PM Outboard Turning Stand

[Brad Schmid]

Thought there might be some turners out there that would be interested... As far as freestanding outboard rests go, this is absolutely the best IMHO. I've been giving it a workout for a week of evenings now (stealth gloat ). Stability is absolutely outstanding. It weighs roughly 160 lbs. As is most PM equipment, fit/finish/design is top notch. I would absolutely recommend it for anybody looking for a quality freestanding rest. I did have to make one mod. I replaced the original 4" intermediate post with a 6" Sorby post ($10) to get the height I needed to use my factory Jet rests, otherwise I would have had to lower the adjusters on the lathe.

And Dominic, I know what you're gonna say Yeah, one of these days I'll build your nice box to put my weight in I've only been procrastinating for 2 yrs now...

Oooh, I just realized, my colors don't match Hey Tyler, check out my floor mats

Cheers,
Brad

[Tyler Howell]

You Go Brad! and your colors are just fine. The Gold Standard (That's a joke )

is the color to have now days.

[Steven Wilson]

I'm glad you like the stand. I have a hankering to turn a table top sometime on my Oneway (I have 24" swing outboard) and thought about using the Powermatic stand; of course I would have to paint it white first.

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad you like the stand. I have a hankering to turn a table top sometime on my Oneway (I have 24" swing outboard) and thought about using the Powermatic stand; of course I would have to paint it white first.

Steve, it's already available in "Jet ivory"...my local dealer has one on the floor. No painting! Same color as your big OneWay!

But do remember that even with their weight, these outboard rests are still not as stable as those working off the ways. Take care, and avoid heavy cuts if you can avoid them. (and watch your speed on large diameter or heavy objects when turning outboard with one of these accessories)

[Steven Wilson]

But do remember that even with their weight, these outboard rests are still not as stable as those working off the ways. Take care, and avoid heavy cuts if you can avoid them. (and watch your speed on large diameter or heavy objects when turning outboard with one of these accessories)

I set up my 2436 with the small 17" bed extension mounted outboard so I could have a short bed and long bed lathe with 24" swing. I had thought about getting the Oneway large outboard setup (44" swing) but was talked out of it by Oneway. Anyhow, one of my very future projects is to make a 6 or 8 seat round dinning table with a lazy suzan center. I plan on having an up turned lip molding on the lazy suzan and want to do it "old school" as in turn it on the lathe. I figure I'll end up turning a 5' or 6' diameter table top, which should be fairly easy to do with an outboard turning bracket. To help stabilize it I plan on adding 300lbs or so of ballast and possibly weld on some angle iron. If I go bigger I'll probably take the lathe outside and dig a trench in front of it so I can get more swing. A friend of mine turned an 8' diameter table top on his.

[Brad Schmid]

Jim's right. Freestanding is obviously not as stable as having the tool rest integral to the headstock/bed assembly. Even so, this particular stand is far ahead on stability than it's competitors (ie. Delta's, etc) I should have made one safety note here to anyone that uses one of these: notice the orientation of the stand, the rest is over the forward middle leg. Done backwards or sideways, you could invite instability.

Brad

[Bob Hovde]

I can't wait to get mine out of the box. As soon as I finish the shop, re-side the garage and set up the lathe...

Bob

[Brad Schmid]

I can't wait to get mine out of the box. As soon as I finish the shop, re-side the garage and set up the lathe...

Bob

Bob,

You'll like it, I'm sure of it. I picked mine up already assembled from my local dealer, so I didn't have to try and assemble it myself. I imagine it could be a pain trying to line everything up on something this heavy by yourself... A tip that might help you in assembly if you don't have the GIANT allen wrench for the 2 bolts (my dealer didn't have one big enough either) - they substituted the head of a hex head bolt that fit correctly for an allen wrench, double nutted the bolt, and tightened the allen bolts with a box end wrench on the double nutted hex bolt. Hope that makes sense...

