Lathe placement

Hi everyone

Well, I'm starting to set up the new lathe, first one for me. Space is limited, and I initially had thought about putting it on wheels. but thinking about the weight and the fact that I'm going to fill the stand's legs with sand I think that is a non starter. I have two places I can put the lathe, one at the back of the garage against a wall, the other on the side next to a window.

I have read about stuff exploding on the lathe and think that I would be risking breakage and I don't want to do that! Especially with the hurricane codes in the city, if I have to replace a window I have to put in a new code compliant one which would be BIG bucks. We have hurricane shutters so our present "non rated" windows are OK. If I put it against the window I was thinking about putting on some lexan panels on the inside of the window to protect against flying objects.

A third alternative would be to put it near the front of the garage, I could open the door when the weather was nice and let the chips fly out into the driveway! But when the door is down I would need supplemental light.

I am pretty good at spacial relationships and laying out stuff on paper, but that skill breaks down when it comes to the shop. For some reason I have to stand in front of the machines to get a feel about their placement. Things that have looked great on paper haven't worked out when I go to the actual layout. Fortunately most of my stuff is on wheels so I can push them around and my DC is one flexible hose that I attach to the machine that needs it.

Thoughts/comments most appreciated!

Jay

Jay....I"ll be placing my new lathe in a week or so. It won't go by a window. My walls are covered with 1/2" plywood and the lathe will be near the wall.

i`m with ken, if you have the wall space? benches or assembly/finish areas should have as much natural light as possible. my lathe sits in the corner

Jay, I use to have mine against a wall. It worked fine except when it came time to clean up behind it. That was a real pain. Mine currently is 90 degrees to the wall with the headstock toward the wall. I have my tools on that wall so everything is convenient. I think wheels/casters are fine if they can be retracted so the lathe stand sets solidly on the floor when in use.

Natural light is great, I don't have any in the Dungeon, you can very easily get good light on the lathe without natural light.

If in front of the window, you also do not have good walls space to put tools on, as there is a widow there.

If you were to put it in front of the window, a Lexan panel would be a start, steel bars would be good too

I'd vote for the wall area.

Cheers!

Jay,
Someone sent me a copy of a wood magazine article
(I lost my copy) in it it has a out feed table/work bench which would be perfect for your lathe. It has a revolving leg system that when you want to move it you put it on the wheels & when you want to use your lathe you put it on the normal legs (They have levelers on the bottom)
If you want me to send you a copy let me know & I'll e mail it to you.

Chuck

Jay this is the bench I'm talking about check out this video that tells you about it.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/file.jsp?item=video/player&temp=yes

The one thing you need when turning is light and lots of it. I have tried everything I can do to have as much light as I can so I can see what I am doing. My lathe is against the wall and under a high window that is near the tailstock end. So I have natural light that is not in my eyes since I am looking away from it when I am turning. I also have a Moffatt lamp mounted on that end of the lathe and directed into the area where I will be turning. This is particularly helpful for looking into things that you are hollowing. I have another magnetically mounted light that sits atop the headstock and has a long gooseneck that I can direct onto the front, back, top or inside of what I am turning. Then I have two more 4 tube fluorescents on the ceiling to the right and left of the lathe.

My tools are mounted above and behind the lathe. Convenient, yes, but also potentially dangerous if you were to reach over the lathe while it is running and have something catch in the turning wood. I have a bench at the tailstock end where I place all the tools I am currently using so I don't have to reach over the lathe. Of course my lathe is a shortbed so the tools are at arm's length.

Yes, the chips behind and under the lathe bench/stand are a pain to clean up. But I don't have many choices for placement in my shop. If I had room I would have my lathe headstock angle out from the wall with the lathe bed pointed in the direction of the window. I would also have a movable wall that would carry my tools and still swing back out of the way to facilitate cleaning. It would also make it easier to provide dust collector access.

The window allows me to put in a high velocity fan which I use in warm weather to exhaust turning dust outside. That high velocity fan really clears the air but obviously it is a 3 season tool at the most.

Mike Stafford said:

The one thing you need when turning is light and lots of it. I have tried everything I can do to have as much light as I can so I can see what I am doing.

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Um....don't take this the wrong way, but...

Have you considered using a different pair of safety glasses?
Might help with the lighting problem...

Do you think that is my problem, Lee?

When I walked up to Bill Grumbine on Friday he asked, "Where are your green glasses?" Then he went on to say, "You look better, er, I mean, different with them on...."

Jay, I'm thinking the best placement for that lathe would be about 3000 miles west in my shop.

