9x20 lathe Ideas on rasing the height up to work comfortably ?

[casca92]

jut purchased used a JET 9x20 lathe with factory stand ( should be called factory kneel )
other than digging a hole any good ideas on how you raised your lathe to comfortable work position.
would like to make it semi mobile to be able to movbe a round garage occansionaly.

thanx
casca

 

[ch2co]

I'm an old man who doesn't bend very well. I have my 10-22 mounted so that the chuck is just about chest high, and it
seems to be almost perfect for me.

 

[jmarkwolf]

I once had a Grizzly 11 x 26.

The previous owner bolted 4 pieces of 6" steel c-channel at the bottom of the legs.

The additional 6 inches put the lathe at a very comfortable height.

No welding.

 

[richl]

If you are comfortable welding, you could fabricate a nice tube steel frame, and incorporate a metal tool box. You gain a fully customized bench to your height requirement, storage for tooling and you add weight and rigidity to your machine.
Some have suggested placing the machine on top of a metal roller cabinets, though that is a good idea, I prefer weight and rigidity too

 

[willthedancer]

A 6" vise is overkill for a RF45 style mill. A 4" is more appropiate for that size mill & IMO 5" max. I have a 5" GMT vise on my PM45 & it's slightly too big. Not enough Y axis travel to make use of the 5" full capacity. Better to save your money rather than getting something too big & most importantly the weight. I take my vise of the table quite often, a 6" is still light enough for me to be carried by hand but I'm glad I have a 5". I also have a 4" vise as well. I prefer the 5" though.

But those GMT 6" Premium vises are pretty nice. I'd love to have one but don't need one on my current mill. But if you plan on upgrading to a full size knee mill in the future than the 6" will be perfect.


Here's what the 5" looks like on my mill.



I couldn't even complete this cut without my bellows & DRO scale getting in the way. Not enough Y travel & the 5" vise is not even maxed out.



Here's what a 6" vise looks like on another PM45 (gt40's)
View attachment 253544

 

[savarin]

My 9x20 has a couple of riser blocks that help but I also have a short length of 200x80x6mm steel joist that I will be using when I have a bit of spare time.

 

[xman_charl]

Put riser blocks under lathe.














Charl