Looking for an old workbench to mount a lathe too, Tulsa, OK area.

[caprottivalvegear]

Make your garage a little bigger??? It's only wood and a little concrete. That extra 3 feet of bench will be used to put like EVERYTHING else a lathe needs to be fully functional let alone the mating parts the lathe is trying to form the workpiece to.

Considering the garage is a twin bay and serves as the foundation walls for a large part of upper level of the house I don’t think so.

 

[Freedommachine]

Considering the garage is a twin bay and serves as the foundation walls for a large part of upper level of the house I don’t think so.

Don't think, just do it .

I've got roughly 50 feet of 42" wide bowling alley wood that I've been hoarding for about 10 years now. I've built a few benches from it and plan to build at least half a dozen more. It's good stuff if you can find some.

 

[rivett608]

"'ll make some inquiries about old sewing machine tables/legs, I know one sitting in a garden center near my house." don't get sewing machine legs confused what you normal see out in the garden, those are the decorative, light weight cast iron legs from treadle sewing machines. That is not what we are talking about here. What we are refering to are the commerical legs found on sweat shop type factory sewing machines. I'm sure you have seen photos of those huge textile factory rooms filled with row of sewing machines with woman slaving away at them. They have been made of stamped steel for the past 100 years and are often adjustable in height.

 

[kenton]

It won't have the aesthetics of a cast iron legs but a workbench like this will help a light lathe cut like a heavier one.

Building a beefcake lathe bench

So I have finally started building a new bench for my 9a. The base is a 2" tube steel platform that will become the foundation for the 4" thick concrete top. Here are the steps I have so far. Step 1. Start a concrete countertop hobby/part time business. While this step is optional (and...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[Joe Michaels]

I've read about the use of concrete for machine tool bench tops. Over the past 50 years, I have run jobs and designed projects using a LOT of reinforced concrete (the biggest single pour in one day was 1200 cubic yards), and having handled specialized concrete work/repair work on turbine and engine foundations. The use of concrete for a bench top has its pros and cons.

On the plus side: the weight of the concrete will add 'mass dampening' and act as an inertia block to reduce vibration. Concrete weighs 150 lbs per cubic foot.
Also on the plus side: the top can be made to whatever dimensions needed, and 'blockouts' for belting to pass thru, or pipe sleeves for wiring to pass thru can be
built into the forms.

On the minus side: concrete soaks up oil. Also on the minus side: the as-cast surface of concrete is not going to give 'full and complete bearing contact' with the
mounting surfaces on the lathe bed's feet. One way to address this is to make some steel sole plates with 'mud hooks'. The sole plates are pieces of steel plate,
milled flat on the top surface, and could be drilled and tapped for mounting bolts based on the layout of the lathe bed's mounting surfaces. The mud hooks are
pieces of steel bar stock bent at 90 degrees and welded to the underside of the sole plates. The mud hooks anchor the sole plates in the concrete. There is a
homeowner or utility grade of rebar that is made from rerolled scrap steel rather than re-rolled railroad rail. This utility grade is a lot more weldable than the highere strength grades. I'd make the mud hooks out of number 4 ( 1/2" nominal) rebar, putting a 90 degree bend on the and running the horizontal legs out a good 6". Four mudhooks per sole plate. These sole plates then give a solid surface to bolt the bed onto, and also a surface to insert shims to level the lathe.

I'd go with a minimum slab thickness of 4". I'd also put in a grid of number 3 or number 4 rebars. Corners of the rebar 'mat' should be made using bars bent at 90 degrees, with about 8" of overlap where the bars are spliced.

