I recently bought a new lathe and quickly realized that the pallet it was shipped on was almost the right work height that I felt comfortable with. I opted to make some adjustable feet that would give me a minimum of 6" additional height. So I started out with 4" square tubing and used 1 1/4" X 2" bolts for the adjustable feet. The feet are made with some 3.5" shaft that I had laying around that I cleaned up on the lathe and cut 1" thick plates to weld the bolt heads as feet. For the tubing I drilled out the mounting holes for the lathe and the holes for the adjustment bolts, then I tapered the end of the tubing to give it a nicer profile. Once a welded al the bolts inside the tubing I also added a piece of pipe from the adjustment nut too the top of the tubing and welded them into place. I re-inserted the assembly into the bandsaw so I would just skim the square tubing and cutting the round tubing thus everything would be at the same angle. Then I capped the ends and cleaned and blended everything with a flap disk. After a few coats of paint I installed them on my lathe and pretty happy so far. Only thing left to do is make the final leveling adjustment. Quick measurement with a builders level was to raise the back legs about 1/8" and the tailstock about 1/4". It's my first lathe, really wanted a sturdy base and not worried about the feet but I do have some concern with the actual base/cabinet not being heavy enough. We'll see after some test runs if it's gonna stay within tolerance or not.
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