johnm
11-12-2005, 12:06 AM
Hello All -
I've said it before, but my Father in Law makes McGyver(?) Look like a chump. Today, we pretty much finished putting the table together. We followed Wayne Locke's table design for use with a lathe - Wayne, if you read this, thank you again SO much for those drawings! Orden made a jig to weld up those dog-leg crossmembers all nice and square and it worked like a charm.
We changed the leg mounting and some of the gussets, but otherwise followed the plan, 'ceptin' for some of my screw ups - those I did without much planning at all.
We got the dimensions within about 3/32" on the width, and it's square, plumb and level. After we get it to the shop on a pair of forks and flip it over it may be another story, but for now I think that we are well within striking distance. The distance to the outside of the top flange of the channels is right at 76 1/2" +/-a 32nd.
I read through the "table assembly" portion of the 'Botble', even tho' we were "rolling our own" - the tip about putting everything on sawhorses was a great idea. We used jackstands instead, because of the weight and not having to worry about flexation throwing off our plumb and level. It took all morning to get the channels set up properly before Orden tacked in the first three crossmembers. Every adjustment usually modified at least one other parameter. I was surprised that we had to torque the channels vertically to bring the upper and lower flanges plumb and parallel.
Before Orden tacked in the crossmembers, he took some lengths of 3/4" wide strap, 1/4 thick and crossed them at each end to hold the channels in position. He also put diagonals to each corner and tacked them down. After that he welded in the rest of the crossmembers. They stood steady enough to weld them in place without a bunch of clamps and futzing, so it went pretty quickly.
The legs sat in place and we just clamped a stretcher between them while they were being welded. One leg started out splayed out about 1/4", but we heeled it in and Orden gave it some volcano juice to hold it in place.
We put casters on and these trick little legs to finish things up. Tomorrow we are going to clean up the table and prime it before we move it. After that, it's a coat of paint and into the shop for assimilation with the Shop Bot.
I have several pics of the construction and will post them in a separate message after I figure how to make them less huge.
More to come!
John Moorhead
I've said it before, but my Father in Law makes McGyver(?) Look like a chump. Today, we pretty much finished putting the table together. We followed Wayne Locke's table design for use with a lathe - Wayne, if you read this, thank you again SO much for those drawings! Orden made a jig to weld up those dog-leg crossmembers all nice and square and it worked like a charm.
We changed the leg mounting and some of the gussets, but otherwise followed the plan, 'ceptin' for some of my screw ups - those I did without much planning at all.
We got the dimensions within about 3/32" on the width, and it's square, plumb and level. After we get it to the shop on a pair of forks and flip it over it may be another story, but for now I think that we are well within striking distance. The distance to the outside of the top flange of the channels is right at 76 1/2" +/-a 32nd.
I read through the "table assembly" portion of the 'Botble', even tho' we were "rolling our own" - the tip about putting everything on sawhorses was a great idea. We used jackstands instead, because of the weight and not having to worry about flexation throwing off our plumb and level. It took all morning to get the channels set up properly before Orden tacked in the first three crossmembers. Every adjustment usually modified at least one other parameter. I was surprised that we had to torque the channels vertically to bring the upper and lower flanges plumb and parallel.
Before Orden tacked in the crossmembers, he took some lengths of 3/4" wide strap, 1/4 thick and crossed them at each end to hold the channels in position. He also put diagonals to each corner and tacked them down. After that he welded in the rest of the crossmembers. They stood steady enough to weld them in place without a bunch of clamps and futzing, so it went pretty quickly.
The legs sat in place and we just clamped a stretcher between them while they were being welded. One leg started out splayed out about 1/4", but we heeled it in and Orden gave it some volcano juice to hold it in place.
We put casters on and these trick little legs to finish things up. Tomorrow we are going to clean up the table and prime it before we move it. After that, it's a coat of paint and into the shop for assimilation with the Shop Bot.
I have several pics of the construction and will post them in a separate message after I figure how to make them less huge.
More to come!
John Moorhead