TOOLS: A sturdy lathe stand

My lathe, a cheapo Grizzly model, a few years old, had cast iron legs. But they were extremely narrow. And I'm not a fan of bolting anything to the floor, as that would possibly cause the flange to break off, and damage the legs during a bad "wobble".

Soooo, I decided to build a couple of legs, that would be wider, and far heavier than the ones that came with my lathe. Steel was out, as metal is too expensive, and I can't weld and don't want to ruin all my drill bits making holes for bolts. Wood was out, cause, well, it's wood, haha.

That left concrete. It is heavy, and absorbs vibration very well. It would be relatively inexpensive to make. Only one form would be needed, and I already had the scrap wood to build it out of, and all necessary screws, etc.

There are a few things you have to take into account during the design phase.

Height
Width
Thickness
The bolt pattern on top (and how big u want the top, where the lathe bed sits)
And since you're building a set of lathe legs to serve all purposes, why not put something between them, to hold all your spare metal stuff, or whatever. In my opinion, having something between the legs is mandatory in order to keep the legs locked together as one unit.

I used 3/4" plywood for the form, and just drew my design onto the wood itself. I used 1x10's for the sides, and for a hole for some 2x4's to pass through both legs when it's done. It was super easy to make.

Here are some pics of the ones I made. Notice the wide stance, and the 3 2x4's fit into a hole just big enough that it took a small sledge to make them fit. I have a cabinet between the legs, that stiffened the whole thing up, and also provides a place to store a bunch of hefty scrap steel, old tools, etc. Each leg took 5 80lb bags of quickrete. Soooo, couple that with the weight of the lathe itself, and the heavy tool cabinet, and I'm well over 1,000lbs. It never wobbles at all anymore :)))

                                                    (it's not sitting on wood, but actually goes
                                                      through the floor, to a concrete pad)

Here's the top. I used 4 lag bolts. I traced the bolt pattern onto the form itself, and after making sure that it was lined up right, drilled 4 holes in the form. Then i stuck the bolts in through the holes, and then poured the form. If they moved a little, i just set them back straight, and wiggled the concrete a bit to make it settle around the bolts.

And here is the cabinet. I had a bunch of old 1x12's I had salvaged somewhere. Those are screws holding up my tools. And before anyone asks, yes, i now have the lathe set up to work from the other side. I guess I'll  alter the lid and move my tools sometime soon.

Well, I hope you get some ideas of what you need, or want, from this post.

Good luck

Dave