This week, I made two changes to the 80/20 base of my lathe:
- I moved the DRO-box mounting post to the right and to the rear. The post was originally also the rear, left leg. The DRO box was too close to the headstock; it interfered with with turning the headstock 30 degrees for tapers. The post was too close to the cross slide; it interfered with the rear-mounted cut-off blade and with the compound slide.
- I replaced the two right feet with one foot that is centered under the lathe. The lathe is insufficiently heavy for two feet on the right side; the right, rear foot tended to levitate. The extra foot from the right side is now under the DRO-box mounting post.
Here are two photo that show the changes:
To move the DRO-box mounting post, I added a 4-inch long 1001-S T-slotted extrusion (horizontal), a 4136 4-hole inside corner gusset, and 4 each 3393 1/4-20x1/2" BHSCS & T-nuts. To replace the mounting post with a foot at the left rear corner, I installed one 1-inch-long 1001-S T-slot extrusion (vertical, with center tapped with 1/4-20 threads), one 3391 anchor fastener, one 3085 double anchor T-nut, and one 10-32x0.75" SHCS.
To add the foot on the right side, I cut the 8-inch T-slotted extrusion into two lengths: 2-inches and 5 inches. I mounted a 1-inch long 1004-S T-slot extrusion between them using two 3391 anchor fasteners, two 3056 10-32x0.75" SHCS, two 3085 double anchor T-nuts, one 4118 3-hole joining strip. and three 3321 1/4-20x1/2" FBHSCS and T-nut. I installed the anchor fasteners underneath, to leave the T-slots available on top for mounting the lathe. The 1-inch long extrusion for the foot is threaded 1/4-20.