Lathe stand with leveling and coolant system.

[toglhot]

The first thing I did when I got this lathe home was to throw out the stand it came with, looks nice, but what a piece of rubbish.   So, with no decent stand I made my own with an accurate levelling systemI devised along with a coolant system comprised of a cheap brushless DC pump, an old 10 litre fuel container and some garden retic pipe and fittings.  
The stand is made from 50mm heavy wall tubing I had lying around, some new RHS, some 50mm x 8mm flat and some 65mm x 8mm angle. 


Made in two sections, the bottom section of which is loxined to the floor.   It has a small shelf at the top, a pull out drawer under that and two shelves under that with two hinged doors in front. The top shelf holds chuck jaws and other smallish stuff, whilst the pull out drawer houses micrometers, verniers and other metrology gear.   The top shelf behind the doors holds chuck, faceplate, change gears, steadies and a few other odds and sods while the bottom shelf holds off cuts of short stock.  The coolant pump is mounted to the back wall, and the rest of the coolant system is housed behind the stand.

LEVELING SYSTEM
The top section of the stand is made from 65mm x 8mm angle and has four 12mm x 1.25 bolts welded at each corner, these locate in four holes drilled into the top of lower section, leveling is by way of these four bolts.   Using a machinist’s level, accurate to 0.02mm, it took just five minutes to level, probably a bit flukish, but I didn't mess with it after that.   The lathe was moved a week or so ago so I’ll have to level again – one day.   Sorry about the picture order but this forum's picture uploader seems to have a mind of it's own.
   

[toglhot]

COOLANT SYSTEM
The coolant tank is a 10 litre fuel container which sits on a shelf mounted behind the cabinet and the pump is mounted inside the cabinet just below the bottom level of the tank. The swarf tray has two drains which drain the coolant back to the tank via a 25mm hose running along the underside of the swarf tray which terminates at the fuel container screw top lid.

The pump delivers coolant from the tank to the 13mm tube running along the top of the cabinet’s ply backing and joins the 25mm tube via a step down joiner. Halfway along the 25mm tube is a T barb take off which delivers the coolant back to the tank making it a full looping system which aerates and mixes the coolant at each use. There are two 6mm take offs on the 13 mm tube and they deliver coolant to the two coolant nozzles, one on the tool post the other mounted to the splash guard. A 13mm tap interrupts the return flow to provide pressure adjustment for the two nozzles if required. 


I haven’t needed to touch anything on this system since installing it, and I have just topped up the tank after two years use.   The system is sealed apart from the two swarf tray mounted drains so coolant loss from evaporation is negligible. The looping system also has the effect of pushing the coolant draining from the swarf tray through the 25mm tube and back into the tank.
This of course also pushes any swarf entering the 25mm retic tube into the reservoir; however, as the outlet feeding the pump is situated well above the bottom of the tank I’ve found no need for a filter system to protect the pump from swarf ingress. I should also mention I’ve done a fair amount of milling on this lathe and the fine swarf generated by that hasn’t presented a problem.
                   

[TomG]

Nice use of wood and metal!

I also like the use of the plastic tank for the coolant. That must save a lot of cleanup time when the coolant gets nasty.

Tom

[Dr Stan]

Well done.  Excellent design and craftsmanship.  Far superior to anything available on the market for small lathe stands.