Lathe Station

 I had  my new lathe station  on Lumberjocks and in my shop photos and found that I have upgraded a lot since  then.  I wanted a station where I can keep most of my lathe equipment in one place. The old lathe stand was rickety when turning anything big and the drawer suspension broke on one side and helped me make the decision to build this new one. I had been thinking about it on paper for while and wanted to get a lot of stuff incorporated in there. I welded the frame to fit the Old Craftsman lathe and was drawing out the lower case with 4 wooden drawers to put inside the frame for storage. Then I went to Employee Sales at Steelcase and they had these roll around peds with 2 drawers each, full travel ball bearing suspensions and locks. They were only $15 each and 15" wide. I had to fill 46" so I bought 3 of them and fitted the drawers and frame with oak trim. The metal drawers had flush pulls which are too hard for me to open so I bought some black wrought iron pulls that you can easily get your hand into. I added a kill switch to the right front of the lathe so I can kill the power if the piece decides it wants to fly out and I don't want to get in its way to shut off the power.
 
I mounted a light and I wanted it to travel along the length of the lathe so I can position it anywhere. I put it on 2 rails made from 3/4" conduit. I used one flexible goose neck and a wooden stand with a lamp pipe in the center so I can really tighten it up.

I have all the drawers full of accessories I use when turning. I mounted a storage rack on the left top above the motor for all the things I use all the time. There are two banjos on it so  can turn on either side of the steady rest on a long piece. There is a 3 wheel and a 4 wheel steady rest . The 4 wheel allows me to use the laser on top of the boring bar for hollowing with the rest on. I made a 72 Hole index wheel for the back side. There are two boring bars ( not shown)- one is the articulated type.

I  added some shots of the roll around tool storage rack and it keeps getting added to.
This I will put in my workshop photos on here when Martin gets the workshop Tab created.

This is how it started:

The Steady Rests

The sliding light rails

The rolling tool storage

The face plate has been modified with a 1/8" pin in the center so you can remove a piece and position it back right on center. It is use now!

Cheers, Jim