I am pondering a new stand for my little 10 x 18 lathe. I started out with a quick open stand made with 2x4s and splayed legs. It works okay as far as supporting the lathe, but falls short in tool storage (there is none), chip management (a plastic tub under it), and a place for my vacuum pump (it sits on the floor right now).
In addition to my hobby turning, my shop is a low production shop for a hobby luthier business and right now my table saw out feed table is covered with lathe tools. Not an acceptable situation. So storage for lathe tools in the stand would be a big plus.
I am toying with various options. Including the following:
- A used kitchen cabinet maybe from the Habitat for Humanity Re Store. Thoughts on that.
- A metal mechanics tool chest. Has anyone here done that? How did it work out?
- A shop built stand with open shelving. My concern here is chip management. It seems like the shelves would be constantly buried in chips. Is it possible to avoid that?
- A shop built closed cabinet. This seems like a good way to get exactly what I want, but also would take a lot of time that could be used doing either more fun projects or more lucrative ones. Also I suspect materials would wind up costing as much or more than other options.