1. Home
  2. Woodturning Crafts
  3. Wood lathe stands

Wood lathe stands

I am going to build a lathe stand for a Nova DVR 3000 based upon Teknatool's design in the DVR owner's manual but I am a bit concerned about the use of machine bolts and nuts to keep the pieces together. Has anyone ever use tension rods to keep the whole thing together? I would expect that tension rods would cause less racking of the stand but I would like to get some feedback on that. The plan calls for basically 2x8's for the lower strecher/rail. Would a single tension rod/stretcher suffice for the width of this board, or are two necessary? I would also use one on the top stretcher/rail as well for a total of 4 tension rods.

I would also like to add some leveling feet because my basement floor is uneven but are there such feet that can withstand the expected weight of the stand once all the sand gets added?

Does anyone know of way to also add some retractable casters that would permit one to move the stand around with relative ease?

Thanks for your help

DD

Reply to
Doug D
Loading thread data ...

Check the base shown at

formatting link
for the DVR3000.

Rick

Reply to
Rick

Don't know about the wooden stand, I made mine out of steel.

Rather than retract the casters, leave them soildly attached to the frame of the stand and raise and lower the leveling feet. Much easier to raise and lower a bolt than a caster. My DVR sits on a beefy steel stand, with a lower tray full of lead and sand - it is HEAVY. My retractable feet jack up each corner nearly effortlessly, and allow me to adjust the lathe stand to suit the floor wherever I place the lathe.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Piechowski

I like your idea of raising and lowering the feet as opposed to the casters. What kind of casters did you end up using? Regarding the adjustable feet, what was their adjustment range and where did you get them? I checked Lee Valley and they have both fixed casters and adjustable feet, but the adjustment range of the feet is less that the diameter of the smallest caster that can take any weight, so I would end up with a problem there I think. Thanks again for the advice. I will look at other suppliers.

Doug D

Reply to
Doug D

I don't know about castors but for adjustable feet you could do worse than check out the Hegner website

formatting link
I know its UK based but their feet are ruddy good, have masses of adjustment and also a 'anti vibe' section built in. I have a set of them on my own Hegner. The Hegner UK M.Dir. is the B (Roger Buse) in the VB bowl lathe, so he knows something about Lathes.

Tim GC aka The WobblyBootie

Reply to
Wobblybootie

Casters were harbor freight, and are junk. Spend a little more for quality stuff somewhere else. I'll be replacing mine one of these days...

The feet I made myself out of some bolts, nuts, springs and pipe I had laying around. They look sort of similar to the shop fox mobile tool base feet, only bigger. I have a range of about 1 inch on mine, which is fine for my garage and driveway. I only take the wheels just off the ground when turning, just high enough to have the feet take all the weight.

I have the wheels inside the stand and the feet outside, so that I could mount the feet lower than the axle of the wheel

Hope this helps

Mike

Reply to
Mike Piechowski

I've found that with rubber feet my lathe wobbled a lot more than with steel feet, so mine are steel now. Not elegant, not pretty, but perfectly functional.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Piechowski

Came across some adjustable feet at Lee Valley where one can use an allen wrench or similar key inerted into a recess in the bolt head to adjust the height of the leg. They also have utility casters that will likely do the job and I think I have figured out how to mount them all so they work. Appreciate the feedback and your great solution.

Doug D

Reply to
Doug D

I went for steel H section, 6x8 under the bed (with twin 1" square crossbars to bolt through welded flush with the top edges) 4x6 uprights and spreaders/bottom rail, with a built up rack/benchtop behind on the spreaders, for castors I got some 196-4977 footmaster castors from RS:

formatting link
Don't know if allied do them stateside or if you have to order them from the UK.Niel. Niel.

Reply to
njf>badge

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.