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Sb 9 table ideas

Matt_50

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Hey guys, finally found a SB 9 and should have it soon. Can I get some pictures/examples of your tables and or benches? I'm thinking of using square tubing with a wood top.
 
Hey guys, finally found a SB 9 and should have it soon. Can I get some pictures/examples of your tables and or benches? I'm thinking of using square tubing with a wood top.

Matt: Congrats of your SB 9" and I look fwd to seeing some photos of it when you get settled. I'm very glad you passed on that other machine.
This should be a fun and satisfying experience for you.

In regards to benches, you really can't go wrong with a rigid steel framework of ¼" wall rectangular tubing with a good thick wooden top. Many people like the butcher block top that is sold at H Depot and other places. I think anything you design / build yourself (or have built) is going to be miles above the other wobbly "work benches" available as a kit. Hopefully you have a good 220V welder and a horizontal bandsaw for cutting pieces. It just takes time to DIY. Many here will specify an aluminum top instead of the wood....or even concrete!

Not having a decent 220 welder and my thorough disgust of what's available online (and expense), I decide to make a custom bench for my 9" out of solid oak. I bought the raw lumber on April 7th, so that tells you how long it has taken me to get this far. I easily have 600 bucks in lumber alone, and there is a lot of detail work, but I think it will be very nice when completed.
It takes a lot of patience to custom build something like this...almost as much as totally rebuilding a lathe. Admittedly, there are days when I don't even look at it, but because it is taking up so much room in my shop, I have to keep grinding away.

Making the drawers and internal framework for the rails nearly ate my lunch, but luckily, I got the math right and everything fit as designed. Almost all of the side panels are stained, w/4 coats of poly, and only need to be screwed onto the frame. Doors still need piano hinges. Biggest task ahead of me is trimming the two massive blocks of oak and fitting them down into the frame. Of course, they will be fine tuned and painstakingly leveled completely across the span of the bench to eventually receive the 4 foot bed. I will certainly be glad when I can finally start
assembling the lathe on this bench!

In the photos below, the panels are in place but not screwed down. The large opening in the front right will be covered by a double-door, and there will be an adjustable shelf as well. And of course, a strip of LED lights to illuminate this storage space. I am also considering a flip-up shelf behind the bed to catch cuttings. The big oak pieces are just sitting on the top just to show how thick they are. I will also make a custom chip tray.

I do realize that I could have just made another butcher block top like so many others do, but that is an expensive and heavy chunk of wood to have to manhandle and cut down on my table saw. I did not want to end up with a big leftover piece of waste either, that would ultimately just sit
around collecting dust, and not getting used. Just something else that I'd have to keep moving from time to time. I was looking for something
more custom-built than just another rectangle of butcher block.

On a budget, you might try to find a good heavy metal desk at a surplus store...kinda the stuff they made back in the 60's. Then put a thick
top on that. My problem with desks is that they are just too low and not a good working height. You don't want to be bending over to see the work.
I think chest high is where you want to be if at all possible. Unless it's a good original SB bench, there isn't much out there.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Enjoy your machine.

PMc

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Wow, that looks amazing. I was thinking of making another bench, not that nice admittedly. My main bench is all wood extremely heavy and took me weeks to make with hand tools. But I don't really want to invest that amount of time again. I wanna play with my new toy! Lol. So I have some 2x2x3/8 square tubing I thought I'd use up. My welding skills are not the best, I've already asked a friend to see if he will have time.
 
here's mine. All scrap lumber - 4x4 uprights, 2x6 or 4x4 front to back and 2x4 side to side. 2 x 3/4" melamine/ mdf/ treadmill board for the surfaces. It's pretty sturdy and didn't cost much, mostly the money for the draw slides.
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Wow, that looks amazing. I was thinking of making another bench, not that nice admittedly. My main bench is all wood extremely heavy and took me weeks to make with hand tools. But I don't really want to invest that amount of time again. I wanna play with my new toy! Lol. So I have some 2x2x3/8 square tubing I thought I'd use up. My welding skills are not the best, I've already asked a friend to see if he will have time.

Thank you sir. I was considering going with pine, but I couldn't find a single square or untwisted piece at the box store. I just knew I would regret pine
further into it. Considering the time and effort to level my other lathe (with a precision level), I thought it best to start with better material.
Besides, I enjoy the woodwork; keeps me busy at my old age.

