So yesterday I got to thinking to myself.  Rather than half baked( ing a work bench like the two previous times.  I thought I would build a decent bench for the wood lathe the way I wanted it to turn out.  I spent roughly 70 dollars on materials building materials are getting quite expensive these days.  How ever I spent 300 dollars less than if I were to out right buy that husky work bench.  Even then it wouldn't have come out on my list.

 

Materials used....

 

2 4 x 4s cut down to 31 inches in length.

4 2x4s cut to 5 Feet in length with off cuts

1 2 foot by 4 foot 3/4 inch thick piece of ply board.

 

I had them cut everything to length over at home depot this morning due to the simple fact I do not have a vehicle big enough to carry the full length materials.  Either way that done.  I started this project at noon today and just wrapped up.  I dismantled the half baked bench I had put together origionally and put the new bench almost in place.  I still need to run back over to home depot again and grab some bolts so I can bolt the lathe down to the bench itself.  It is also sturdy enough that I could probably leave it free standing, how ever with a risk of it possibly falling over I think I will pre plan and go ahead and secure it to the wall studs in the shed.  I'm interested to know what you guys think.  Please be warned this thread is PHOTO HEAVY if your internet can not handle it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the open section under the ways at the center. Can't tell from the pictures but is it fastened to the wall? 

Yes and I finally got the the lathe bolted down as well I've got to brace it more to the wall than it is currently.  So still some work on it yet.  But at least the bench is so far the way I want it.

That is one hefty lathe bench 

Paul

To be fair I didn't want a bench that would collapse on itself.  The lathe to be fair as well weights 386 pounds.  I built it stocky purposely LOL.

Edited December 2, 20205 yr by AndrewB

Great bench Andrew.  I would have put stringers across the legs, but all of the pt lumber I get around here is dripping wet when we get it. 

That's one solid looking bench, nice work. Very timely post as it happens that I'm looking at building a bench - been getting away with sitting my Rockler mini-lathe on top of my (height-adjustable) workbench, but thinking that it's time it had it's own stand as it's a little heavy to be moving all the time. Have to put mine on casters though as it needs to move as I need the space.  Any plans to put some storage between the center and right-side legs?

Well with the lathe set up on the bench and bolted in place.  Even with the lathes short comings I put the bench through the running test this morning.  It worked out quite well...  No vibrations... No wobbling.  All around it was quite stable.  So I expect that bench could probably even handle a bigger lathe Id say with some minor adjustments to it.  The bench fully supports the 386 pound harbor freight lathe no problems.  Not to mention the double bonus of the lathe doing exactly what I want and operating the way I want it to.  I can access underneath the bench easy to get to the banjo bolts.   So I'm happy with the bench.  It was worth the money and time to build it correctly.   Some more improvements on the legs with support could probably do but I will get that done at some point.

That is a great bench and idea of banjo access is a great one.  I do have one concern regarding the bridge of the lathe ways.  It seems without physical support, that the ways may flex and bend slightly over time.  I don't know and cannot speak  with any experience, but it just seems physically possible over time.  Otherwise, great job.  Oh, another thing I would do is overbuild.  I would attach that bench to the wall when you get a piece of wood out of balance or a large piece.  JMHO

So with the new lathe that came in yesterday I had to do a bit of re design on this bench in order to accommodate the bench top delta lathe.  So I re worked things kept going until about 9 pm last night and called it quits.  How ever I finished off this morning with a double bonus the new bench grinder wound up showing up and I had the perfect spot for it.  Still I have to get some longer bolts to fully lock down the lathe to the bench itself but that shouldn't be too huge of an issue.  How ever I think it looks a little bit better the way it is now just got to level out the lathe on the bench and re secure the bench to the wall studs.  That wen grinder was bigger than I thought it was going to be but it will do the job nicely.

 

 

Lookin' Good!

 

Don't forget to unplug that soldering iron near those wood chips (don't ask how I know this)!

Oh I already found that out the hard way LOL.  I make sure everything is unplugged entirely to include the plug for the surge protectors.

Great job Andrew! Just a heads up, I edited and inserted white space between all your images, they kind of all ran together and it was hard to view when one image stopped and the next one began, at least for my older eyes.

Thanks @John Morris I'm still not fully sure why this platform on any forum site likes to do that.  Sometimes pictures wind up in the actual thread itself when they should remain in the attached images section.  Just glitchy programing I guess. 

6 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

Thanks @John Morris I'm still not fully sure why this platform on any forum site likes to do that.  Sometimes pictures wind up in the actual thread itself when they should remain in the attached images section.  Just glitchy programing I guess. 

 

It's not glitchy Andrew, the images are to be used in the post, the one thing you need to do is space "Enter" each image as you insert them into the post, and you can insert them in any order you wish, they don't have to be inserted in the order you uploaded them. If you upload "files" such as .pdf or .txt etc, those attachments will stay in the topic at the bottom of the topic in the form of a file attachment, then folks can download directly from your topic, but when it comes to images, they need to be inserted still into your topic or post manually if you want them to appear nicely, if you just upload the images, and create your topic, they will display in the order they were uploaded, and without white space, I hope this makes sense.  

Ah makes sense now still learning this forum type still thanks.

9 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

still learning this forum type still thanks.

Me too Andrew.

Once your images are uploaded, click on each image you want to insert, and it will populate where ever your text cursor was last, again, you can insert images out of order as well.

@John Morris also it is great if you accidently knock yourself off the forum while posting you can just go back to the same thread and your composition will be saved ready to post. Thanks for that and don't ask me how many times it has saved my bacon.

28 minutes ago, Gerald said:

it is great if you accidently knock yourself off the forum while posting you can just go back to the same thread and your composition will be saved ready to post.

Found that one out early early on.  It is an auto save feature.

1 hour ago, Gerald said:

Thanks for that and don't ask me how many times it has saved my bacon.

Me Too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!