Is this a wood lathe or a metal-cutting lathe. A metal cutting lathe, the only kind I am familiar with, need a very stiff (metal, not wood) base to keep the bed absolutely straight and preferably level. Looking back at your post about 2" steel tubes for a base, this must be a wood lathe.

An old beater lathe is a good way to learn turning. Years ago I made a wooden base for my first lathe - doubled up 2x4 construction, angled cross braces. A good idea is to see if there is a local woodturning SIG. We have a fairly active one in the Rochester NY area. They meet once a month, give demos, lots of great advice.

BTW, Penn State is quite alive and well. I just got a new catalog in the mail today.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Penn State

It's definitely a wood lathe, danny

The guy who sold it said he'd never used it, himself. I should have asked if he had the manual, but it might be available online.

John, That's what I'm going to do, make something out of 2x lumber for a base. There may be fellow lathers out there. Thanks for the Penn State website, John.
Norm

Ditto the suggestion to look up a local turner's group...you can learn so much so fast. Here are a few tips to get you going. The height of the spindle should be at the height your elbow as you hang you arm straight down (this will seem high at first but will really help with fatigue). Load up the stand with lots of weight (sandbags are great). Keep your tools VERY sharp...they are safer and will make turning so much more enjoyable. Wear good eye protection. Practice on green wood, any old piece of recently cut piece of wood that is sound...not yet cured firewood is great. Check out The American Association of Woodturners" and have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: AAW

Hi,
If you have questions about woodturning, join Sawmill and ask. The members are incredibly helpful. As for making a stand, the more wood you use the better. For a heavy lathe, I joined 2x4's making 4x4's, braced and crossbraced them and cut an mdf board into several 5" wide strips, gluing and screwing together two of them. You may want to cut openings to allow the chips to fall down away from the lathe bed. In the processof bracing the stand, make the long ones parallel so that you can put sandbags on them. The heavier the stand the less vibration you'll have. Good luck, HB