Lathe Stand Modular Extension?

If there is room directly under the top, you could fashion a pull out extension (torsion box style) and a flip out support brace on the end that would reach the end of the pull out (hinged at the base of the cart).
I'd think setting up a free standing support would get tiresome if you move the cart around a lot.

It also depends on what all you want on your lathe stand, beyond just an extension. Mine is built to be all-in-one. Not just a stand for the lathe, but also storage cabinet space for turning stock, drawers for storing turning tools, etc, and I mounted a slow speed grinder on it with a sharpening jig. I tied all the power into a fused junction box style power center so I can move the stand into position, plug in one plug and the whole stand is hot. Lathe, lights, grinder, it’s all ready to go.

That said, when you’re considering a bed extension, consider the stand as a whole. Is it just a lathe stand? Then where are you going to keep everything else? Is it a lathe station? In that case, where will it be positioned when you use it…and how much room will you have around it? Does it become a 360° work space (which is nice because you can possibly walk behind the lathe to sharpen and not lose the deck space), etc. If you position certain elements on the stand, be sure other elements can still function (don’t stick something at the end of the bed that makes it hard to take the tail stock all the way off the bed, etc). If you’re going to use external supports, keep in find that a bed extension has to be flush and coplaner with the bed, otherwise your centers are off. It’s not something you just toss on or fold up into position and ‘it works’.

What I’m saying is: future cast the the whole thing, including actually using it as well as storing it, so you’ll understand what it should actually look like in a perfect world.

Mine isn’t perfect, but the compromises I made were because of space. That said, it works well for me. (FWIW - I never use the extension so I didn’t build space for it

@RyanGi thanks for the thorough response. Sorry I sorta fell out of touch on the emails we were exchanging back in the Fall, my home workshop has been in a unusable state this whole time with remodeling, so it reached a point at which the only thing thinking about it did was cause me impatience. Hope you’re doing well!

Here’s my current train of thought- although the more I think the more I reopen old questions- so this might be a little messy. I’ve actually written out a blog post on most of this stuff but I’ve been having some technical issues with posting it.

I share my home workshop with my father in my parents’ basement. The shop isn’t particularly big, so everything is best kept mobile so it can be moved out of the way when it’s not the tool in use. My father disapproved of getting the lathe, and any time it’s been in his way it leads to me getting yelled at, so it’s critical I come up with a solution that minimizes inconvenience. While I could see building a bigger cart and permamently leaving the bed extension on if I had unlimited space, I don’t, so it’s a question of keeping the footprint compact.

Moreover, in all honesty, I didn’t even buy this lathe for woodturning, crazy as it sounds. I bought it because my speargun project research led me to multiple examples where a DIY’d jig, run on a lathe, would be a better choice than other tools. The current plan is basically to treat this lathe like a mini-ShopSmith: using it as a versatile motor with modular mounting options to build a variety of jigs that will be powered by it.

With that said- I’ve always been curious about woodturning so now that I have a lathe, I will eventually try some woodturning projects on it. Despite turning’s low priority, I’ve already had the forethought for much of what you’re describing with “how will the stand lend itself to turning projects” and the obvious question that raises, as you’ve shown, is pretty obviously “how will I sharpen my turning tools and where will that sharpening system go?”

I’m debating between an 8” bench grinder w/CBN wheels and a Tormek T-8. Outside of just sharpening gouges, the bench grinder won’t see use in my shop, whereas the T-8 and its many jigs will allow me to sharpen all our chisels, kitchen knives, etc too. Moreover, I saw some concerns throughout my research to the effect of “using a bench grinder right next to your lathe will throw metal dust onto your lathe that will serve as abrasive when moving the tailstock and put more wear on the bed” curious if you’ve been worried given how close your bench grinder is to your lathe? Anyways, the lower price and faster sharpening have been enough I haven’t fully made up my mind, but Im leaning tormek.

Early in my research on lathe stand solutions, I saw April Wilkerson’s design where the wet grinder (she has a wen tormek clone) is mounted on a stand-mixer type appliance lift so it can be hoisted out when needed:

I’m a bit skeptical about a grinder on a moving shelf like this, but given a Tormek weighs only about 60% of those appliance lift’s max supported weight, and is only moving at about 100RPM, it seems like a non-issue?

I just bought the plans she sells for this stand tonight (was only $9.99) and even if I use her design, I will be largely modifying it for some of my own preferences. But Im trying to figure out if it makes more sense for whatever add-on I make for the bed extension to touch the floor, or to be supported by the existing vertical beams and just hang further out.

If my earlier descriptions were unclear- I’m debating if it has its own floor support like this:

Or if I can get away with building off existing structure like this:

Couple unknowns: 

1) The lathe I have offers two different extensions, the 24” and 13.5”. Kinda seems like it might be possible to use them both together, the 24” against the OG bed and the 13.5” off it, but I want to call Rikon and find out. I’d want to build the support for the extension slightly more rigid if there was the possibility it could be supporting a second extension as well.

