Hello whit3rd,

I was hoping that with a substantial thickness sheet, I could support the
lathe, and taper turning attachment, motor bracket, and then still be able
to support DTI bases, etc plus the swarf, tooling, etc

I will be folding the edges for the drop tray aspect of it, and once I check
the Young's modulus, I'll know if I need to add anything else under the tray.

I figure the Taig and the motor way less than a chuck for a larger lathe,
and the drip trays,e tc on them are thinner than my proposal, but I do like
to understand what I'm doing...


Thanks to you and Ned for the replies... Bob's question is certainly valid
if all I was chasing was drip protection - it's the need to weld, drill and
tap the tray which is forcing this change from timber to steel.

Thanks all,
Des




On Jul 25, 5:02 am, des bromilow wrote:

I don't know what the correct property is I need to look for here...
Basically
I have a tabletop which supports a small lathe, and the tabletop is
made
of wood, and I'm replacing it with sheet steel.
The lathe support is a substructure under the sheet, the sheet itself
just has to hold random tools and swarf and capture any dripping
coolant?

A thin sheet won't be less 'floppy' than wood (will sag if loaded in
the center). That's why corrugated, not flat, steel is used for
roofing
and such.
Bending the edges of the sheet to form a lip will stiffen them a lot.
That's how steel shelving gets its stiffness.