While waiting for my PM-833TV to arrive. I used suggested dimensions from this forum to design a bench and enclosure for the mill. I am thinking of building the bench with 2x4 construction and use a few 2x4’s sistered together to form a 5th leg directly under the mill to help support the weight. Here is a quick sketch: Fusion
Please let me know if you have any thoughts to help improve this design.
Thanks… Richard
any kind of mass you can add to a base will dampen vibrations and improve your machining experience with the machine. wood is a cheap solution but not much weight is added.
you might want to add some leveling feet with rubber pads to help dampen vibrations. this should help a little bit, i have seen people weld up steel fames and then fill with regular concrete to add mass to machines. as long as the only goal to is to add mass regular concrete is a cheap solution. a Bridgeport mill has about 2,200lbs of weight to them for some reference. that’s about the lightest machine you would see in a commercial setting.
concrete does not replace cast iron by any means. concrete is not something that can be done with the same precision as cast iron just because it shrinks quite a bit. but fine for adding some weight cheaply. epoxy granite is another option but it’s not a cheap one. epoxy prices are expensive, it does dampen vibration well and does not shrink like regular concrete but it’s expensive.
leveling feet with casters are a good choice too if you think you have to move the machine around at any point too.
Thanks for your thoughts… Richard