My homemade lathe spawned from my need to do something in during my house arrest in 2020. My DIY lathe had its limitations, which led to the acquisition of a Mid-America cue lathe. Having no experience or knowledge I simply built a bench top to put my new lathe upon and began working on a bunch of bar cues. Inevitably my workstation evolved as my need, knowledge, and experience grew. Some changes spawned from efficiency improvements, some new tooling, and just “I want its”.
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Now with a few years experience I decided to update the lathe station to better fit what I have learned. I was disassembling the chuck on the head stock to clean, grease, and bore and decided to keep going. I had already been thinking about how to build a box around it to reduce the noise while using the router as well as the dust. I also decided to add a riser under the lathe so I am not hunching over the lathe so much. Simple idea that should only take a few days… yeah right.
My workspace is limited and I don’t have all of the woodworking tools I would like. One piece of plywood required a bank loan and it would be difficult for me to cut, so I made an executive decision while at the depot and switched to a sheet of foam board. Lightweight, easy to cut, and adds some extra sound barrier. I did my best to plan for all contingencies as I built the framework. Missed a couple things, but I was able to adjust as I went.
What a mess I made.
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The plan was to build a riser with a raised back panel for general use and then attach a removable front piece when using the router. Simple. The first part came together nicely. The logistics of the tool bar became an issue. I ended up making the tool bar removable so they are not in the box while the router is running. There is space underneath to put the lathe parts when not in use (cross slides and tail stocks). The side walls clip in and the windowed front gate is on slip hinges to easily attach and remove.
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Sides clipped in.
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The Dynamat dampened the sound down to around 65 decibels making it a little less than my shop vac. No more dust in the air and all over the floor! The lighting is better and the raised height is great. Better on the back and easier to see what I am doing. The extra drawers are a big plus to have more things conveniently at hand. I knew I would have to rewire the switch on the power feed unit so I could operate it outside the box. I put the ShnitPwr (chuckle) power supply in one of the small drawers along with the re-wired switch. The station will probably get a tweak or two as I get back into using it, but so far I am very pleased.
Cleaned back up.
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