I’ve finished building a new stand for my lathe, the old one was metal, loud and vibrated too much. My Beaver 3400 lathe now sits on a solid ash stand with 3″ thick legs and has a mdf top to help absorb vibration. I’ve rigged up my 1750 rpm 1hp motor with an in-between jackshaft to slow the whole thing down to as low as 230 rpm. From lathe headstock to jackshaft I’m using a set of 5-4-3-2 step pulleys, from jackshaft to motor I’m using a 6-5-4 step pulley and 2″ pulley. In the future I’ll likely swap out the motor pulley for a matching 6-5-4 to take advantage of all speeds. The motor is gravity tensioned and is bolted to a swinging hinge. The jackshaft lifts on a set of hinges but I clamp it down on shims which works just fine for now.
