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Ryoken's adjustable Welding/Fab Table

ok, here's what I've come up with for a drawer assembly...



I've had this carry-around box kicking around for awhile now.. just could never find a good use for it at the marina... I was gonna just use it for lathe tools, etc..



but I'm gonna cannibalize it and cut it at the green line and tack weld the lower section to the underside of the table...


it fit's perfect between the legs, 21" wide, 8" deep..... and I like that it isn't all compartmentalized.. will be great for markers, pencils, tape measures, rulers, scribes some smaller squares, etc...










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I've been hunting around for a week or 2 now for killer drawers, used r new.. that would fit well.... I finally came up with this sweet one..

http://www.benchdepot.com/en/workbe...20-front-to-back-industrial-work-benches.html

tho at 20" deep, it would sit WAY deeper towards the middle of the table.. raising that whole "edge support" issue.. figured a 5", 6' deep one for $125 beans or so...

probably smooth and sweet like a Snappy drawer, but at $125ish just for a drawer, I said fug it, make do with what I have kicking around... mine doesn't have killer ball bearing slides, etc like the linked one.. but it's free, and that damn box has been getting kicked all over the shop for yr's now... :doah: :haha:
 
It's perfect for the under-edge of a fab table. It's gonna see some abuse, so slick and pretty isn't the way to go. Bonus for re-purposing something that you've been kicking around for a while...and you sure can't beat the price!
 
I bought heavy roller drawer slides cheap off ebay and made my own full extension drawer for one of my carts. Would work for this too, if you want to put the work into building the drawer box and some end bulkheads to mount the slider. Might also look and see if you can find a Lista or the like that's been backed over or dropped by a fork lift. A fellow could salvage some good stuff there. That said, my grinder cart has an old black Craftsman with friction slides stuffed in it (almost like it was made for it, but a complete accident). Works great other than the drawers are somewhat overloaded and stiff to operate (spoiled by my big roller cabinets).

I also was at the scrap yard once several years back when a factory transfer system had been scrapped. There were thousands of small cart wheels that looked basically like sealed bearings about 2" in diameter a 1/2" wide. I picked through and got several dozen of the easiest to get that were not buried in mud or covered with scrap. I've built a few of what amount to free running drawers out of these. The factory system had these wheels on carts that were basically running inside "c" channel on an assembly line or something. My "drawers" are framed with light angle iron and using sheet metal bottoms just to just roll on the concrete. I call them "low boys" (gap to floor is about 1/4") and they allow me to put heavy stuff (hundreds of pounds) on them and easily roll them under my caster mounted Lista/NewEra/etc cabinets and lathe (which sits on 5" pylons). It would be too much trouble rigging anything approaching a full extension drawer based on this, but something like that might be done to provide pull out storage below your table.
 
oh, trust me, I've been looking at all kinds of drawer slides on McBible, eghey, etc, with the possible intention of making my own drawer.. in addition to religious eghey and CL hunting for quality old stuff...

the slides are cheap, a decent sheetmetal break is not... HF has a cheapie for $70.. it get's "meh" reviews.. but by the time I buy that, the slides, the sheetmetal, my time, it's not worth it at this juncture..

I'm just looking for small capacity for markers, tape measures, couple rulers, maybe some mig/plasma consumables and such.. the lower basket/shelf will be for bigger, heavier material/supplies, occasional tool, etc..


i'll keep my eye out and maybe something nice will fall in my lap down the road that I can mod/replace it with.. but for now, this'll work... I need to bang this project out and start focusing my time, and more importantly dinero, back on the tubebed and the $2000 in toolboxes I need to buy for that... let alone the fuel tank, etc..

I can upgrade this down the road.. still need to get a decent vise for it.. I'm not gonna bother mounting my busted Larin to it..


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eventually i'll get the same vise in a Yost... but that may not be till next "tax return tool binge" season with the "parts to buy" list I have going for the rest of the year.... :haha:
 
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oh, and just a verbal preview of the threaded adjusters... I'm running 1" - 14TPI (fine thread) rod.. about 5" pieces... a plate that the casters bolt to, with a center hole that the rod can fit thru...

weld a thin, jamb nut on top, thread rod thru so it sticks about 1/2 way thru the plate.. burn in to the bottom, grind flush... bolt to caster...

than another thin jamb nut on the rod.. threaded up into a plate welded to the bottom of the leg, with a fullsize nut welded to the inside of it... inside the leg, so the rod threads into a blind hole...

I had TON's of 7/8 course rod here (9 TPI)... but I really wanted fine thread for the caster adjustment.. so I ordered 2' of the fine 1" at $14 for Monday..
 
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Oh, I hear you on all points. But just for reference, I've built shelves and my "low boys" without a brake by using common thin wall angle iron, band saw, and welder (well, I did plasma the 16 ga bottom plates). I've also used (I think?) 16? ga red structural iron (like angle iron) that are roughly 2" x 4". Forget what they are called, but sold along with "C" channel, purlins, etc. for steel buildings. A brake is nice, but if you just want to get 'er done...

I've also got a swivel vise similar to what you show that's not half bad for the price, and frankly looks beefier than that one. Mine's from HF and been in use for nearly 15 years now. For a long time, it's all I had. Now I've added 2 Wiltons, a Record, and another of a decent brand with a flip-flop base that I don't recall at the moment. That's not counting the machinist vises of different sorts. It just took me 15 years to find deals I would pay for, so hand in there.
 
