I am currently looking to upgrade to a larger lathe than my current excelsior 10x18 bench-top. The sale on the Laguna Revo 18/36 has me pretty tempted but I am a bit worried about the height of the spindle. I am taller, 6' 4", and my bench-top lathe is on a bench with the spindle at 48" from the floor and I find that to be fairly comfortable, but I am sure I could get used to a couple inches shorter but would prefer not to. The Laguna has the 3" risers available but they are $300 and after shipping them to AK via barge it is probably closer to $400, I can justify the ~$500 price difference from the 18" Grizzly alternative but its harder as that approaches $1k (thats a lot of chucks and gouges). I like the look of the G0766 but its not in stock till late October which puts in squarely in my busy season at work.
Does anyone have experience building a platform to set their lathe on? Searches for 'lathe riser blocks' tend to come up with ways to increase the swing. I am concerned I may run into stability issues and may be walking into a self-made problem just to save a few bucks. One idea kicking around in my head is to build a shallow form, pour in concrete to give it some weight and stability for the lathe to sit on, in theory that should also level itself which would be good since my shop floor is far from level. Though then I wouldn't be able to move it easily, I doubt I will know exactly where I want to put the lathe on day one.