceroy to replace my aging and close to knackered Harisson L5 .

Having some health problems with my spine, I fitted anti vibration feet to raise the lathe about 50mm to make it more comfortable to work. The lathe is mounted on an 8" thick concrete floor in my workshop and certainly seems to run quieter than before I fitted the feet and I think they are beneficial to me

Anti Vibs are a necessity for mounting equipment in Submarines (Stealthy noise killers) but my workshop doesn't float so I don't need to Rock and Roll or Twist.

Regards Ian.

Seems to me that there is a paradox here. Anti-vibration implies compliance, i.e. springiness. Unlikely to be in the horizontal plane as that is very difficult to arrange. If in the vertical plane they will not be very good for levelling! Do we just mean adjustable feet!

Yes, but even better - if we add in the adjective ‘expensive’ in that sentence.🙂

Mine were (I presume) extremely expensive mounts but they were thrown away from the packaging of a very expensive American made hospital scanner , by the delivery people that unpacked it. Only problem was They threw away the fixing nuts in an unretrievable place. I got 10 mounts and had to buy a box of 9/16" UNF nuts to fit them. Used 4 on the lathe Main advantage to me was the height increase it gave.

cheaper than buying ADJUSTABLE feet or fabricating a plinth.

Edited By Fred Jolly 1 on 27/04/2023 15:13:20

If you have a problem with neighbours about machine noise I would try it with some bits of carpet underneath the stand legs, if it's quiter than go for it otherwise don't bother