The legs you made up will have far less strength than the legs that came with the stand.  You need to at the very least add some plywood bracing from the cross piece to the legs for more rigidity.  Screws into end grain do not have much holding power.  Be careful.

 Andrew I think the issue with the base could be the location of the pad in relationship to the legs. The pictures I've looked at show the legs mounted to the outside of the pad, this may help with the holes lining up. With the lathe mounted to the base this puts the outside of the legs (left & right when looking at it) 90 degrees to the lathe.

 The picture I posted allowed the guy to mount a box below the shelf and loaded his ballast in there. The cabinet was built to calm his concerns of weak legs. Pic is from LJ. Hope this helps. 

 

The stand did not fit the lathe at all.  It was too small for the lathe unfortunately so now I have to re do a stand for it.  The other problem was the fact that nothing had lined up.  My concern with the weight was the simple fact of the stand not being long enough for the lathe nor lined up that the stand would just fold and collapse under the weight of the motor and housing.     Which is why I decided to just go back to the good old fashioned 2x4s at least I know those worked.

Nah I even measured the stand for it.  It doesn't fit fully assembled the box pieces were just too short which lead to the mount holes not lining up properly.  Either way new lathe bench in the works and half completed with enough done to actually show it.  It does semi look Half &$&$^$*.... But the last one I did was even worse and it held up quite well..  But this one I'm doing with an open middle so the wood shavings can just fall to the ground.  How ever I will be covering up the back side of it so they can't fall down underneath where I can't get in or wont be able to get in with a broom.  As far as the tool holder goes its working quite well and has held up.  Just some cut 1 1/2 inch PVC and some CA glue LOL....  No drills or screws necessary.  No pun intended but that was half baked just to get something in place LOL.  I will eventually be doing something a bit better once I get things fully in place.  But the way the tools are held is the general idea of things.  For now IT WORKS.  Yes I do have these secured to the studs.

Cool phone/camera mount

gooseneck phone holder for the iphone.... Amazon.

T hanks,

 

If the glue joints ever break on the PVC tube, Just drill a thru hole in the pipes, enlarge the front one to permit screw head access and secure with a screw through the back hole

 

I should have made a better bottom holder for these. Chips collect in the tube of the tool I'm using. Shop vac will clean it. Just something that happens when I don't think far enough ahead.

Yea I'm planning on doing that as well.  I wanted to get the pvc up on the 2x4 to see how it was going to look as well.  I've also got to pick up an extension for my drill.

16 minutes ago, lew said:

 

I should have made a better bottom holder for these. Chips collect in the tube of the tool I'm using. Shop vac will clean it. Just something that happens when I don't think far enough ahead.

Lew the PVC racks I have made I either tilts back leaving a crack at the flat bottom . Also did one with a narrow strip across the bottom to allow chips thru. 

Yea with the inch and a half PVC pipe I didn't need to have something holding at the bottom the pipe actually holds the tools quite fine.   It wouldn't do for my easy start set but it does work for that.  I also found a dust collector that I'm planning on investing in seeing the fact that I need one.  

2 hours ago, Gerald said:

Lew the PVC racks I have made I either tilts back leaving a crack at the flat bottom . Also did one with a narrow strip across the bottom to allow chips thru. 

If I'd have been thinking ahead... but thats me- about 2 clowns short of a circus.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by lew

Well sadly what I was planning with the 2x4s did not pan out.  Its either I go back to something similar to what I had or I wont be wood turning until the 30th or later.  I'm just considering out right buying a table for it.  Just such a pain to not get the right materials with the thing in the first place.

I still think if you would loosen ALL the bolts that hold the HF frame together, there will be enough play in the stand that the lathe will fit. You could loosen them and use a tape measure to see if it will work. No need to move the lathe until you test the theory.

 

HF only has one full sized lathe on their website so it is doubtful if they would have sent the wrong size.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by lew

I just decided to not use it....  In the long run for me its more of just a safety hazard that I wouldn't risk..  Knowing the kind of stuff I've thrown together that looks like junk but is functional has worked quite well.  The full sized lathe was the correct size.  The stand that came with it how ever unfortunately was NOT the correct size.  It was too short for the lathe.  Either way no matter on that now.  I'm about done with the new lathe bench.  Its back to almost the way it was before but a bit smaller.  Once I figured out how to do the legs for it I was good to go.  Glad I cut the angles into them.  Put them together in a triangle form and that should give it pretty sturdy support.  I've still got a few more legs to put in to make sure that when the bulk of the weight of the lathe gets onto it that its secure enough to move onto it.

A bit of good news.  For the most part bench is complete and done and about as level as I can get it.  Either way  I've still got some clean up to do and sweeping.  Get rid of the scrap pieces of 2x4s haha my yard waste bin is pretty full of that stuff hopefully the waste collection guy doesn't get too poed at me when all those get dumped into the back of the truck next Monday.  But I still want to get a small sheet of plyboard and put it in the front of the bench to close that area underneath of it off.  But I have to wait until the 30th to do that.    The old HF stand for the lathe YES got thrown in the trash  Wont be using that ever again so why keep it.  If HF was smart about this theyd have ya build your own bench instead of selling cheap crap.  But bench complete it will be a pain in the rear to clean out the lathe bed track but that's okay I don't mind I'll be investing in a shop vac soon enough.  I also have on order a heat lamp from home depot that should be here hopefully before November 10th how ever that should hopefully keep me some what warm in the winter out working....

Edited October 21, 20205 yr by AndrewB

3 hours ago, AndrewB said:

scrap pieces of 2x4s

What, you're not turning them?

I don't think it would be a good idea to turn 2x4s because they tend to break off quite easily. So I don't use them.