I'm limited on wall space, so my lathe is in the middle of the shop, roughly where you'd expect me to have an outfeed table for the tablesaw. It's a pain to clean the space between the TS and the lathe. Also, I have to move either the lathe or TS if I want to rip long pieces of wood (which happens very rarely). Fortunately, both are on wheels. I have tools stored at the tailstock end of the lathe stand, and have a built-in wall bench and drawers directly behind where I stand at the lathe.

Jay I put mine against the wall. I put mine by the window to begin with and yep you got it right the first piece that flew off I couldn't put a X any closer to the center where it hit. I put it on the back wall and pulled my lathe about a foot from the wall so I can get a broom in there and then pick up the rest with my shop vac. Also makes room for my DC hose and used a big gulp attachment. Doesn't get many chips but it sure does eat the dust. Yea it is a pain but when you have a small shop but you do what you have to.

While the open door idea is nice, you would still need additional overhead lighting. Mine is in the corner of an underground garage (hillside cut-out) against concrete walls. The Grizzly web site has a nice, free, shop, template lay-out thingy. But when I used it recently, I found out that all the things I have in my shop already don't fit. Seriously, walk around your shop area and visualize what you want where and the walk/work flow that you feel comfortable with. This is your space, you need to feel at home in it.

Congrats on your new lathe...

Hello Jay,

Finding the correct area to place your new lathe can be a challenging task, as you have learned. There are pros and cons to every possible option but fortunately, you can always start out with the lathe in one area and then move it later, if you feel the need to change...

That's what I did when I opened my studio twelve years ago. I originally had the lathe against a wall in the rear partitioned area of my studio (30'x30'). It worked fine, except sometimes I wanted to go on the reverse side of the lathe to gain access for special cutting techniques. This was not possible with the lathe against the wall of course and it also was difficult at times to get the right angle of attack when I used my large boring bars.

My studio has no windows, so the lighting is a blend of fluorescent, incandescent and halogen. As others have pointed out, you can never have too much light... I'm lucky in that my studio has central air/heat, so the hot and humid Houston weather is not a problem any more. I think I can hang meat in the studio now, as I opted for a 4-ton central air-conditioner, to cool 1,000 square feet of space. Burr...

I used my lathe against the wall for several years, however, I moved it about five or six times trying to tweak the ergonomics a bit. About six years ago, I moved the lathe into the main area of the studio. It's in an open area now, with the nearest wall about eight feet away. This center location was a challenge, because there was no power or DC in this area.

This was easy enough to fix... I routed the DC through the attic and ran power from the ceiling as well. I like the current location the best by far... It has ample room in all directions around the lathe, so using my six foot boring bars is no problem now. It's also much easier when filming my DVD videos now, which is why I was forced to move the lathe from the partitioned area a few years ago - not enough room for the camera and film equipment in the back area.

Between your three choices, I would probably start out with the lathe near the wall and see how you like it. My next choice would be the front area, near the garage door. It's really sweet to be able to open the door and let the shavings fly when it's nice weather. Plus, you get tons of beautiful sunlight, which is a benefit when turning, sanding and finishing your projects.

My last choice would be near the window. Although it's nice to have natural sunlight during turning, you loose some wall space that you can hang your ever growing collection of tools on when you're through turning. Also, even with a window nearby, you're still going to need a few extra light sources. You can still use the window area to do finishing and detail work on your projects.

Good luck to you and best wishes in all of your woodturning endeavors! Take care and all the best to you and yours!

I like to be able to walk around any stationary tool, if possible. That includes the lathe. Not neccessarily the middle of the floor, but I like to save wall space for counters and storage solutions.

I'll get on my little Soap Box here, again..... I( can't understand why folks keep weighting down their lathes...) It is a matter of Physics and "the angle of the dangle" The footprint of the lathe stand will control any "top Heavy" effect you may encounter with a lightweight stand. Splay the lags out and make the base wider than the lathe and longer than the lathe. What I see is fellows who build stands with Massive legs standing tall and the same size as the lathe, sure it can fall over (its standing on its toes) Reason those big tall Basketball players don't fall down, ever see the feet on those suckers. Same holds true with equipment. Look at stands you can buy all the legs are splayed out making the base wider than the top. Why? To lower the "Center of Gravity" (whatever that is... the center of gravity is the center of the Earth) If you have to lift the lathe to turn it over (in a case where the base is wider than the top) the the "CoG" is lowerer than the top. The harder it is to turn over or the higher you have to lift it before it topples denotes the "CoG". Additional weight is only a deterrant, not a solution.

