Recommendations for machine mounts / anchoring ?

Hi all,

Just got a new lathe for our small company's machine shop !

We had purchased some leveling feet for it but after installation... noticed the unit is super duper wobbly -- it rocks back and forth a LOT if I push on the headstock or tailstock.

Please see some attached pictures, you can see the design of the stand is not great -- its' a rather narrow stand, with the mounting locations really close together front-to-back. The unit is leveled and the feet all on the ground. There is room for up to 4 mounting points on each leg of the support table (therefore up to 8 feet ! we only installed 4 though).

Wondering for people's recommendations. To stabilize the unit, is my best option probably just to remove the feet and anchor into the concrete floor directly? Or do ya'll know of perhaps a different type of foot I should install ?

It's fairly common to bolt a lathe to anchors set in the concrete to provide stability, and in better models, to take the twist out of the bed to achieve the desired level of precision. I would absolutely not use those feet, lathes are very top heavy, and can exert a LOT of torque. Heavier machines usually have much heavier stands, and can be used very effectively just sitting on concrete, but that sheet metal stand is not confidence inspiring. My recommendation would be to epoxy the largest studs you can fit through the holes into the floor, and use nuts above and below in all 8 locations to tweak the machine into straightness. The level of straightness neseccary is up to you, but it is easiest to use a master precision level to just make the thing level with the ground. In a localized area, gravity is an easy parallel to find. You can just as easily bolt the 4 corners directly to the floor and get usable results if you don't need any high levels of precision though, simple shims can get you close enough.

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