Anyone raise their lathe a few inches?

I have my Southbend 13" lathe up on 4" x 6" * 28" blocks with 4" x 8" x 72" cross pieces on top of those for 2 purposes. 1) It allows me to easily move my lathe with a pallet jack. 2) It saves the heck out of my back. When I move it to a new location I have to re-level the lathe but I have not found the lathe getting significantly out of level from the blocks expanding and contracting with the seasons. The wood does seem to do a nice job of dampening vibrations. At 6'3" slumping over the lathe that was too low fatigued me much quicker which adversely affected the results.

I have my mill on similar blocks for the same reasons, height and mobility.

Blocks and a pallet jack is a heck of a lot easier than making mobile bases for each machine with retractable casters. I was pretty leery of the hassle and floor space the pallet jack would take up when not in use but it actually stows quite easily in a variety of areas where it doesn't really consume any floor space.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top