Custom Lathe Bench

I posted about this lathe when I purchased it over 1.5 years ago and it's been sitting under a sheet since then when covered it in lanolin oil to prevent any surface rust forming on the machined surfaces. The lathe came with a standard (and flimsy) bench which upon measuring it, was going to be far too low for me. I didn't want to be stooping over the lathe when working on it as it's not great for my lower back and posture.

The custom lathe bench design was pretty simple but had the following requirements :

• The bench height would ensure that the cross slide handle was at elbow height - for my 6'1" / 185cm height. This is generally what's accepted for a comfortable lathe height
• Have some space for a couple of toolboxes I purchased from my local hardware store
• A shelf at the bottom for the spare 4-jaw chuck & steadies
• Enough clearance to fit the engine crane legs under it for when I was lifting the lathe in place 
• Heavy & stiff to stop any movement of the lathe

The main feature of the bench is the massive 200x100x5mm beam that the lathe bolts to. This is called a spanning beam or torsional beam and it locates the lathe accurately and prevents any flex. The end steel 100x50x3mm with the lower shelf just standard 76x38 patio tube left over from my workbench. The large blue beam is actually hanging (welded) under the horizontal black tube so I put in some brace pieces - just to over-engineer it. It was all welded together with my MIG and I even maxed out the setting using the 0.6mm wire to weld the main beam on!

The bench (1320W x 890H x 450D) was easy to fabricate and after a wipe down with thinners, was painted the same colour as my workbench & paint booth. The lower shelf is just some MDF covered with 3mm masonite (same as my workbench top). Total weight is estimated at ~65kg, with the main beam weighing in at ~27kg alone. The lathe was lifted in place, bolted down and then I spent a couple of hours cleaning the lanolin off everything, wiping everything over with oil (standard motor oil), replacing the headstock/gearbox oil, oiling the ball oilers.

I needed to then ensure the lathe was level. Not left-right level or front-rear level but no twist in the bed along it's length. A twist in the lathe will result in any length of stock/steel not having a consistent diameter along it's face. I had a precision engineers level which provides a ridiculously high accuracy of 0.02mm/metre and the level was set near the chuck, then the level put near the tailstock and appropriate bolts at the right hand side of the lathe tightened to ensure the same level. There was hardly any adjustment required since the hefty spanning beam wasn't going to twist much anyway.

I won't get to use the lathe for a while since there is much more organising of the workshop and some further items to finish (sink & paint booth) to be done, but it's a good milestone.