It would seem that like myself, most people aspire towards a QCTP as opposed to the 4 poster that comes as standard with our machines.
For my little wm180 I bought an Indian one, Soba I think, however when it came to my Warco GH520 with its 5 inch centre hight, I decided that something a little heavier was called for. After spending a few weeks looking round to see what was available both on ebay and in various web based shops, I started getting feeds to youtube videos showing how to make your own. Most of them were complicated double headed devices that were far beyond my ability and the ones to buy were quite expensive.
I decided the best thing to do was to design and build my own by adapting various ideas to fit my lathe and my needs. The first step was to decide on tool size and as I already had 16mm tools from the four poster that came with the machine, I thought I'd stick with that. Then I looked at a compromise of what sizes were popular for the body and tool holders and what size of stock was available at my local metal supermarket. I decided to make the main body from 70mm x 70mm by 60mm mild steel and got a big lump of 50 X 50 to cut into 70mm lengths for the tool holders. Once I had the sizes I drew the rough plans on my computer and converted it into a pdf. I then discovered a tool post simillar to mine, incorporating 60 degree dovetails, that was free of copyright on an educational website so used the drawings from that to make the tool holders.
I did most of the work on my AXMINSTER ZX30M MILL DRILL and the turning on my WM520 Lathe over a period of a few weeks but I'm well pleased with the results and it's as good as any I could have bought but at a fraction of the cost.
I've attached some photos of the finished Items but if anyone wants pdf plans I'd be hapy to post/email them, just ask.
Cheers, Griff.