I like the drawer idea. I was in Harbor Freight the other day and saw they had a 5" multi-purpose vise for $70 that looked pretty stout.

Suggestion on the table before you get to welding. It looks like your table top will be a minimum of 28" high. You might want to make it so it can go lower in case you ever work on a tall object. Lowering the table would be much easier and safer than climbing up and down a step ladder if you have to weld the top of something while it was clamped to the table and couldn't be moved.

I say this because my workbench in the wood shop is 30" high. I've had problems on a few instances where I couldn't climb up a ladder w/ a nail gun and hold something in place at the same time. I've learned to keep a folding table in the shop w/ telescoping legs that can go from 20" to 36" and I'll use that on the lower setting to assemble taller projects.
 
BadDog said:
I've also got a swivel vise similar to what you show that's not half bad for the price, and frankly looks beefier than that one. Mine's from HF and been in use for nearly 15 years now. For a long time, it's all I had. Now I've added 2 Wiltons, a Record, and another of a decent brand with a flip-flop base that I don't recall at the moment. That's not counting the machinist vises of different sorts. It just took me 15 years to find deals I would pay for, so hand in there.
Click to expand...

well, keep in mind, I'm no pro.... that vise was given to me cuz the lock for the rotation was stripped, I've never even bought one.. I fixed that, but than proceeded to break the jaw on one end by putting a pipe to the handle.. :whistle: still kinda works flipped over for most of what I do..

but I definitely want another "multi-purpose" rotational one for the fab table.. and hardly anyone makes em and they are all about the same.. the wilton, Yost and westward are all very similar, and all made overseas..

but they ain't no big old wilton machinist, etc.. but I don't want that.. I like the rotational ones for what I do.. I vise up LOT's of tube at weird angles for carbiding, fishmouths, etc..

I certainly wouldn't mind a big old bastard witon but if I'm buying one, I want the rotational first..



runamok151 said:
I like the drawer idea. I was in Harbor Freight the other day and saw they had a 5" multi-purpose vise for $70 that looked pretty stout.

Suggestion on the table before you get to welding. It looks like your table top will be a minimum of 28" high. You might want to make it so it can go lower in case you ever work on a tall object. Lowering the table would be much easier and safer than climbing up and down a step ladder if you have to weld the top of something while it was clamped to the table and couldn't be moved.

I say this because my workbench in the wood shop is 30" high. I've had problems on a few instances where I couldn't climb up a ladder w/ a nail gun and hold something in place at the same time. I've learned to keep a folding table in the shop w/ telescoping legs that can go from 20" to 36" and I'll use that on the lower setting to assemble taller projects.
Click to expand...

i'll peak at the vise.. :D might be a good cheap temp alternative..


and the height is fixed now.. low of 29ish, high of 43, 44.. ain't changing that after all that work.. :haha:

I'm not too concerned about it, I don't fab "tall" thing's really... not like I'm welding big fuel tanks all day or something.. at that point I put it on the floor or some 6 x 6's or 5 gal buckets...

as I mentioned I want that low seat comfortable height, but I may also want like 40, 41 for standing with my bad back or a bar stool..

if I wanted to go shorter, both 1/2's of the legs would need to be equally shorter, cutting WAY down on my max heights..





change in plans.... not only is it getting that lower expanded steel basket, but I'm doing a flat expanded shelf down about 10" or so from the upper frame.. should have just enough expanded...

did some eyeballing and it looks like plenty of room to add it.. maybe i'll use that for templates and template material, or flat stock, etc, cuz it'll be a bit shallower...
 
Expanded steel lower shelves is a good idea. Mine's got 2 of them where I store "shorts", pry bars, all sorts of stuff. And the dust and grit just falls through instead of accumulating. I think you are going to be happy with what you are building. Mine has served me well.

Oh, and I got my first Wilton, a 5" Machinists vise that came with brass jaws (thoroughly beaten, but cleaned up nice on the mill) for $25 with a broken bottom swivel plate and about 5 coats of house paint slathered on so you couldn't even read the name. It looked so bad, the seller thought it was worthless, but I recognized the bullet Wilton shape, so gave him what he asked. I think it stunned him that I didn't even haggle. :D
 
oh yeah, the vintage, larger Wilton's command big coin... :waytogo:



I knew I was going expanded right from the get go.... EVERYTHING in my shop is always getting coated with grinding/sanding dust... figured I needed all the help I could get with that one.. :haha:
 
after 3 days of eleventy hundred pounds of fiberglass being ground into my skin, and numerous bleeders, I'm ready for a weekend of fabbing... :woot: :doah:


1" fine thread rod and stuff ready for adjustable feet dealio...





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I LOVE caster wheels. Almost everything in my shop is on casters. And what is not NEEDS to be. In due time. Caster wheels are not cheap for good ones.
 
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so.... ready to install the legs as soon as they dry.. than flip it over onto it's wheels...

I've decided to hold off on doing the shelves for now... leave myself a project for down the road.. I just don't have time now... pretty much back at work full-time as of now, and I need to get back on Mutt pronto...

pic's tonight of it rightside up... :pimp:
 
thanks.. :D


I'm quite pleased with it... I think it'll be sweet once I get the shelves in and vise on, but this will do for now..
 
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