Cheers,
Brad

[Dominic Greco]

And Dominic, I know what you're gonna say Yeah, one of these days I'll build your nice box to put my weight in I've only been procrastinating for 2 yrs now...

Brad,
I read your post yesterday and laughed out loud here at work (got some weird looks as well).

Seriously now, you gotta build the ballast box. You've got the perfect excuse. Imagine the size of the bowl you'd turn if your lathe was even MORE solid? All you need is (1) 4'x8' sheet of plywood, (2) 2x4s, and (6) bags of sand.

I've looked at the "white" version of that stand and was sort of freaked out at the price. So much that I have a hard time remembering it now! I just know I looked at it and said to myself, "WOW, thats not in the budget! Maybe later,.....".

But I'm curious. Around how much did the Powermatic Stand run?

[Brad Schmid]

Brad,
I read your post yesterday and laughed out loud here at work (got some weird looks as well).

Seriously now, you gotta build the ballast box. You've got the perfect excuse. Imagine the size of the bowl you'd turn if your lathe was even MORE solid? All you need is (1) 4'x8' sheet of plywood, (2) 2x4s, and (6) bags of sand.

I've looked at the "white" version of that stand and was sort of freaked out at the price. So much that I have a hard time remembering it now! I just know I looked at it and said to myself, "WOW, thats not in the budget! Maybe later,.....".

But I'm curious. Around how much did the Powermatic Stand run?

Dominic,
I know. I love that ballast box of yours. I'm hoping to do it later this summer. I have 4 extra sheets of Maple ply in the rack right now just waiting for a use. Right now I have 550lbs of additional weight, so that puts me a little over 1000 lbs total. But, it's not pretty, and it's hard to clean up the debris around those sandbags. Your right about solid though. I can go big and it can tolerate out of balance very well. 2HP and VS helps too. I like to explore new territory, but I also like to do it safely

On the price, your right there too. It wasn't cheap. Seems like a lot for a giant chunk of cast iron, but the competition is mostly $200+ and there's a huge stability difference, thus I was willing to go a little more for safety sake. I looked and saved for a few months. The cheapest I could find was $299 at my local dealer. Online prices I saw were even higher. I didn't even know a white version was being made until I saw Jim's post up the thread a few days ago... Tough on the budget, but opens the doors to a whole new world for us 16" swing guys with a sliding headstock. And I have to say, it does it in safe fashion. I'm very impressed so far.

I haven't seen you post any work lately. C'mon man, we're thirsty for pics

Cheers,
Brad

[Dominic Greco]

I haven't seen you post any work lately. C'mon man, we're thirsty for pics

Brad,
Thanks for the information. Now that you've jogged my memory, I think the Jet version is about the same price. I was actually thinking of making my own out board turning stand. But my plan calls for buying the 20" cast bed extension at $175.00. All I'd need then is an extension (with beefed up support post) for my tool rest. But this will have to wait until the "funding becomes available" (ie: when the "Honey-do" list gets a bit shorter).

I haven't been turning anything really big in the last month or so. Just a bunch of pens and bottle stoppers (and I really don't like posting pics of them). They are a nice departure from hollow forms and bowls. Plus they let me use up my stash of figured hard wood cut-offs.

[Brad Schmid]

Brad,
Thanks for the information. Now that you've jogged my memory, I think the Jet version is about the same price. I was actually thinking of making my own out board turning stand. But my plan calls for buying the 20" cast bed extension at $175.00. All I'd need then is an extension (with beefed up support post) for my tool rest. But this will have to wait until the "funding becomes available" (ie: when the "Honey-do" list gets a bit shorter).

I haven't been turning anything really big in the last month or so. Just a bunch of pens and bottle stoppers (and I really don't like posting pics of them). They are a nice departure from hollow forms and bowls. Plus they let me use up my stash of figured hard wood cut-offs.

I had pondered home made myself, but struggled with keeping the price down on a good stable design. Hope you'll post pic's if you go that route. Would love to see it.

I agree. pens & such are a nice departure. Variety keeps the imagination churning.
Cheers