I have my lathes mounted on casters but on wide stance w/o ever a chance of a problem. Here is one, (although with the drawers full of knives and chisels there is some weight involved, but see that the leg base is wider than the lathe bigger footprint.


Even my bowl latheworks great and is light enough to move about (sometimes if I do some big chunk and it is off ballance at the start, then I have to clamp it down to a strong bench but those are far and few) Here, it is sitting on a roll around stand, a couple of times I had to screw it to the stand with a big salad bowl I was doing.



Cuts down the vibation, they claim, "Road Apples" I say.... Correct technique and a good set of bearing will eliminate the vibration.

This old Spindle lathe I fixed up for my grandson used to vibrate till I put in new bushing.... and showed him how to slice rather than scrape. See the light weight "Splayed Legs"



My joiners are mounted on Splayed legs, as well as the factory stands on the TS, BS, Planer. They didn't come with a set of sand bags.

Thanks for allowing me to spout out my opinion on lathe/tool stands and have a nice day

As for placement... I have taught in several schools and the lathe placement was different in each, some were places along a wall under windows. but the ones I liked best was placed diagonal to the wall (tailstock toward the window) In my tiny dust bowl I have to move stuff about and so I rely on the casters, as I can make room for lathe or planer or TS but never at the same time. I thought of getting locking casters but I didn't have any on hand and I had regular. With such a small space the lathe had nowhere to go so why lock it down.... Works for me. Should you (gasp) go with legs full of useless sand the difference would be a larger caster or stronger caster to carry the weight. But consider that the caster will raise the lathe work level and so the leg height must be accounted for in your prep. Old rule of thumb was that the spindle center should be even with your elbow (with your arm at a right angle) Each turner prefers a different height, With my back & neck pains and bi-focal lens glasses I prefer a taller lathe. Mom always said, "Stand up Straight". She was right, I hurt less after a long Lathe session, when I do. Being in a man-cave dust bowl rakes havoc on lighting so I use an old gooseneck floor lamp that I can move about.

A studio or even a garage would be great but I'll get by with my Dust Bowl Man-cave.... Crowded, filthy & dark as it is.

Hope I have sparked some thought process and not offended anyone, let us know how you decide and what you do.

Bill
Thanks for the observations.

Here is why I was thinking of doing it


http://books.google.com/books?id=7n...8TZ7&sig=BMGBdJbVESPyXKhP9Ee6LaURI88#PPA11,M1

Jay

But look at his stand.... skinny on the bottom and fat on top, With a splayed leg or larger footprint you don't need the weight. Also I added some more thoughts to the other posting. He may be a super-dooper turner but he needs to go back to his Physics classes and pay attention this time. His solution is not a fix of the problem but rather a counter action to overpower the problem. Look more to what industry is producing than to what someone did to correct a problem he initiated. There is a reason they do it that way.

Jay, I have bricks walls in my workshop, and my workshop is also not big.
I dicided than to make a very sturdy workbench on one side along the whole wall, and placed on the workbench my lathe with bolts on the workbench, so close as I could by the window. Above my lathe and also on other places I have fluorescents lights, so I have also daylight.
Your idea for using lexan panels is very good. Maybe an idea to place your lathe on a sturdy workbench?? Than you have to remove the underpart, at least if that's possible.
Think of unbalanced pieces of wood on your lathe, than you need a very stable construction.

Bill Simpson said:

But look at his stand.... skinny on the bottom and fat on top, With a splayed leg or larger footprint you don't need the weight. Also I added some more thoughts to the other posting. He may be a super-dooper turner but he needs to go back to his Physics classes and pay attention this time. His solution is not a fix of the problem but rather a counter action to overpower the problem. Look more to what industry is producing than to what someone did to correct a problem he initiated. There is a reason they do it that way.

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I don't agree completely. I have my Dad's old Craftsman lathe that looks like the tube style lathe you show in one of your pictures. The lathe stand is made of angle iron wide enough at the top for the lathe to mount to & the legs splayed out from there to 30" or more at the bottom & splayed out from the ends of the top outward on each end 25 to 30 degrees with the legs cut to set flat on the floor. Even then if the wood wasn't perfectly rounded up & balanced the stand would vibrate & might even move a little on the floor.
However when needing a stand for my Delta lathe & not having a lot of money at the time I build this stand out of what I had on hand. & it doesn't vibrate or move at all & I have maybe $20 in it.

When your turning, depending on how you feel most comfortable with your tools, the big majority of shavings seem to shoot in one particular direction more than others. I'd place the lathe so that the majority of the shaving go in a direction that's easy to clean up.