2) If I’m using leveling feet it could end up being a PITA to get the top of one structure flush with the top of the other one

3) Given I’m looking to save space, the wing solution wouldnt require a secondary smaller cart in the shop, and it would use less wood. But if I have to build a detachable standalone cart, I’d use it for storing my lathe jigs and stuff even when it wasnt attached.

You’ve always got to look at it from the standpoint of what works best for your shop. That said, Rikon makes a slow speed (half speed) bench grinder that works perfectly for sharpening HSS. And, since it’s got two wheels, you can put different CBN grits (or shapes) on each side…of course you won’t have a water bath, but that Rikon setup is cheaper than a Tormek (although maybe not cheaper than the clone). You can source quality CBN wheels for a good price and the setup works as advertised. You’ll need some sort of a jig to hold the tools, and there are options for that. 

The other potential (and much much cheaper option with a smaller footprint) is a WorkSharp 3000. It’ll do chisel blades, plane blades, and you can freehand carving gouges and turning tools from underneath. It works really well. I’ve got one set up on my workbench that I use for chisels and plane blades all the time. I went with the grinder because I wanted something stationary on the lathe and with a proper lathe tool jig…but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to go. Lots of options, and many of them have variable uses. 

Do you think I’m gonna regret it if I DO choose to spend for a Tormek T-8? Do you think it’ll feel “too slow”?

I’ve seen StumpyNubs video of restoring a chisel in less than 4 minutes on the Tormek, but I still don’t have a great appreciation for how often I’ll actually need to resharpen tools as I turn.

I don’t think you’ll ever truly regret purchasing high end tools. But they come with high end prices and that can limit the purchase of other tools…high end or not. Reshaping a not-destroyed turning tool take less than two minutes, especially if you’re sharpening station is well set up. More time is spent setting the tool in the jig than actually sharpening. When I am using the same turning gouge and sharpen it a couple times (ie- the jig remains set), I can put a new edge on it in less than 30 seconds and be back to turning.

If you freehand it, it’ll take even less (of course free handing has its own limitations). I prefer to use a jig for all sharpening so that I get consistent angles and know what I’ve got on the tool. 

That said, different tools are sharpened differently, using different angles or compound angles, and different grits. Changing angles or shapes changes how the tool works against the wood. Chisels and plane blade take a flat, fine edge (and sometimes a micro bevel) and can be revived just by honing them on a strop with some polishing compound. Turning tools take a less fine edge , often with compound angles, and need a tune-up sharpening, as opposed to honing. Honing is done freehand on leather  since it’s not actually removing material and is very forgiving…but a great way to quickly refresh a tool.

The reality is that the grinding wheel, of whatever type, is only one piece to the puzzle, although it has its own important considerations. While some guys freehand their sharpening, I find much better results with jigs (as I’ve mentioned), especially since I don’t do it all the time. If you’re using and sharpening the tools every day, sure, you’d probably get pretty good freehand. That’s not me.

My personal opinion on tools is that I’m willing to spend big(ger) money on tools I’ll use all the time, and less money on tools I’ll use less…sometimes, cheap chineseum tools are the way to go, especially for one-off uses. It’s hard to buy tools when you don’t know how much you’ll use them. While it sucks to buy a tool twice, (I think) it sucks more to drop double or triple the cash on a tool and then have it just sit unused while you can’t afford other tools as a result. I didn’t buy a Tormek because I don’t use hand tools all the time and wanted multiple grit CBN wheels…and couldn’t stomach dropping the coin on that model Tormek. That said, I did buy a middle-quality low speed grinder (Rikon) and spend good cash on CBN wheels and a jig because I do use my hand tools enough that I want them well cared for. I already own a standard bench grinder (so that would be the cheapest method), two actually, but the high wheel speeds will mess up the HSS and I use my tools too much to fiddle with that.

Like I said, each shop has its own needs (and budget) and only you can sort that out for yourself…at least you’ve got this site to help you along with that! Going at it alone just means wasting money and poor results, as me how I know!…

 I do not have one, but I consider the Tormek as more of a fine honing tool.  I would love to have one but from what I have read, one problem with the Tormek as your only sharpening tool is that it is rather slow when you want to reshape an edge and if you really get into turning, you will eventually need or want to reshape an edge.  That is true with other tools you might use it with as well.  If you want to fix or change the bevel of chisels or hand plane irons, you could be there a while if you do all of the work on the Tormek.  That said, you can do the main shaping using a coarse stone or diamond plate and then switch to the Torkmek for final honing and resharpening. 
Personally, I do not like hollow ground (honed) edges so I use either flat stones or a belt grinder/sharpener for most things.   My belt grinder is the Sorby Proedge which is designed for turning but can be used for chisels and plane irons as well.  Before I bought the Proedge, I used my belt sander the same way I now use the Proedge using some DIY jigs.  I keep thinking about getting a Worksharp 3000 but have managed to step away from the keyboard several times and later took it out of my shopping cart.  Horizontal bench space is an issue in my shop.