For concrete, I'd suggest a fine aggregate rather than the number 2 crushed stone used in most mixes. For a small pour like a bench top, mixing the concrete on site is the only show in town. The wetter or more flowable a mix of concrete is, the lower the developed strength and the more likely to get curing cracks. For a structural slab, a stiff mix (we go by a measurement known as "slump") is best. It's tempting to use a soupy mix of concrete as it will flow into the forms and around the rebar and other imbed items, and will self-level. However, this temptation is a bad bet to take. A slump test is done on heavy construction projects on each batch of concrete as it starts to come out of the mixer trucks. The slump cone is a truncated cone made of sheet stainless steel, 12 inches tall. It looks like a kid's sand pail with the bottom cut out of it. To do a slump test, when the mixer truck has put a trial amount of water into the bowl of the mixer and given it some turns, a small amount of concrete is startred down the delivery chute and into a wheelbarrow. The slump cone is placed on a level sheet of plywood or steel plate, big-end down, small end up, and about 1/3 of its height is filled with concrete. This is rodded (worked or compacted) with a 1" diameter steel rod, 12 shots, uniformly spaced. The next third of the cone is filled with more concrete, and it is rodded in the same manner, and then the cone is filled to the top and rodded. Any additional concrete to bring the level up over the top of the steel cone. This is then struck off with the steel rod. The slump cone is then carefully lifted straight up in one continuous motion. It is like a kid making sand castles at the beach with an inverted sand pail. The steel slump cone is then stood adjacent to the concrete 'cone'. The steel rod is laid on top of the slump cone so that extends over the top of the concrete 'cone'. A folding rule is then used to measure how far the concrete has 'slumped' from the 12" height of the steel slump cone. A slump of 2 1/2-3" is a stiff mix, and what we'd always call for on structural concrete, even with a forest of rebar and plenty of imbed items like anchor bolts or sole plates. For a bench top, it is a small flat pour, so working a stiff mix should not be an issue.

For attaching the concrete top to the steel legs, some steel imbeds with more mudhooks would work well. I hesitate to suggest anchor bolts such as expansion shields or wedge type bolts. This is because the slab is relatively thin. By using imbeds with mudhooks, concentrated loads and potential pullout failures of anchors holding the legs or the lathe bed are pretty well eliminated.

Once the top is poured, after the initial set, the concrete can be steel trowelled to smooth finish. If the imbed sole plates are used, the flatness of the slab top is not so critical. If desired, the slab top could be finished with a very slight pitch with the imbed sole plates for the lathe bed as the high point, and the finished concrete pitched downhill to the edges of the slab top. This would prevent pocketing cutting oil and similar and make cleanup a little easier. Some steel flatbar could be used for forming the perimeter of the slab. Using steel flat bar a little taller than depth of slab would create a 'chip pan'. I'd weld mudhooks (more correctly known as "shear anchors") to the inside surface of the steel flat bar. This would tie the steel flatbar to the concrete, and add more strength to the overall slab top.

 

[caprottivalvegear]

I've read about the use of concrete for machine tool bench tops. Over the past 50 years, I have run jobs and designed projects using a LOT of reinforced concrete (the biggest single pour in one day was 1200 cubic yards), and having handled specialized concrete work/repair work on turbine and engine foundations. The use of concrete for a bench top has its pros and cons.

On the plus side: the weight of the concrete will add 'mass dampening' and act as an inertia block to reduce vibration. Concrete weighs 150 lbs per cubic foot.
Also on the plus side: the top can be made to whatever dimensions needed, and 'blockouts' for belting to pass thru, or pipe sleeves for wiring to pass thru can be
built into the forms.

On the minus side: concrete soaks up oil. Also on the minus side: the as-cast surface of concrete is not going to give 'full and complete bearing contact' with the
mounting surfaces on the lathe bed's feet. One way to address this is to make some steel sole plates with 'mud hooks'. The sole plates are pieces of steel plate,
milled flat on the top surface, and could be drilled and tapped for mounting bolts based on the layout of the lathe bed's mounting surfaces. The mud hooks are
pieces of steel bar stock bent at 90 degrees and welded to the underside of the sole plates. The mud hooks anchor the sole plates in the concrete. There is a
homeowner or utility grade of rebar that is made from rerolled scrap steel rather than re-rolled railroad rail. This utility grade is a lot more weldable than the highere strength grades. I'd make the mud hooks out of number 4 ( 1/2" nominal) rebar, putting a 90 degree bend on the and running the horizontal legs out a good 6". Four mudhooks per sole plate. These sole plates then give a solid surface to bolt the bed onto, and also a surface to insert shims to level the lathe.

I'd go with a minimum slab thickness of 4". I'd also put in a grid of number 3 or number 4 rebars. Corners of the rebar 'mat' should be made using bars bent at 90 degrees, with about 8" of overlap where the bars are spliced.

