From The Workshop: Mini Lathe Series Part II - Lathe Stand
This was written on the second of May, 2020. For timeline
tracking, it has been backdated to the day the lathe stand was completed.
When I bought the lathe, I knew I would need somewhere to put it. While it is nominally portable enough to use at the kitchen table, metal work makes such a mess that the idea was a non-starter. I thought I had a good place picked out in the basement, but I ended up changing my mind when I realized how much sawdust would end up in the ways and leadscrews.
I looked around and settled on a spot in the "clean" side of the basement underneath the stairwell. I did some drafting and settled on a final size for the lathe stand. I went shopping for some lumber, but the dimensional lumber supply was horrendous and i ended up scavenging most of the stock from my dwindling supply of well seasoned pieces. The lack of extra lumber would play into troubles down the road... (dun dun duhhhhhh)
I thought things were going to be a breeze, since I knew I had a good jig for making beautiful and precise 1/4" box joints. I started with the drawers (the most expensive and unenjoyable part of the project) and here things quickly went pear shaped. During the winter, the jig seized up and in the process of breaking it free, I must have tweaked the tolerances so none of the joints lined up. Of course, I just dived in and started cutting on the actual stock, rather than a test piece, so I had to do some fast thinking. (On a side note, if I ever write an autobiography or how-to book, the title is going to be Everything is F****d)
I rebuilt the jig, hoping to tighten it up, but I was only able to get it to less than half the tolerance of before. it was good enough to get the joints to fit, but I ended having to use little splints between the loose fingers to get the glue surfaces to meet. It was not pretty, but it worked.
The drawer pieces I screwed up on I was able to recover by cutting off the bad box joints and then splitting the drawer front and back in half and adding a center "box" to make up for the width I lost re-cutting the joint.
I moved onto the frame, and started with the drawer slide dados. Everything went great there and I was feeling pretty good going into the joinery work. Knowing that the tolerances were pretty loose, I expected a bit of missmatch and a tough build. To my surprise, the joints were actually relatively decent. I managed to break a carbide tooth off on a loose knot, but the joints actually got cleaner so meh...
Isn't it pretty?
Well, things don't always go as planned. Some chucklehead screwed something up and cut the joints in a vertical backwards. I glued the joint together straight, then cut it open with a thin-kerf saw to save the vertical. I would need to remake the horizontal frame member, but it's a lot easier to mill up another simple frame piece than to remill all the drawer-slide dados.
I recut the box joint into the glued up joint.
I think I blocked the memories out, but I have a recollection of screwing up the joint a second time and having to fix it again. I don't really want to talk about it.
Glueup went as well as could be expected with the loose joints:
I milled up some feet for the stand and a bottom shelf from more scrap lumber and plywood. The plywood was a little short, so I added a strip of 1/8" scrap plywood to fill the gap. One melamine top (attached very poorly) later, and we had the makings of a lathe stand.
Installing the drawers took a bit of work, but a day's work later and I had a beautiful lathe stand.
I picked up these nice handles on amazon and they really tie the whole look together.
Part of the reason to build the enclosure and stand was to make cleanup easier. I used a dust hood for woodworking machines to build a chute and collector for metal chips on the left side of the stand.
It works really well as all I have to do is sweep the chips off the ways and table with a brush straight into the chute. I have a different plastic container for each type of metal in case I ever have enough to justify bringing to a scrap yard for recycling.
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Lathe Stand and Enclosure
When I bought the lathe, I knew I would need somewhere to put it. While it is nominally portable enough to use at the kitchen table, metal work makes such a mess that the idea was a non-starter. I thought I had a good place picked out in the basement, but I ended up changing my mind when I realized how much sawdust would end up in the ways and leadscrews.
I looked around and settled on a spot in the "clean" side of the basement underneath the stairwell. I did some drafting and settled on a final size for the lathe stand. I went shopping for some lumber, but the dimensional lumber supply was horrendous and i ended up scavenging most of the stock from my dwindling supply of well seasoned pieces. The lack of extra lumber would play into troubles down the road... (dun dun duhhhhhh)
I thought things were going to be a breeze, since I knew I had a good jig for making beautiful and precise 1/4" box joints. I started with the drawers (the most expensive and unenjoyable part of the project) and here things quickly went pear shaped. During the winter, the jig seized up and in the process of breaking it free, I must have tweaked the tolerances so none of the joints lined up. Of course, I just dived in and started cutting on the actual stock, rather than a test piece, so I had to do some fast thinking. (On a side note, if I ever write an autobiography or how-to book, the title is going to be Everything is F****d)
I rebuilt the jig, hoping to tighten it up, but I was only able to get it to less than half the tolerance of before. it was good enough to get the joints to fit, but I ended having to use little splints between the loose fingers to get the glue surfaces to meet. It was not pretty, but it worked.
The drawer pieces I screwed up on I was able to recover by cutting off the bad box joints and then splitting the drawer front and back in half and adding a center "box" to make up for the width I lost re-cutting the joint.
I moved onto the frame, and started with the drawer slide dados. Everything went great there and I was feeling pretty good going into the joinery work. Knowing that the tolerances were pretty loose, I expected a bit of missmatch and a tough build. To my surprise, the joints were actually relatively decent. I managed to break a carbide tooth off on a loose knot, but the joints actually got cleaner so meh...
Isn't it pretty?
Well, things don't always go as planned. Some chucklehead screwed something up and cut the joints in a vertical backwards. I glued the joint together straight, then cut it open with a thin-kerf saw to save the vertical. I would need to remake the horizontal frame member, but it's a lot easier to mill up another simple frame piece than to remill all the drawer-slide dados.
I recut the box joint into the glued up joint.
I think I blocked the memories out, but I have a recollection of screwing up the joint a second time and having to fix it again. I don't really want to talk about it.
Glueup went as well as could be expected with the loose joints:
I milled up some feet for the stand and a bottom shelf from more scrap lumber and plywood. The plywood was a little short, so I added a strip of 1/8" scrap plywood to fill the gap. One melamine top (attached very poorly) later, and we had the makings of a lathe stand.
Installing the drawers took a bit of work, but a day's work later and I had a beautiful lathe stand.
I picked up these nice handles on amazon and they really tie the whole look together.
Part of the reason to build the enclosure and stand was to make cleanup easier. I used a dust hood for woodworking machines to build a chute and collector for metal chips on the left side of the stand.
It works really well as all I have to do is sweep the chips off the ways and table with a brush straight into the chute. I have a different plastic container for each type of metal in case I ever have enough to justify bringing to a scrap yard for recycling.
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