I have been waiting for someone else to possibly post, but not seeing a post, I have a suggestion (if you have welder, and once you get the lathe). First, you will need an existing bench to set the lathe on, and make sure all the controls are at a comfortable height. If not, raise or lower a needed. Once you have the height of the bench, pick up some square tubing of decent wall thickness, and weld the top frame of the bench. Depending on if you want a frame to be just big enough to hold the lathe, or bigger if you want a chip tray and work surface. With the top defined and on the ground or welding table, add your legs and a couple of cross braces, preferably at least one on an angle for rigidity. Once done, flip it and make sure it is solid.Greetings All,
I will be receiving a new PM-1236T lathe and need to build a metal bench for it. Does anyone have dimensions (hole placement, HxWxL, etc.) for a bench that they may be willing to share?
I have my Rungfu mill mounted on a similar desk where I unbolted the top, and bolted just the two drawer stacks to a square top. IIRC, I got mine for $5 from a Habitat for humanity restore center.Have you checked with PM? I would be surprised if your new lathe doesn't come with a template for the hole locations or at least a drawing. I went to PM's website and looked at your lathe. Nice lathe. It comes with a chip tray. The chip tray will have all of the hole locations. Also look at the stand that PM sells for the lathe for dimensions and ideas.
There are numerous threads on the forum on how people have build benches for their lathes. Look on Pinterest too. Lot's of ideas on lathe benches on Pinterest. People have used everything imaginable for benches. Old steel tanker desks are one option and can often be had for free just to haul it away.
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I was at an auction and nobody wanted to bid on an old steel tanker desk. So the auctioneer asked if anybody wanted to haul it away. He got several responses. He then asked for bids on the right to haul the desk away. IIRC he got $10 or maybe $20 for the desk. You can't make a bench for that price. If I ever replace the bench for my lathe the replacement will be an old steel or wood desk. One thing that you are definitely going to want is drawers and shelves to store stuff.