For concrete, I'd suggest a fine aggregate rather than the number 2 crushed stone used in most mixes. For a small pour like a bench top, mixing the concrete on site is the only show in town. The wetter or more flowable a mix of concrete is, the lower the developed strength and the more likely to get curing cracks. For a structural slab, a stiff mix (we go by a measurement known as "slump") is best. It's tempting to use a soupy mix of concrete as it will flow into the forms and around the rebar and other imbed items, and will self-level. However, this temptation is a bad bet to take. A slump test is done on heavy construction projects on each batch of concrete as it starts to come out of the mixer trucks. The slump cone is a truncated cone made of sheet stainless steel, 12 inches tall. It looks like a kid's sand pail with the bottom cut out of it. To do a slump test, when the mixer truck has put a trial amount of water into the bowl of the mixer and given it some turns, a small amount of concrete is startred down the delivery chute and into a wheelbarrow. The slump cone is placed on a level sheet of plywood or steel plate, big-end down, small end up, and about 1/3 of its height is filled with concrete. This is rodded (worked or compacted) with a 1" diameter steel rod, 12 shots, uniformly spaced. The next third of the cone is filled with more concrete, and it is rodded in the same manner, and then the cone is filled to the top and rodded. Any additional concrete to bring the level up over the top of the steel cone. This is then struck off with the steel rod. The slump cone is then carefully lifted straight up in one continuous motion. It is like a kid making sand castles at the beach with an inverted sand pail. The steel slump cone is then stood adjacent to the concrete 'cone'. The steel rod is laid on top of the slump cone so that extends over the top of the concrete 'cone'. A folding rule is then used to measure how far the concrete has 'slumped' from the 12" height of the steel slump cone. A slump of 2 1/2-3" is a stiff mix, and what we'd always call for on structural concrete, even with a forest of rebar and plenty of imbed items like anchor bolts or sole plates. For a bench top, it is a small flat pour, so working a stiff mix should not be an issue.

For attaching the concrete top to the steel legs, some steel imbeds with more mudhooks would work well. I hesitate to suggest anchor bolts such as expansion shields or wedge type bolts. This is because the slab is relatively thin. By using imbeds with mudhooks, concentrated loads and potential pullout failures of anchors holding the legs or the lathe bed are pretty well eliminated.

Once the top is poured, after the initial set, the concrete can be steel trowelled to smooth finish. If the imbed sole plates are used, the flatness of the slab top is not so critical. If desired, the slab top could be finished with a very slight pitch with the imbed sole plates for the lathe bed as the high point, and the finished concrete pitched downhill to the edges of the slab top. This would prevent pocketing cutting oil and similar and make cleanup a little easier. Some steel flatbar could be used for forming the perimeter of the slab. Using steel flat bar a little taller than depth of slab would create a 'chip pan'. I'd weld mudhooks (more correctly known as "shear anchors") to the inside surface of the steel flat bar. This would tie the steel flatbar to the concrete, and add more strength to the overall slab top.

I will definitely come back to this post if I ever have to design a concrete workbench, that made for very interesting reading. Also Joe, I was reading some of your posts earlier today about Conrad Milster and was wondering if you heard anything from him recently. I know he was at least alive in Jan 2021.

 

[Jim Christie]

Just to show a few other options ,
I have attached some pictures of articles about Lathe benches
The first one is from the book The Shop Wisdom of Frank Mclean that may have appeared in the Home Shop Machinist or Live Steam Magazine some 30 +years ago .
Also another article form the 1950 Science and Mechanics, Shop Mechanic's Hand Book
It looks like a Logan lathe in the older article.
Jim

 

[Tom A]

What about putting together something like this - OK, the link is showing how to make a lighter weight "decor" type bench, but up-size the pipe, and you'd have a VERY strong and industrial look bench frame - Paint it satin black, and Bob's yer uncle :~)

BTW - There are many on-line examples of this, in many configurations and sizes. Look for "Pipe frame workbench legs"

 

[svs]

Haven’t bought any recently, but Menards sells edge glued oak work bench tops at a reasonable price.

Do what’s convenient for legs, and when/if you find the perfect set, swap them out.

 

[thunderskunk]

The lathe in question is Rivett 504 and associated motor and belting, total weight will be around 130 lbs I think. Lathe alone is 90 lbs. I'll make some inquiries about old sewing machine tables/legs, I know one sitting in a garden center near my house.

Your Lathe is only 90#? What are you trying to cut with it?

I’m not into antiques for the sake of antiques. I have a 100 year old Sheldon 10” lathe, and I’ve rotated through Logan, Southbend, and some other weird brands to settle on this one. Every one of them was ridiculously heavy for one person to lift, even the POS lathe drill monstrosity I thought was a good idea:

I’m your worst nightmare when you post something on Craigslist: I show up with a compact car expecting to get heavy equipment jammed in there. When I went to pick up my Renishaw Equator, the dude selling it was like “you want a surface plate?” To this day, still not sure how we got it in nor how we got it out of that hatchback. I remember a lot of 2x4s… off topic. Anywho. Yea that sounds like a really light lathe.