Oneway 1224 - should I bolt it down?

[Jim Leslie]

My last lathe was extremely heavy and I never felt the need of bolting it to the floor. The Oneway 1224 is a great little lathe and I love it, but vibrates a bit much for me. I was wondering if anyone has bolted it to the floor and if so how much it actually reduced the vibration? Will it make much of a difference? I'm not doing huge stuff on it.

[John Brown]

Jim,
I have 2, neither bolted down. If all 4 feet are not making equal contact with the floor it will vibrate. Of course if you are turning out of balance pieces it will vibrate regardless.

[Michelle Rich]

I am the odd person out in this arena, but I bolt my lathes to the wall. Why? because the head is closest to the wall, not the floor. If to the floor, you have 30+ inches to vibrate to the head. If the lathe is bolted to a wall closer to the head, well there is less to vibrate.

[Jim Leslie]

John - you were right in that one foot was not making complete contact with the floor; fixing this helped considerably. But I think I will still go ahead and bolt it down to the floor. At the start, I was not turning a very big piece when I had considerable vibration. The only off-center part was the screw portion of a hose clamp, and at about 2000RPM it didn't take much to set it vibrating. The vibration disappeared completely when I adjusted one foot to make good contact. Bolting it down should increase stability a bit more.
Michelle - bolting to the wall is a novel idea! Where it is located may be difficult to do that, but if simply bolting it to the floor does not do it for me I may consider doing that too somehow. Belts and suspenders....

[Dale Winburn]

Jim, I have my 1224 bolted to the floor. I removed the leveling screws and used 1/4 inch thick rubber washers under the feet. Make sure it sets level on the floor.

[Jim Leslie]

Thanks Dale; I plan to do this for sure. Did you notice a substantial difference after bolting it down?

[Dale Winburn]

Jim, I bolted it down before I turned anything on it. It's runs very quite and smooth now, however, I haven't turned anything that is really out-of-balance.

How do you like the 1224?

[Wells Jacobson]

Different lathe but I minimized some vibration by by bolting and using hockey pucks as spacers between legs and floor.

[Jim Leslie]

Dale - I have only had it a week, but so far I really, really like it. It suits my needs for the kind of work that I do. My big Vicmarc went to my son who *loves* it!! He first turned when he was 9 years old on my old Sears lathe(I have that on video) and he has come a long way since that time; he's now 31 now and he is well into the vortex. He and I are going to bolt it down this weekend.

Wells - I am going to bolt it but no pucks! I's high enough already for this 5'4" (on a good day) guy!
Thanks everyone for the input..