I did not build the lathe bench in the first post, but I did build a bench. The more I looked at the drawing, the more I thought the angled legs were going to be annoying to make, and I’m not patient or good enough to do that yet. So I simplified the design, thus.
Square 90 degree legs, with lap joints. I got some of those joints done, but then I decided not to worry about the others. This is the result.
It’s on castors which you can lift and drop so that you can rest the base on the floor when you’re not moving it, and I reinforced the base with a couple of cross-members including one which extends past the width of the top to give it more stability. It works fine! It’s pretty stable (although I’ve not turned anything very lopsided yet), and it can be moved around (just about!). Very happy with it overall, it’s functional.
And so far, I’ve made one oak bowl and one mahogany bowl on it.
Super relaxing and a lot of fun.
I have used Sketchup Free for the various projects I wanted to plan and it works out great! It’s not easy, but it isn’t terrible and it really helps. What it doesn’t do is help visualise how big something will be (the planter turned out massive), but that’s also my achiles heal anyway (cooking too much food, building things too big, buying too much decorating stuff, etc.)