Wheelchair Accessible Lathe Stand

Dave R · 13 Apr 2019, 13:23

There's a great volunteer woodworking group in North Carolina that is very active. They do a lot of outreach to communities in the area and have a number of programs they run to expose folks to various types of woodworking. One of the things they've done is to bring wood turning to some groups of kids and disabled veterans. They have a few mini lathes that they use to teach turning and they've designed a stand that is adjustable so it can be used by shorter people and those who use wheelchairs. They asked me to create a plan for the stand to share with others. I used SketchUp and LayOut for this simple project.

Dashes feature in SU2019 came in handy.

A simple modification to the design allows the stand to be knocked down for easy storage in the group's outreach trailer.

Sorry about the jpg compression. Didn't want to bother with png's.

Dave R · 13 Apr 2019, 14:42

Thanks Liam. I thought about the stretcher getting in the way but then it occurred to me that you don't want to be in so close to the lathe that it's under your chin. I think even if your shins were up against the stretcher, you'd still be too close to comfortably operate the lathe. I was sent a photo of a wounded vet using a lathe on the original design of this stand and they had plenty of clearance.

I also thought about modifying the design to set the stretcher farther back but since it doesn't seem to be a problem and it would be easier to drill all the bolt holes on the leg along the same center line, I left it alone. There's no reason that an individual couldn't decide to shift the stretcher back if they wanted to, though. Or maybe just nail it on the back of the legs.

L i am · 13 Apr 2019, 14:51

Fair enough Dave, between the time I posted and now I kind of came to the same conclusion as you did, It was just initially counter intuitive;)

L i am · 13 Apr 2019, 14:52

Nice work and a worthy cause Something I do not understand though wouldn't the lower cross member impede the wheelchair? Or does that accommodate the required reach?

Dave R · 13 Apr 2019, 14:54

I agree with you. It didn't seem very accessible to me at first. I ended up sitting and imagining I was working at a lathe to see how close I wanted to be.

tuna1957 · 13 Apr 2019, 15:43

Great model ..... Great Layout presentation..... Excellent job

pbacot · 13 Apr 2019, 17:10

Great job, Dave!

Dave R · 14 Apr 2019, 12:24

Thank you!

alvis · 15 Apr 2019, 18:09

Yes, great Layout presentation. Nice