Zachary Hoyt - Posted - 03/20/2018:  18:56:38

I have been meaning for a few months now to do something to raise my Shopsmith up to a more suitable height. I only use it for lathe turning, disc sanding and horizontal drilling, but I use it often for those jobs. I had originally thought of welding up some kind of framework to go under the stamped metal legs it had, but recently I looked the situation over carefully and decided it would be better to make wooden legs for it in place of the metal legs. The new legs have raised the whole machine about 14" and it is much better not to have to bend over to use it, and an unintended benefit is that it feels like I can see the work more clearly since my head is closer to it. The leg assemblies are made of 8/4 ash that I had on hand. I know a number of folks on the forum use Shopsmiths in one way or another, so I hope this isn't too off topic.
Zach

The front side

The back side with the table rolled out of the way

Meles_Meles - Posted - 03/20/2018:  20:03:52

I'm a rather tall guy (6'4") and found that my back would start to ache after some time spend on my lathe, so I raised it by putting heavy-duty locking casters under all the legs.

dlaughery1013 - Posted - 03/20/2018:  20:21:36

I've raised my work table twelve inches to make it easier on my back and my eyes. Nice job, Zach. Regards, Dave L.

wizofos - Posted - 03/21/2018:  07:29:44

Looks good to me Zach. I have an ongoing project to standardize the height of all my tools and work surfaces as well as make them portable on casters. I built roll around work tables 28"x36" so that I can have several projects going on at the same time. The work benches can be pushed together to make a larger surface as needed. They are all the same height as my table saw and band saw so they can be used for infeed and outfeed supports.
FYI: you can get good inexpensive casters from Harbor Freight if you buy cheap moving dollies and removing the casters.

DC5 - Posted - 03/21/2018:  12:35:51

Looks good Zach. I still use the other tools on my Shopsmith, but that's likely to stop when I buy a table saw as a retirement gift to myself. The Shopsmith table saw scares me, but it's what I have. When I use the lathe I lift it up onto a couple of 4X4s, which gives it enough height so my back doesn't hurt when using it.

dr4dpet - Posted - 03/21/2018:  17:20:26

I am no where near your height Zach, just a hair under 6,4', but like others here I understand how much raising your work surfaces makes things better. For a couple of years I worked in a clinic previously owned by a 6'5" vet. He built all of the cabinets, counter-tops, and exam tables about 8 inches above the standard height. I loved it, but no one else seemed to like the building.

Dan Drabek - Posted - 03/21/2018:  19:14:50

Another benefit is that wooden legs tend to damp vibration better than metal legs. A plus on any machine tool.
DD

lab_dad - Posted - 03/22/2018:  07:01:24

Zach,
On my lathe I made legs like yours but then I faced the sides with plywood and filled the cavity/void with sand. The sand adds weight but also a great deal of "dampening". This really helps when turning off center items.

Martin

Zachary Hoyt - Posted - 03/22/2018:  07:26:55

It feels to me like there is less vibration with the new legs, but I hadn't known that was an advantage of wooden legs in general. I had just thought it was because the new legs are a lot heavier than the old ones were. The sand idea is interesting. I have thought about making a shelf between the two sets of legs and piling boxes of walnut shorts on the shelf to add more weight, but I thought it would make it harder to clean up so I haven't done it yet.
Zach