My mid sized lathe is very similar to the wm250 although not as nice but similar size.
The original stand which cost around $200 au was horrible so i ended up making a steel cabinet using 50mm RHS and enclosing it with 12mm plywood , it has a drawer ,with storage underneath on one side and a vertical slide out rack that stores my drill chucks , the face plate and 4 jaw for the lathe.
Mine is on castors to facilitate easy moving if needed but is held in place by some brackets to my bench which is weighed down with a few hundred kilos of metal stock
If you can weld ( even roughly) i feel it is the way to go but a sturdy plywood bench with timber bracing will also work ,structural plywood is more stable than plain old timber .
I'm just in the process of modifying that lathe cabinet as i made it a little high stupidly believing that the extra height would be better for my back , problem just transferred to my shoulders as i have to lift my arms up from a natural position to wind the cross slide, as Duncan posted naval height is about right or upto elbow height if you like a little more height but i wouldn't go any higher .
The other stupid mistake was setting the lathe too far back as i initially liked the small shelf at the front to keep my measuring tools on but the means to see what is going on in around the cutting tool or when threading or boring i have to half climb over the lathe so it will be getting moved forward and a tool rack added the the splash gaurd
I recently purchased a bigger machine that came with the generic stand and it will be going to scrap as well as i don't like that stand either , basically two rectangular boxes standing on their end joined with a piece of 1.5 – 2mm sheet and the mounting holes that hold it down to the floor are in a pocket so you cant locate the machine then dyna bolt it down , you have to set it up ,mark it , pull it back out ,drill ,set the dyna bolts then lift it into postion and bolt down – way too much work and it is very unstable if not bolted to the floor.
Don't start me off about the stand for my big mill ,once again very flimsy and cost over $200 i could have made a steel one for half that !
All these machines and stands came from the same supplier here in Australia – won't mention who though !
Ian