Small lathe, what kind of stand (if any)?

[AVTUR]

 Bill - Yes

That was the day when the lathe was installed. The electrics were not quite finished. Ther is now a baking tray holding various oil containers and the back board has a few spanners and a clipboard on it.

I thought about putting up a computer monitor screen (but that is in the future).

Jo - I do not find the cover annoying but it can get in the way.

AVTUR

I see that the baking tray had already been "installed".

[Jo]

Out of interest I have just measured a couple of my "watchmakers" lathes:

Cowells distance to centre of spindle, when mounted on the cast base: about 8"

Schaublin 70 on standard bench mounting base 7 1/2" - these would normally have a cast tray of about 1/2" so again around 8" to the centre line.

Jo - I do not find the cover annoying but it can get in the way.

Give it time  wait until you want to hold something that needs to poke out through the end of the spindle and that cover is in the way 

Jo

[BillTodd]

FYI   I made my bench from a high quality "brown wood" dresser with a few additions to improve mobility and stiffness.   

I started with a very well built piece I got off of "Marketplace" for $50.   It's all tongue and groove with hardwood dovetail drawers with a big door cubby in the middle which worked well for me

I then built a back splash with tooling shelves.     I also added angle iron braces to the legs and on that added stout leveling casters.    It worked out great for my SB 9
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,10387.0.html

Dave

That looks great 

[Roger B]

Give it time  wait until you want to hold something that needs to poke out through the end of the spindle and that cover is in the way 

Jo

I've had that with the Hobbymat, a long piece of stock that goes through the belt cover so you cannot open it to change speeds  Usually I want to increase the speed for drilling so it is not too much of a problem.

[mklotz]

Another generalized bench hint...

Long (several feet) power strips are a great addition to any bench but don't make the mistake of mounting it at the rear of the bench.  Done so, the cables to the hand tools powered by the strip will be lashing around through the mess on the bench as the tool is used.  Rather, mount the strip under the bench top overhang at the front of the bench so cables can dangle in front and not foul with stuff on the bench top.  Being under the overhang, the strip will be protected from bench top swarf and sweepings.

And yes, every bench top should have a frontal overhang so that tools and jigs and such can be clamped to the bench.

[crueby]

Power strips on top of the bench are a bad idea in general, since chips will find their way into the openings... 
Best to have them underneath, facing down, like Marv said!

[steamer]

Power strips on top of the bench are a bad idea in general, since chips will find their way into the openings... 
Best to have them underneath, facing down, like Marv said!

YUP   my strip is up top and behind the rear wall, along with a USB charge port.....just for that reason.

[tghs]

the photo of my lathe "desk" power strip is mounted high on the left side,, you can see I did raise the back unit about six inches as things were to low when first put together.. a port for a hose to set up a chip sucker would be a nice add,, all in all the unit works well and was made from salvage so it only cost me time...

[BillTodd]

Just mocked-up a test with existing bits of 4040 to test height etc

The stuff is remarkable rigid and heavy.  Im probably not going to use that slab of aluminium as a top , it was just s handy size.

[crueby]

We used that stuff back in my w*rking days, really handy for making up prototype machines. Also used the smaller 2020 version for desktop printer test fixture frames.

[redhouseluv]

FYI   I made my bench from a high quality "brown wood" dresser with a few additions to improve mobility and stiffness.   

I started with a very well built piece I got off of "Marketplace" for $50.   It's all tongue and groove with hardwood dovetail drawers with a big door cubby in the middle which worked well for me

I then built a back splash with tooling shelves.     I also added angle iron braces to the legs and on that added stout leveling casters.    It worked out great for my SB 9
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,10387.0.html

Dave

The local hardwood off cut shop near me bought up all the wood from a bowling alley when it needed refurbishing. The section you can see cost me £50 and what is shown is after being shortened both in length and width (these were used to create a short backboard prevent things fall down). The sections from the start of lanes are made from harder wood than the rest as this is where the bowling bowls initially makes contact - makes sense right?

It makes a rock solid workbench, however, a word of warning, it's unbelievably heavy being 62mm thick; my son and I were exhausted after manhandling it for day!

Apparently they are also popular with bar owners ........ hmmmmm, I wonder 

[BillTodd]

I've settled on the basic design, using bits and pieces to hand.

The width of the frame (600mm) is determined by the black anodised motor plate . This can slide up and down the rear uprights to adjust the belt

There are  adjustable feet to add 40-100mm to the height. 

I'm still thinking about the top  and how to make the counter shaft that'll take the belt from the headstock and motor .

[BillTodd]

A little progress

[BillTodd]

Update

I have swapped out the motor, as the original small one was unable to start at the highest gears.   The replacement is a very heavy 1/2hp Gryphon 

 Have added the electric vari speed motor so I can shift continuously from 300 to 2300 rpm with the push of a button (Hardinge style)