PMc
 
Can't take credit for it, but mine came with a stellar setup...Steel bench, rolled-edge chip tray and back "wall" and shelf with large steel storage bins lining the back adjacent to the countershaft assembly. Pretty ugly and nasty when I bought it, this is after the resto.

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Tobnpr very nice! I definitely think I need to add some sort of tray to my build. I suppose I could start with a big cookie tray?...
 
Tobnpr very nice! I definitely think I need to add some sort of tray to my build. I suppose I could start with a big cookie tray?...

Bakery goods are seldom LONG enough.

One COULD use two rolled edge rectangular pans as a pair - one for each end-"pedestal".

Then splice-in a deeper drop-center as a removable under-tray for easier chip handling?

Especially if coolant - or even just messy brush-on cutting oil - was on the menu?

Also have a look here:

Lumax - LX-1715 Galvanized Drip Pan (47" x 25" x 1/2")

But cost?

Sheet metal can be fabbed very easily by hand - so long as you have no critical dimensions to hold.

And you do not have any critical dimensions to hold.
 
Tobnpr very nice! I definitely think I need to add some sort of tray to my build. I suppose I could start with a big cookie tray?...

Absolutely! Even though the bench is a chip tray, I still keep a big cookie sheet under where I'm cutting.

I just could never see using a wood bench; I keep the lathe well slathered in oil and there's always a generous amount of it lying in the chip tray. I suppose for lathes that are mostly bench "queens" and see little use it would be OK, at the time I bought it, it was used 3-4 days a week.
 
Using my square 2x2x3/8 tubing, this picture is what I envision the top will look like. If I go with wood I'm thinking a minimum of 1.5 inches. But what if I go with metal? What should my minimum be?

Should I change my design?
 

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I just could never see using a wood bench; I keep the lathe well slathered in oil and there's always a generous amount of it lying in the chip tray. I suppose for lathes that are mostly bench "queens" and see little use it would be OK, at the time I bought it, it was used 3-4 days a week.

How fortunate you are to have purchased a machine that came with a metal bench and a coolant return tray. To each their own, but I would speculate that a vast number of
9" SB lathes are currently sitting on a wood frame of some sort right now. Even SB sold wooden benches for the 9". Funny, I never heard of the "queen" model of lathes.
If you are referring to lathes whose owners have invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars on tooling, and who choose to keep their machines clean and well-maintained,
then perhaps you are knocking a lot of owners. Matter of fact, your rig doesn't seem to be used much at all either.,,,another bench queen?

PMc
 
Using my square 2x2x3/8 tubing, this picture is what I envision the top will look like. If I go with wood I'm thinking a minimum of 1.5 inches. But what if I go with metal? What should my minimum be? Should I change my design?

I would add some small 45 degree braces in the internal corners too while you're at it. 1.5" wood would be the minimum I'd use...but that's just me.
See if there is a wood mill in your area that can provide you with a FLAT 2" single piece of oak or poplar. It's not expensive. Try to avoid pine building
lumber. I would almost prefer your gluing 2-3 sheets of marine plywood together, but you gotta keep it weighted and flat. Maybe a local wood worker
could use some bucks and can do that for you.

PMc
 
no idea on metal thickness (that shit gets heavy real fast), but 2 3/4" sheets of marine ply glued and screwed together will be stiff, vibration resistant and won't move much (if at all) with humidity or temperature changes. I used a large galvanised steel oil drip pan under my SB9, then a couple of cookie trays this wife wouldn't miss to catch the bulk of the chips.

I think one of the biggest things to work out is storage - either size your bench so a couple of HF multidraw tool boxes fit underneath or get a bunch of full extension slides from Amazon and make your own.

Then find a nice bit of thinnish sheet metal to make a backsplash out of, that'll help keep your wall, bench and workshop cleaner.
 
Matt, a .250" mild steel top welded or bolted to your tubing frame should be more than sufficient to hold that lathe. If you weld the frame and top, keep the welds short after you tack everything together and skip around to minimise the distortion. Jim
Oh, and I would weld some threaded tabs on the ends of the legs for leveling feet/bolts...
 








 
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