My wood lathe came to me without a headstock (long story) and I fabricated one for it out of 3/4" plywood and a pair of flange bearings. It's been in service for almost 20 years and has served me well enough for spindle turning. But the bearings are making funny noises now and I want to redo it, and I hope to make version 2.0 better than the first.
I'm going to keep the basic design, which is just a square box with bearings mounted to it. I'm looking for a material that'd be better suited for the task then plywood. It needs to be dimensionally stable and machinable with woodworking tools. Some amount of vibration damping would be a plus. Hard enough to be drilled and tapped, and also glueable.
I'm thinking some kind of plastic or composite. I'm not a materials weenie, so I'm asking for suggestions here.
This is the basic design that I'll work to:
And this is what it looks like on the lathe:
The spindle is machined from 1.5" steel and will be reused.
TIA