Apartment weight limit?

taiwanluthiers · Jun 21, 2017

Hi

I'm really wanting a lathe. I do as much as I can with my mill, but not being able to turn stuff to a diameter sucks.

I'm wanting to get a 11x26/27/29 lathe from either Grizzly, Weiss, or Precision Matthews. Aside from its feature (apart from Grizzly the 11 inch lathe from both Precision Matthews and Weiss have 1.5" spindle bore, which is REALLY helpful.

The problem is, the machine weights about 600lbs. I will probably figure out a way to get them up to a third floor apartment by taking the machine apart and moving it piece by piece (that's how I got my G0704 which weights about 400lbs up the stairs, but the problem is, will I cause the floor to collapse by having TWO piece of machinery in my 3rd floor apartment?

steve-l · Jun 21, 2017

You are asking the wrong audience. Only the architect knows the answer. Remember it isn't just the weight. It is also the point loading and room location. Also, if you have this concern, you must consider your other associated tools in your calculation. Personally, I believe your numbers of 400 lbs. and 600 lbs. is way low. So before you ask anybody else and embarrass yourself, do your homework.

hanermo · Jun 21, 2017

No lathes are too heavy for an apartment.

The common floor load rate is 1200 kg / sq m.

600 lbs == 280 kg, over approx 1 sq m.
About 3 times less than rated load.

My good, heavy, rigid, light-industrial 12x24 lathe is 450 kg, plus cnc mods == 550 kg.
About 30% more mass, over == 1.5 sq m.

A 2000 kg industrial 14x40, over 3 sq m floor area, is still 50% less than rated load.

A yacuzzi or waterbed is much heavier, and work fine in apartment, and can sometimes provide great entertainment.

Ziggy2 · Jun 21, 2017

hanermo said:
No lathes are too heavy for an apartment.

The common floor load rate is 1200 kg / sq m.

600 lbs == 280 kg, over approx 1 sq m.
About 3 times less than rated load.

My good, heavy, rigid, light-industrial 12x24 lathe is 450 kg, plus cnc mods == 550 kg.
About 30% more mass, over == 1.5 sq m.

A 2000 kg industrial 14x40, over 3 sq m floor area, is still 50% less than rated load.

A yacuzzi or waterbed is much heavier, and work fine in apartment, and can sometimes provide great entertainment.

Hanermo,
Very bad advice as you do not know US building codes, especially for residential.

Depending on areas, the BOCA code allows as low as 30psf. That is aproc. 126kg per square meter about a tenth of what you think it is. There aren't many buildings built to the 30psf rating, most are 70psf which is still way under your numbers.

As Steve said there is the point loading that is critical. If this is a traditional plywood over wood floor joists, the worst case loading scenario is to put the lathe running length wise directly on top of a single floor joist. If the lathe was located on a single floor joist in the middle of the room would be the very worst case scenario.

Do as Steve said and consult an architect. You can probably doe this but where and how you position the lathe will be critical. The architect will also probably want you to use a structural platform to reduce the point loading to a much safer load.

Danny VanVoorn · Jun 21, 2017

It could be one of those commercial buildings converted to lofts, you could put an entire machine shop in and park your car too after bringing it up on the freight elevator? It all depends on the building; that you have to ask tells me it's just a building built to residential standards and likely not advisable.
Dan

Larry Dickman · Jun 21, 2017

I would ask the people on the 2nd floor.

220swift · Jun 21, 2017

You could lay down a sheet of plywood to spread the load.
600 lbs would be less than what sits around the table at Thanksgiving.

Hal

Kyle Smith · Jun 21, 2017

If you can't put 600lbs in one spot something is wrong. You guys ever see two fat people kissing? (No offense to fat people intended.) Nothing but worry wort negative Nancy's around here. :rolleyes5:

According to most of the people here we should have half of America falling through to their basements. Hopefully they all live on slabs.

taiwanluthiers · Jun 21, 2017

I don't know what the construction is, but the floor seems rickety which is why I am sometimes concerned. However we did have a party one time where almost 50 people showed up and they were all jumping around, didn't seem to have any effects.

I heard people put aquariums in apartments, and those weight a LOT more.

swatkins · Jun 21, 2017

steve-l said:
You are asking the wrong audience. Only the architect knows the answer. Remember it isn't just the weight. It is also the point loading and room location. Also, if you have this concern, you must consider your other associated tools in your calculation. Personally, I believe your numbers of 400 lbs. and 600 lbs. is way low. So before you ask anybody else and embarrass yourself, do your homework.

