Many years ago I bought my NOVA DVR XP lathe and though about making a stand for it. I made this about 13 years ago, but never bothered to publish it at LumberJocks. With all the flack I get about my nightie and pink boots here, I thought I'd retaliate by inundating yazall with boring projects... but I keep forgetting I can't make people read it... damn.
The time has come, if only to extoll the virtues of my Leigh FMT jig that I used to create the mortice and tenons (M&Ts).
As always, it started off in SketchUp… albeit somewhat mundane, as I was still coming to grips with the software.
My first draft only covered the stand itself,
designed around M&T joins,
Armed with the FMT and router, the M&Ts were routed,
and started to assemble,
Put some heavy duty casters on the base,
(hell… the $18 tag on the wheels dates this… they are $40+ nowadays).
Mounted the lathe,
and confirmed it seemed stable enough with the extender bed extended,
Quickly realised while rolling it around that two swivels and two fixed wheels were not the optimum configuration as it refused to go where I "steered" it. With the weight, how was I to swap out the wheels as I couldn’t be bothered to dismount the lathe. Managed to slide my mobile tray under it, crank it up,
to replace the two fixed wheels… phew.
But something was missing,
… the stand was angled so I could fit my toes under it and the gut closer to the bed… what, what, WHAT? No storage drawers!
Off to SketchUp again…
bing, bang, boom
and got a tad fancy with my Ozzie Doweling Jig,
It suddenly downed on me that I may not have room in the drawers for any paraphernalia due to the invasion of shavings from the back,
and through the magic of SketchUp, remedial action was instigated and the chasm was sealed,
leaving plenty of room for incidentals,
The stand has stood firm for these past years without falter, however, I attribute that through not abusing it with any introduction of that morbid pollutant I have alienated, called a bowl (ugh)!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
It is more than enough for what I need... I have turned some large logs in the past... but never tried anything totally out of balance like for a large, ugh-ugh-ugh bowl. It is quite heavy... though a lot of that is attributed to the lathe... with it's extra bed extension and swing away. Fill the drawers with chucks and large colletes,
and if push comes to shove, I could weigh the top drawer down, take bottom drawer out and put some sand bags, from my sand blaster, on the bottom shelf... however, I've never had to really think about it as its always been stable enough for me, and I only made this up to answer your question.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Superb! Do those casters lock down well enough to keep you from pushing it around while turning (like a dog pushing its food dish until it finds a corner to keep it still)?
The pine is nice, but the particle board you used in you SU design has more bling! Looks to be stout as people I have seen in the free government cheese lines!
Had two free wheeling casters at first that I changed to lockable... once locked it just refuses to move.. even if lured with Good-o's There's enough weight that the nylon wheels will not budge over concrete... until I get my boots to unlock the brakes... too hard with thongs (flip flops, not mankini).
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Asked trade tools for replacements and they told me the wheels have been on back order for years and suggested i look elsewhere, mind you they still sell the scissor trolleys!
