Projects Building a new fab table: Somewhat budget consious

Sneek the "kinda Roach Rod" a little closer in one of the next pics.

 

Shut down last night tired and dirty. Back at it this morning!

Kinda nothing. That is the RR.

There are a few more cool projects you may spy in the background too!

 

Well then show the whole thing. Is it all in one (original) piece again?

 

No, and that car is not the subject of this thread. Just enjoy the build and whatever pops up in the background.

 

well, c'mon dude... i'm waitin' to see some pics of them feets! LOL

PS... yur shiny new bandsaw is markin territory already

 

Don't post yet I need another beer and a sandwich ---- OK I'm back post away..

 

Been a busy morning, phone calls and walk-ins.

Here is the welded center section with the feet bosses.



Then setting up the four corner legs and feet bosses.



And a primary mockup,



Eating my sammich and then back at it !

 

That ain't gonna' be stout enough.......................................................Bitchin', Man.............Me Likey!

 

Have I ever mentioned that I hate you!? Those legs are way too cool for a fab table... Them's furniture grade! I hope Wes is back - I'm headed to Cave Creek to Grant's...

 

Wes is still down. May be out for a while, and when I could really use him!

 

That table is going to be awesome.......... wish I lived a little closer I would have to stop by our place......

 

awesome, again....

 

Thanks!

Ok, I am filthy dirty from welding this thing together!

Here is the update:

I have a method to building stuff like this. I was taught by some seriously talented guys that the best way to eat an elephant is "one bite at at time" and it metaphorically works here. The trick is to measure and cut all your parts as square and accurately as possible. Then starting with one end beam and the two side beams, square them and tack weld them perfectly. This is where you want to really spend some time and get it right, check to make sure things are dead level, square and even. Because nothing else will work from this point on. To ensure my first connections stay square I placed a 2X6 0.25" wall tube inside as a gusset to the end and also as a reinforcement to the forklift holes later on when I need to move this thing.





Once I am satisfied everything is right, I weld it fully.







I spent a bit of time laying out where all my substructure was to be placed before I got too much further. I use a good square, 1" tape measure and a silver pencil from the welding shop for this sort of layout. With everything marked out, the second beam goes in.

Channel iron like this tends to have a curve to it, in this case both pieces curved inward to the middle of the structure. This is fine for me, actually a benefit to holding things together. Fortunately channel is pretty damn straight in beam. So even though the first connection is square it will take a slight persuasion to get the second bit in.





Tack weld it in place and make sure it's square in all directions before you weld it in place. I measure diagonally to ensure my first "cell" is dead nuts and if it is, then weld the second beam in place and move on to the third.



Then it's time to install the second end beam and brace. This thing fell in place pretty well. I needed a slight bit of persuasion to tighten up all my seams. I checked for squareness again and diagonally measured each cell and the whole structure overall and was within a 1/16"! And it's dead level across all the beams.

 

At this point the frame is together. Time to move on to placing the feet. This is the only part that gave me a bit of snot to put in. The side beams tightened up a bit and I had to love tap the middle leg substructure into place with my 5 lb mini-sledge.

I had to wrestle it a bit to make it square to the rest of the structure, but once plumb I welded it in place. Then I moved on to placing the feet on the four corners.







Now the fun process of flipping this thing over, by myself! I happen to have one of those old air powered bumper lifts laying around and some tall pipe stands for safety. I sure as hell don't want to drop this thing on me or get in a situation where I hurt myself.





And here it is flipped right side up, now to weld up all the topside joints and gussets.





That's it for tonight. Lorna and the cats (Edsel and Maddy) are demanding I show up for a few hours at home.

 

Nice! And nice background cars.

Chris

 

Ah, yes the old "flip it over by yourself trick". It's always a little scary. I used a cherry picker and lifted it almost vertical and then I "pushed" it over center and set it back down.

This thing is bitchin, I have been wanting a nice flat layout table for fixturing stuff and layout work....I may just copy this and put it on wheels.

 

Wow. impressive table. Nice thread with easy to follow photos. Thanks!

 

Too fricken cool Steve! Love the build style and the write-up too!

 

Very nice. Looking forward to more.

 

Almost done with another long day on this thing.

First thing this morning I put the base on stands, paper and plastic-d the area and sought out some paint. I try and use a Hammerite type product but I forgot to order some. I have used the Rust-Oleum hammered metal finish on other stuff so I picked up four cans and went nuts.

And now I'm GREEN!





All painted up, time to put the feet on and move some cars around and place this thing and level out the frame in preparation for the surface plate.







I broke out a long straight edge to see if the plate had any wave to it. If it did, I would make the surface concave a then weld the plate to the frame from the underside. But as luck would have it, this thing is really flat. There is a little bit of bow to it lengthwise. So I decided that I would bolt it down using 1/2"-13 flat head bolts tapped into the channel.



Once I had the plate squared and centered to the table I scored a centerline down the middle of the plate. Then started laying out the first four mounting bolts on one end.







I center punched then pilot drilled the holes and drilled to my tap drill size. I needed to create a clearance hole in the top plate and I didn't want to drill past the top plate, so I machined a sleeve to slip over the 1/2" drill bit.



Then hit all four holes with the 82º bit, did a bit of cleaning and cinched it down good.





That's it for tonight. Going to continue to punch and thread holes until I can't stand it.

And for the randomness of it all, enjoy!

 

man it looks like you had lots of fun after i left.

later jim

 

Nice looking table! Is the center line scribe deep? I so what tooling did you use to add it? Always nive to have a permenant reference on these....

 

For now I just used an ordinary scribe. I am thinking about ways to engrave it a it deeper into the surface, but for now its fine.

 

Are you planning a cap or plug on top of the adjusters to stop them from filling with junk?

 

Looks like I have some time this morning... Still need some help?

 

I can just see Emilio Estevas floating in a glow-in-the-dark '65 Malibu as we speak!!! One of my favorite tunes ever!

 

Nice Work!

 

I like the idea of bolting the top plate down to the frame with flathead Allen screws. No warping from welding to the frame so it stays flat. Flatness is GOOOOOOD!

Did you drill the channel at the gauge distance? It varies with the size and weight of the channel.

 

very cool. all it needs is some wheels just slightly higher than the leveling feet.

 

Hmmm, I wonder if that'll take up too much space in my 3 car shop? Wait, I can dump the clutter on my two much smaller work benches off on the new big table so I can have room to work again, haha. Seriously though, nice work! Those tables are so nice to work off of.