Lathe Stand

Ian_Owen

Member
I see many light duty stands for so called benchtop lathes, many are made of sheet metal some bigger lathes have solid cast base plinths, one for the headstock and one for the tailstock end, and others are on a monolithic base.

A machinery seller once told me a lathe he once bought could take some pretty good cuts and didn't seem to be affected by vibrations, it had a 3/16" full length base, like a lot of the L series Harrison lathes had, and the base was filled with concrete.

For a bench lathe, which is usually quite light, the light sheet metal bases aren't going to add anything to rigidity or absorb any vibrations and I haven't seen many bases for a bench lathe that I like the look of, until I saw this one.

The lathe is bolted to a length of PFC and the level/twist of the bed is adjusted out by jackscrews in angle iron welded to the ends of the PFC. The bit I like about this is that the location of the levelling screws makes it easy to adjust the lathe. Although I don't think it wouldn't do anything to reduce or absorb vibrations.

I have thought, what if two lengths of PFC were welded together to make a heavy walled box section and this section was filled with concrete, would it isolate the lathe and absorb some of the vibrations from the hollow steel frame?

What are some good designs for lathe stands for a "bench lathe"

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23704&stc=1&d=1592624300
 

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Nice setup Ian my 12-37 lathe is bolted to a piece of angle iron. 6 foot 3 inches long, 12 inches wide, 3 inches high and a 1/2 in thickness. It sits on top of CMU masonary blocks and it has served very me well for my own personal use. .
 
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