what's the best material to put under a benchtop lathe?

Ken from ontario

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I'm looking for ideas on what material to use under my soon to arrive mini lathe, it weighs about 120 lbs. I have a wooden workbench 5' long with a 2" thick (cutting board) top, that's one option but then if I use it I'll need to make another workbench to work on.
Another choice is to put on a tool box 24"x 48", 32" high with HD casters, if this is a better choice, what sound absorbing material should I use for the top ? styrofoam? rubber? or make it out of wood ?
Any ideas?
 
the toolbox idea is cool for tool storage as well as a work platform.
a plate of surplus steel on top of the tool box would make a very nice surface to mount the lathe.
a hardwood top would work also in a pinch for a small lathe
i'd like to see what you come up with :)
 
For my SB1001 (8x18?) lathe I used a 40" Craftsman toolbox. I stained a 3/4" piece of plywood cut to fit the top of the box, and I put a couple of small 3/8" steel plates between the lathe and plywood to distribute the weight a bit so the lathe wouldn't compress the plywood.

And as Mike said, the toolbox is a great place to store your lathe tooling. :)
 
Mike, I myself like the idea of using the big tool box , a steel plate is not a bad option, the drawback of using metal is it may multiply the noise , it could work though if a thin layer of rubber is used underneath the plate.

Thanks for the suggestion,
 
FYI, the wood under the small metal plates seemed to prevent any unwanted noises. At least I don't remember hearing any. My lathe was belt drive so it was pretty quiet.
 
Bill, you must have posted as I was typing , yeah the tool box sounds more and more feasable, never thought of sandwiching a steel plate between two layers of plywood. very doable.thanks.
 
I didn't sandwich the steel plates. The plywood was put on top of the toolbox, and the small steel plates went between the lathe's bed feet and the plywood to better distribute the weight. That lathe I am talking about was over twice the weight of yours (about 300lbs.). :)
 
I like a wood surface, but that could come from many years at my woodworking bench and just liking the qualities of it. With my small Atlas lathe I have it mounted on a 3" thick Douglas fir top -- an old fireplace mantle salvage-- that's really nice.

One drawback I immediately noticed though, is that with a wooden surface there is no place to stick a mag holder for indicator stands! Fortunately, I had put steel plate insets under the feet ends so I could use those. I had also designed in a kind of front ledge for more clearance under the hand wheels and had surfaced that with steel as well. I call it my dashboard, and it works well and doubles as a place for an indicator. It's not ideal though, there are some "blind spots" (especially around the back) where I wish I could stick a mag every now and again.

So in retrospect, I would build a wood top again hands down no problem, but I would give more thought to insetting steel for the magnet aspect. It's easy to think, oh I can just just stick the mag to the machine itself, but on a small lathe
like an Atlas it's pretty tough sometimes.

-frank
 
I like a wood surface, I would build a wood top again hands down no problem, but I would give more thought to insetting steel for the magnet aspect. It's easy to think, oh I can just just stick the mag to the machine itself.
-frank
Great point, I like the idea of using a steel plate (on the plywood) even more, if you could see my shop, I have magnets all over the place, on the drill press, mill, tool box, etc. I attach allen keys,wrenches whatever, to them, now for the lathe I'm sure I will want to use magnets for all kind of uses.
 
I had my lathe on a rather poorly built stand it came with, I was getting chatter and vibration.

I decided to make a new bench from scrap I had around its made from 8mm angle iron and 8mm pipe, 18mm plywood top and a 12mm steel plate under the lathe, some old drawers from work and some scrap galvanized iron..

Mass = good, the bench has 4 leveling bolts in the bottom no more chatter or movement, it must weigh more then the lathe!

Not the best but it was the right price.



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