This is major metal work where a bolted structure may be possible but a welded one would be far more preferable, stable, and easily executed. The name for the feature you mention is "pedestal": strong individual supports that can tightly couple your lathe to the floor and have features incorporated for leveling and floor attachment. Adding drawers and complicated storage my not only be a design distraction but a complication that compromises the functon of the pedestals. A well designed pair of lathe pedistals will challenge the talents of a home metalworker. If you need storage I suggest you consider that separately. You may wish to have some storage in the pedistals but don't left that rule your decisions, think of them more as optional extras. Slimsy-a$$ heet metal "stands" are not your friend when you are trying to max the performance and accuracy of your machine tool. ġ300 lb? A trifle as machine tools go but you still need an underlying structure proportioned to the machine. I'm 6'3" though, so you'll have to consider what will be a comfortable operating height.
Plus it's high enough to actually stand at and not hunch over, or operate from a stool. The lathe runs pretty quiet on there, sure is better than that cheesy thing the lathe is SUPPOSED to sit on. I welded the tubing right to the cabinets, just sanded off a little paint for the bead. Just had to whack it with a hammer a couple times to straighten it out. They came with the lathe, so it was a good place to start for the stand. The lathe WAS originally just setting on the cabinets, but the headstock end started to cave in on top. The square tubing was courtesy of TSC's dumpster, some sort of display.
It should be close so you don't need a stupid ammount of shims to level the lathe itself. As long as your floor is half assed level, it won't be necessary to level the stand precisely. Put some MDF board on top of this whole contraption, and shim the LATHE level, not the stand. Weld some angle iron tabs to it and weld bolts sticking straight up to bolt the lathe down. You'll want 2 cross braces from front to back for the headstock, and 1 for the other end. If your tool cabinets have some 3/4" square tubing allready down the sides as a frame, you don't necessarily need the middle legs, but if you have enough tubing, I'd do it. You'll have to fab some bracketry if you plan on bolting it. I'd weld it, just because for me that was WAAAAYYYY easier. The cabinets should be about as deep front to back as your chip pan, maybe a little more. Put two lengths of tubing the length of the lathe bed over top of your cabinets, and have them so they EXTEND PAST the cabinets on top of more square tubing which you use as re-enforcement/legs for the tool cabinets. Then if they're sturdy enough, they can be used as legs, jusr re-reforce them from the outside with your square tubing. Look for ones that are SUPPOSED to support a workbench. However, whilst the former would be light enough to lift off the bench yourself, the latter would need an engine crane and a trailer to get home.Get a couple tool cabinets that look like they'd be good for holding your lathe type stuff. For most home machinists and small repair workshops something between a 3” x 15” and 6” x 30” machine will be ideal. How big to go? Well, bigger is not necessarily better - and moving larger machines can be an expensive proposition. Some American makers, South Bend for example, also quoted the bed length as part of the specification however, this is an irrelevant figure - it neither tells you the longest piece of material that can be turned, nor the length of the lathe. With a “bigger-and-better” attitude the Americans of course quote the largest diameter of a workpiece that can be turned clear over the bed - termed the "swing" - and so, in the example above, the American sizing would be 8" x 24". In this case the centre height is 4" and the distance between centres (the maximum length of material the lathe can accommodate) 24". The "English" method of sizing a lathe is to quote the centre height - or "throw" - the distance from the centre of the chuck to the nearest point on the bed.
When you see a lathe branded as, for example, 4" x 24" what does this mean?