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Ryoken's adjustable Welding/Fab Table

nope, no levelers.. just the casters, table needs to be easily moved.... it should be pretty damn level, and my shop floor is pretty level... I could probably do something between the casters and the bottom of the legs, but that would mess with my "low" height some,.. and honestly I'm not worried about it, I'm not building satellites here... :haha:

but the height adjustment is important to me.. I want to be able to set it up low if I want.. I often sit on 5 gal buckets around the shop.. my current little dinky fab table is about 28" high.. and it's very comfortable working at it sitting on a bucket...

but I want it to go pretty high in case I find it easier/better to stand while working... or if I get a nice tall metal stool for the shop... 35" and 37" are right in the middle of the adjustment range too...
 
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for those that don't peruse Mutt's thread, these are the casters..





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Gotcha, the casters are a good idea...and if your floor is decent the table won't rock. :waytogo:
 
my plan is that if by some chance, I'm getting a bit of a wobble, I can adjust it with a couple washers between the caster plate and leg plate...

the table should be pretty balls on tho hopefully, I'm actually doing all the height adjustment holes with 1/8" starter holes so everything is pretty precise hopefully...
 
I think you'll find that concrete floors in shops are at best in the neighborhood of flat (level is unimportant for this point). And if your table frame doesn't flex, it will have some wobble. If heavy enough, it's possible that the casters will be able to absorb enough you won't notice, but if it had metal legs to the floor, I would put money on annoying wobble.

My fab table frame is pretty heavy and my floor is for all visible effect perfectly flat. And yet, when I moved into my shop, in the first months there were a few adjustments a few feet this and that way. Every time I moved it, it wobbled until I took it up with the adjustable leg. Same thing happened at my old shop, which also seemed flat until I had a rigid 4 leg table on it.
 
thanks... yeah, that's definitely an issue as this table will be moved around ALL the time, wheeled from one part of the shop to another.... as you mentioned hopefully the uro of the casters, and spinning it around to find a good spot, will work...
 
tho, now that you guys have brought that up, I do have an idea for a fast adjustable feet mod...

I don't need to do it initially, but if it becomes an issue, I can mod the existing setup with the adjustable setup...
 
Bad Ass Paul. It's about damn time somebody else besides me posts up some garage fab projects :D. Cool table build brother. I have plans for a sick table build myself in the future. And still get to the english wheel I want to build, I have tub cut for already. I'm ALLLL about adjustability and versatility. Looking forward to the finished table :waytogo:
 
thanks Rob... :D


well, material SNAFU already... guess it comes from me not having all kinds of variety around the house to look at for examples... I figured 3 x 3 x 1/4 legs, ok cool, I'll just do the rest of the frame out of 3 x 3 x 1/8...

well, don't like it.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Mj1Us13Yk with the thinner wall and sharper corners it's just too gappy at the ends for my liking... whereas, the slider material, 2.5 x 2.5 x 3/16 would work perfect... sits in just a bit, etc..

so that was a $45 mistake, got a big pile of cut up 3 x 3 with no use at this point.. at least if I hadn't cut it up, I could have just cut it in 1/2 and stored for future projects... now it's not nearly as usable.. :doah: I'll have to figure out some shop thing to fab with it, maybe a brake or something...


anyway... not a super huge deal, i'll just pick up another stick of the 2.5 on Friday when I get the other 2 things I need... so, I'll finish up the sliders today, than work on the tubebed the rest of the week...

was just trying to kinda bang out a bunch of the table stuff cuz the 3/8 top is just so heavy to move around.. had to engine hoist it up onto the sawhorses... oh well, i'll get back on it next weekend and bang it out done...
 
I could add something down the road.. but I certainly wouldn't call 3/8 plate flexy... :haha: had to put a f*ck ton of pressure on it to get it to bend back...

it's flat now... I think once the frame is welded to it, it'll be rock solid...

since I've gotta wait to pick up that 2.5" square for the frame, I'm working on incorporating some quick height adjusts for the casters.. I've had some 1" threaded rod sitting in a toolbox drawer forever now, so I'm gonna use that in a typical jamb-nut adjuster under each leg....

it'll bump the whole table height up about an inch, but that's fine..
 
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63chevyll said:
I guess i misunderstood you. I thought you said it moved
Click to expand...


sometimes I'm not very clear... :doah: it kept coming back after bending it, till I put a good 3" push past flat the opposite way.. that took out the 1/8" crown....
 
till the weekend I'll leave it here.......





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got a good plan for fine adjusters on the bottom.. just need to order some thin, heavy 1" nuts from McBible...
 
thanks bud.... :D


ok, main frame section tacked up and ready to be fully welded..... you'll notice the x-member to the right is set in a bit more than the one on the left... that's so the 9" deep drawer section can go right under the top plate between the legs...

oh, 2.5 x 3/16 square on the frame... 3 x 3 x 1/4 for the legs....



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gonna weld the frame up Friday... I'm probably just gonna build the lower basket/shelf and install it now.. much easier flipping it around now without the 180 lb top... than I'll stitch weld the top on at the end......


monday, I get the parts in to build the adjusters for the bottom of the legs.. so next week for that, but the table should be done by next Friday hopefully..



Ryoken - pretty sure he's the only psycho that'll have a fab table that has the lower frame and underside done in RG..... :pimp: :haha:
 
When I built mine, I had to do the final frame flip with a engine lift. Then we had 4 guys working together to set the top in place. As I recall, the top was approaching 500 lbs alone. Since then, it's pallet jack or fork lift only.
 
the frame is definitely pretty heavy at this point... haven't picked it up really, but according to material used, it should be about 80 lb's right now...

actually I kind of retract part of that first post.. I'm gonna fab up the whole basket/shelf, fit it, but NOT install it till after I weld the top on..

it would be in the way of me keeping that top "under tension" with the bottle jack setup to help keep it stable while I stitch it.. so I'll have the table upside down...

I'll weld the basket/shelf in after I flip it back over with the engine hoist...

I'm figuring the table will probably be about 325 to 350 lb's...
 
Just as a point of reference, my top is not welded on, it just sits there, and even with a good deal of horsing stuff around on top of it, it pretty much stays put. No worry about warping, and I can even move it for convenience if desired (more/less overhang generally). The stuff that would normally make it move gets mounted in receiver tubes arrayed around the perimeter of the support frame. And then I can drop them all off (benders, vises, bead roller, ring roller, etc) to have clear access all the way around. When we moved it from my old to the new shop, we secured the top with ratchet straps until it was in place.
 
yeah, that's like my welding bud's stuff.. like 60 x 120, 1" thick type gig's.. I bet one of his tops and frame is probably 3,000 lb's.. and he has 2! :haha:

I'm MUCH more limited in LAB™ space... 3' x 4' is going to be perfect... I couldn't have gone any larger.. and compared to what I've been using it'll be the Taj Mahal of fab tables for me... :pimp: :haha:
 
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