Lathe in apartment building?

[JonasB]

Hello everyone, I recently bought a lathe and plan on restoring it (shouldn't need much besides taking a bit of rust off) and selling it, but I've been toying with the idea of keeping it and setting up a workbench in my apartment and I wondered if I'm being a bit crazy... I live in one of those high-rise apartment buildings in New York City and everything is kind of sterile in the building, but there is this small part at the entrance where it's far enough for my wife not to care about and since it's right at the entrance, it has no direct wall with any neighbors so it's as isolated as it gets. I've listed the pros and cons

Pros:

1. Isolated from any neighbors besides people above/below (same apartment layout as ours so nobody is sleeping anywhere close). The walls border to our bathroom and refuse room, door next to it leads to hallway we are the last apartment at end of hallway
2. Decent amount of space

Cons:

1. The walls are white meaning any workbench or tool would need good proper protection in order to prevent dirt or shavings from flying all around
2. No or very poor direct light
   
    

At worst, someone will complain and I'll have to stop and probably sell the bench, but besides that I don't really see any large downsides. The lathe I'm restoring is the 8mm D bed Boley style lathe and I will aim to find a motor that is as quiet as possible so as to not disturb the neighbors.

In your experience, how crazy does this sound, are the small lathes loud enough to where they could annoy someone (fwiw I have a full time job so this would be a few hours per week max type fun)
 

[Boz]

Hi, noise from a small lathe is minimal. The lathe itself is near silent unless you are working something well ouf of balance (which would be  unusual) in which case it may cause the bench to resonate or thrum and could transmit through the floor. Occasionally the graver chatters but it is not noisy, probably quieter than speech. Motor noise is the loudesf part but still low. I use an electronic controlled servo motor and its quieter than a conversional voice. Old fashioned sewing machine motors are even quieter. 

You wiĺl need to protect the adjacent wall from flying chips and possibly oil drops for sure.

[Nibbler]

I ran a unimat in several apartments I lived in. No complaints.

Matt

[Zero]

On 8/2/2022 at 10:11 PM, JonasB said:

In your experience, how crazy does this sound, are the small lathes loud enough to where they could annoy someone (fwiw I have a full time job so this would be a few hours per week max type fun)

Space is precious in an apartment. Consider selling it to someone who will use it more often.

You can always pick one up again later in life when the situation is more favorable. Or technology advances allow for mini sized Chinese 3D printers to shoot radioactive lasers in order to reshape objects. Doesn't look too far away to be honest.

[spectre6000]

As a semi-pro musician and luthier, I did much worse in apartments in my youth... Put some good pads under the feet of the bench to prevent sound from traveling mechanically through the floor, keep it off the wall, and that aspect at least shouldn't be an issue.

[JonasB]

 

Ok everyone, the lathe arrived, the cross slide fits, my 3 jaw adjustable chuck arrived along with the foot (lathe arrived with a wheel that mounts on table so you rotate it by hand. I will probably just take the headstock apart to clean it and re-lubricate. The lathe uses bushings so it should be fairly ok to reassemble, but I want to make sure it is lubricated as it was sitting in a garage for a while while the previous owner decided to retire. 

So here are a few things I need to get next

- a lathe motor (I've seen some watchmakers use this one, but I would ideally like one that supports variable speed via pedal control), recommendations welcome.

- find a wooden base (maybe I'll just get a 1 1/2 inch cutting board, any recommendations welcome).

- Audit all the collets that arrived with the lathe and slowly buy the missing ones.

- get some gravers and sharpening tool so I can start producing chips

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by JonasB

[dadistic]

One option is the Sherline motor. 

https://www.sherline.com/product/33050-dc-motor-speed-control-units/

Dewey Clark (http://www.historictimekeepers.com) uses them on all his small machines.

Cheers!

[JonasB]

30 minutes ago, dadistic said:

One option is the Sherline motor. 

https://www.sherline.com/product/33050-dc-motor-speed-control-units/

Dewey Clark (http://www.historictimekeepers.com) uses them on all his small machines.

Cheers!

What are your thoughts on https://www.ottofrei.com/Foredom-M.BL-1-6HP-Bench-Lathe-with-Spindles-115V? I like the idea of having a single motor where I can use the buffer/polisher and power the lathe with it as well...

[dadistic]

These are high speed/low torque motors, and you'd have to find pulleys for them. I'm afraid you may not find joy here

[JonasB]

3 hours ago, dadistic said:

These are high speed/low torque motors, and you'd have to find pulleys for them. I'm afraid you may not find joy here

Yes, that is definitely a negative there… the only reason I really like that one is because of how extremely quiet it runs. Do you have any good alternatives/recommendations in mind?

 

[dadistic]

Just the Sherline motor, I have one attached to a Sherline lathe, and I run my lathe in an apartment (townhouse actually) too. So far no complaints. 

Cheers!

[JonasB]

On 8/23/2022 at 8:52 PM, dadistic said:

Just the Sherline motor, I have one attached to a Sherline lathe, and I run my lathe in an apartment (townhouse actually) too. So far no complaints. 

Cheers!

Ended up just ordering the sherline motor in the end. Thanks for the input!

[JonasB]

On 8/23/2022 at 8:52 PM, dadistic said:

Just the Sherline motor, I have one attached to a Sherline lathe, and I run my lathe in an apartment (townhouse actually) too. So far no complaints. 

Cheers!

@dadistic do you have any recommendations for the motor mount? I'm setting it up in combination with a countershaft and vertical drive. Best I found was just two L shaped brackets, but I dont like how "rough" it looks

[dadistic]

Sherline sells the motor bracket as a separate part - 

https://www.sherline.com/product/motor-bracket/

You already have the standoffs, right?

If you leave the belt guard off,  and don't mount the speed control on the guard, the bracket should work in a vertical position. I've attached a picture of how it mounts to my lathe horizontally, hope that gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. 

Cheers!

 

[JonasB]

@dadistic so I actually did not end up getting the stand as I was not sure about how I will deal with the mounting - I will require a vertical drive so buying a countershaft will be necessary. I will likely go with this one from ebay for the vertical drive, but I still need a countershaft so that I can power the headstock as well as the vertical drive. If I do that, then I do not need to raise the motor from the base (if I do not raise it a few inches the polyurethane belt hits the frame of the headstock)

[dadistic]

I'm not sure what you mean by vertical drive (the ebay link didn't work).  By standoffs, I meant the pieces that the screws go through to hold the bracket away from the motor to allow space for the pulleys. 

Sounds like you're making progress!

 

[JonasB]

@dadisticOh yeah sorry. The setup I'm going to go for will likely be more like this https://mb.nawcc.org/threads/help-with-watchmakers-lathe-motor.97264/#lg=post-736339&slide=0. Regarding the vertical drive, I basically need to power a similar attachment than the one discussed in this thread 

 

[dadistic]

Ah, I get it now.  Milling head for gear cutting, etc. 

Sounds like you're going for a pretty elaborate setup! 

Cheers