I own an old Reliant DD-70 Midi Wood Lathe and purchased it new, back in 1993. It hadn’t been used in many years and just sat in storage, collecting dust.
With a renewed interest in wood turning, I dug it out, cleaned it up, but had no place to put it where I could operate it. This old wood lathe is very light (made in Taiwan) and has to be bolted down to something solid to reduce vibration. The solution was to design and fabricate a specialized lathe stand or bench that would be very heavy. The result is what you see in the picture and video, using standard, kiln-dried, “2-by” framing lumber, a bunch of wood screws, and lots of wood glue. The paint was left-over stuff I found in the garage and I applied a couple of coats that left me with a surface much easier to clean dust off of. The height of the bench was dependent upon the height of the lathe spindle from the lathe bottom, and the height of my elbow from the ground when standing. This was done to facilitate a comfortable position for me whenever using the lathe.
