I'm leaning towards buying a nova 3000. Nova sells a heavy sheet metal stand as well as the pair of cast iron legs. Presumably the cast legs would be nicer, but is the sheet metal version good enough? Also I can't tell from Nova website whether the cast legs are suitable if using a bed extension. The long sheet metal stand is like a table across the top so provides support at the joint between bed sections. I can't really figure out what happens under the bed with the cast legs, Nova doesn't appear to have long and short bed kits for the cast legs. Your esteemed insights are eagerly awaited for :-) Thanks!
The stand for a Nova 3000 is the stand sold by the manufacturer. If you do not have their manual yet you can download it from their webside As stated in the manual (page 8) ?the larger the size of your turning the greater is the importance of the lathe stand design?. I have made one with oak timber that is wider at the base then the one shown on page 8 of their manual. I did not have to pay for the timber. At first a bill of material should be made for a steel and heavy timber stand. Then you can compare if you are going to build or buy one. You can salvage heavy wood pallets and use the timber to build your stand. Also you may be able to scrounge or buy some steel from your local scrap yard. A welded construction is preferred but a screw and lock washers will do the job.
I have the sheet metal extended stand. It's OK, I guess, but I'm not that experienced. I haven't done it yet, but it would be an easy modification to add a couple of pieces of angle stock and make a shelf to put sandbags on for more weight. The only anoying thing for me is the space between the lathe bed and the stand. It makes it difficult to tighten the banjo locking nut. I think that I'm going to raise the lathe a little to help with the back pain from long turning sessions. I'll do it by putting spacers between the lathe and the stand which should solve both problems.
I built mine from the plans in the Nova 3000 manual, except that I modified it somewhat. I used 2x6 fir boards that I had on hand. Instead of a solid flat piece under the lathe, I used two 2x6's spaced apart to the width of the lathe bench. This left a gap under the center of the lathe bed so that chips could fall trough and not build up under the lathe bed. I also built a box near the base that was the depth of the 2x6 and filled it with old iron I had laying around old hammer dies and railroad spikes. The legs were fabricated from several 2x6's so that there were three thicknesses of 2x6 thick. I've used it for several years and have turned some pretty good sized pieces on the lathe with no problems. Mine is completely assembled with bolts and lag screws.
You can download the Nova 3000 manual from Teknatool's web site at: . You can then build your stand before the lathe arrives.
Good luck, I think you are making a good decision, having owned both the CL-3 and the Nova 3000.
I did something similar with mine, but using 2x4s. Your modification of leaving a gap under the bed is a really good idea - I may pull mine back apart and cut a notch. In any case, I'm glad I didn't pony up the $$ for a real store-bought stand.
I haven't used either, but am somewhat familiar with both. The standard metal stand will work fine, but if you can comfortably afford the cost of the cast iron legs (last I heard they were going to cost slightly more), I'd go with the cast iron legs. My understanding is the Teknatool put a lot of thought into these, using computer modeling to arrive at the best design. Cast iron is more rigid and vibration absorbing than sheet metal, though to what extent this is meaningful will depend a lot on design.
The bed will be self supporting up to about 40 inches, so I wouldn't worry about the span. The bed sections are solidly joined by both large pins and bolts. It is true, that bolting the bed to another rigid surface will help strengthen the bed in general, but few surfaces are suitably rigid to make a difference (an I beam will make a difference, a 2 inch slab of maple will probably make a difference, but a typical sheet metal stand is not going to make a difference). For bed spans over
40 inches, you can use an additional cast iron leg.
Keep in mind that having nothing under the bed has its advantages, in that shavings are free to fall to the floor and not build up directly under the bed. Of course the downside is you loose a space to store your tools and anything that falls is going to drop a long ways and into the shavings. With some longer bolts you could likely develop your own hybrid design by placing a table top between the lathe bed and the cast iron legs. This is actually pretty close to what I did for my own bench, which involves a 2 inch maple bench top slab attached to the cast iron legs sold by Lee Valley. Then a constructed a carcase with drawers, and a torsion box filled with sand for fill the space below the top and between the cast iron legs.
As others have noted, there really are a lot of different approaches to mounting a lathe, and most of them are quite valid. However, as was mentioned, while building your own stand definitely had its own set of advantages, such an approach can often end up costing more than the manufacturers optional legs. At this point, I think the Teknatool cast iron legs look like winners, and would serve as a great foundation for any future enhancements you might want to make.
My DVR is bolted to a 500 lb. bench. I also have an outboard setup for the lathe. The cast irons legs would be better for me, now if I only had some more space. The bench collects a lot of shavings. It would certainly be better to dump those on the floor out of the way. Benches & stands are discussed in the Nova Owners Group.
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