It also depends on what all you want on your lathe stand, beyond just an extension. Mine is built to be all-in-one. Not just a stand for the lathe, but also storage cabinet space for turning stock, drawers for storing turning tools, etc, and I mounted a slow speed grinder on it with a sharpening jig. I tied all the power into a fused junction box style power center so I can move the stand into position, plug in one plug and the whole stand is hot. Lathe, lights, grinder, it’s all ready to go.
That said, when you’re considering a bed extension, consider the stand as a whole. Is it just a lathe stand? Then where are you going to keep everything else? Is it a lathe station? In that case, where will it be positioned when you use it…and how much room will you have around it? Does it become a 360° work space (which is nice because you can possibly walk behind the lathe to sharpen and not lose the deck space), etc. If you position certain elements on the stand, be sure other elements can still function (don’t stick something at the end of the bed that makes it hard to take the tail stock all the way off the bed, etc). If you’re going to use external supports, keep in find that a bed extension has to be flush and coplaner with the bed, otherwise your centers are off. It’s not something you just toss on or fold up into position and ‘it works’.
What I’m saying is: future cast the the whole thing, including actually using it as well as storing it, so you’ll understand what it should actually look like in a perfect world.
Mine isn’t perfect, but the compromises I made were because of space. That said, it works well for me. (FWIW - I never use the extension so I didn’t build space for it
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
