Making a lathe stand (part 2)

Despite mother nature and old man winters concerted attempts to keep me out of the shop, I was able to finish the lathe stand this weekend. Despite some minor issue during the build, I’m very happy with how it turned out. As you can see below, it’s just 8 boards held together with bolts and dry mortise and tenon joinery.

Instead of using cross dowels to hold the parts together like you would typically find in bed frame construction, I decided to use a slot and a standard bolt. The primary reason for this, was because I couldn’t find large cross dowels locally, and everything online seemed overly expensive. If I ever get around to making a bed, I’m probably going to use this method. Besides being cheap, it offers a lot more options with regards to bolt size and composition.

One of the minor issues I faced during the build, was with the leveling feet I purchased from Rockler. As you can see below, the mounting holes are to close to the threaded hole to allow the use of a jam nut. To remedy the problem, I turned down some regular nuts so they would clear the mounting screws. It only took a few minutes to do, and the nuts will ensure vibrations from the lathe won’t unscrew the feet.

Below you can see the finished stand & lathe set up and ready for use, as well as some of the lovely figure in the hard maple I used.