He is talking about a little bench lathe... They are so light that quality suffers...

GGaskill · Jun 21, 2017

First thing you should do is check your lease to be sure there are no prohibitions of this type of appliance. Next I would check with whoever lives directly below you to see where their walls are to make sure you have support underneath. Also, I would get some vibration absorbing mounts so you aren't adding noise and vibration to the downstairs apartment or adjacent apartments.

How about power? Do you have any circuits that are high enough current to run the machine?

If you put the machine on some extended pads that will get support from two joists at each end and place it close to or over a wall below, I doubt you would have any support problems. But generally I don't think it is a good idea because you are in close proximity to too many other (and probably, unsympathetic) people.

Is there a basement? Maybe you could put it there.

Tony Quiring · Jun 21, 2017

We built a box to distribute loading for a cell site inside an office building and the engineers liked what we came up with.

Your materials can be less aa our weight was more.

Will describe our build.

Materials needed (ours was 8 X 8 but you likely can go smaller.

4 sheets of 1.125 plytanium subfloor sheet.

About 12 or more 2 X 10 X 8 lumber.

Build a box consisting of plywood on bottom then frame around the sides forming the box.

Long drywall screws and the lumber is standing on edge.

Next add cross members end to end across the direction of the surface grain and spacing dependent on loading.

Also consider where lathe feet land.

Place plywood on top and screw into place.

The structure will spread the load evenly across the whole area if you use proper width for the dimensional lumber.

The plywood needs to be rated to not flex either so 3/4 minimum thickness.

You can open the end to allow for storage inside but the hole needs to be backed up as the structure is dependent on the wood being solid.

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taiwanluthiers · Jun 21, 2017

I looked over the specs it appears the machine will weight about 500 pounds, as the 600lb figure was with the stand (I'm not going to get it).

I have a really heavy dresser that I'm probably going to put the machine onto. It is sturdy enough because I can easily stand on it without problem.

MilGunsmith · Jun 22, 2017

Don't forget to add the weight of all the tooling and other bits that accumulate.

Daveinjax · Jun 23, 2017

The floor will probably hold the weight but I doubt you will be able to to keep it level and straight. Third floor of a wood building is going to have a lot of movement with changing temperatures and humidity.

taiwanluthiers · Jun 23, 2017

I already give up on having everything all trim and level. Unless you have a specialized building with reinforced concrete foundations purpose built to be level that just isn't going to happen. Best I can do is make any adjustments to the machine as necessary if I need absolutely perfect precision. It's not like these Chinese machines are capable of extreme precision anyways.

So flex and movement is the least of my worry. I can already tilt my mill by an imperceptible amount just by standing next to it. As far as I know as long as the spindle and table is at 90 degree of each other I'm satisfied. Same goes for cross slide and lathe chuck.

Tony Quiring · Jun 23, 2017

Evaluate your thinking...

Dresser may be large but weight is point loading or concentrated.

A 600 pound load on 4 dresser feet is 150 pounds in the area of the foot.

Floor may be rated at 50 pounds per square foot and a bit of checking local code could confirm that.

Guessing feet are maybe a couple square inches so multiply the 150 pounds by 72 since a Sq ft is 144 Sq inches then 144 /2 is 72.

So loading is in area of 1000 pounds per square foot...If the foot is in the right spot in can punch a hole.

The dresser may also fail which would have a 500 pound weight dropping like a sledge hammer.

Stop and do some engineeeing....

Building a platform would distribute the load to very small amounts per square foot as well as protecting the floor from damage.

Storage can be built into it to save space.

Built right it will be very stable.

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taiwanluthiers · Jun 23, 2017

I'm pretty sure it's an average. Otherwise 2 fat people making out is going to cause the building to collapse (that's over 600lbs in ONE square foot).

The lathe has a footprint of several square foot. Placed on the floor that's probably going to be spread out over much greater area (the floor board is designed to do that). I could always just get an aquarium stand or reinforce the dresser to suit.

rons · Jun 23, 2017

An all fat person orgy is the ultimate test. All the radial, axial, and moment force loads... :eek:

Relocate to a ground floor suite with patio and sliding glass door.

taiwanluthiers · Jun 23, 2017

It's Texas.. there's lots of stocky or fat people here. Engineers have to plan for that (not to mention people having aquariums too)

I'm told by some other guys that these apartments in Austin are built REALLY strong. He had a heavy gun safe in there and he said the only thing you have to worry about is getting them up the stairs. As you know gun safes can be REALLY heavy, and their footprint is kinda small too.

At least a lathe tend to have bigger footprint compared to a mill.

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