I had done some rough turning of 8" pieces of green wood.  It was a lot of fun to see my 50 lb lathe table setup walk across the garage floor without a leash.  I slowed down the speed, then would have to re-adjust to a higher speed every time as the piece got rounder. I looked into getting a new lathe.  I was really floored that they had lathes out there costing $5000!!!  Remember, I'm just a beginner here. I looked at many models and I settled on the Nova3000. This lathe was the perfect next step up for me.  It had many advantages the old lathe was without: speed control, reversing motor, heft, bigger capacity, beauty, you name it.  The swing is 16", and I bought another bed extension and now I can do center work that's four feet long!  Can't wait to make that long of a pen one day. I built a stand for it out of some old growth 6"X6" and 2"X4" lumber I got from some friends who took down their clay factory barn.  I belt sanded them (just the wood, not my friends) and they looked like new.  I cut dadoes and secured the legs and rails together with some bolts.  Here are some pictures of the leg detail: I then went to a salvage place and bought a solid-core, oak door for the top for $35.  I secured this with bolts as well.  I then secured the lathe onto the top, and also put on my drill press (a real hefty, old Rockwell model), and a scroll saw.  The whole setup now weighed 600 lbs. I used this setup for over a year.  With the new lathe I was turning more and more, and bigger and much meaner pieces.  I even maxed out to 16" green logs (that eventually became 13"er's after rounding.)  The lathe would still try to go for a walk without me, so I added a shelf on the bottom, and put six sacks of 60lb concrete bags placed in taped, garbage bags so the gray, cement dust won't get everywhere.  Now my lathe bench weighs about 960 lbs!!  Here is the shelf with the cement bags: <<<< Previous Page                                                  Next Page >>>> Home Page