Bench Top Mounting System

[C-Bag]

Beautiful. Good job.

I love Formica and used a chunk we had left over from out kitchen remodel for a small work station/ bench. I love unistrut and completely forgot about that as an option for attaching tools! I've been contemplating a new roll around work station with my 8" bench grinder, 3ton arbor press and possibly my tapping machine. This has been bugging me because I was trying to figure how make the whole thing adjustable for the different units and had completely forgot about unistrut! D'oh

 

[KBeitz]

Another bench hookup that I use on all my benches is class 3 hitchs.
Slide a tool in and use it. Slide the tool out and put it away...
Very strong and very fast...

 

[jdedmon91]

I have a small steel plate mounted to my workbench. On the plate I have 1/4 20 threaded holes to mount my portable bandsaw stand, my tapping machine, and chain sharpening grinder.

Here is the video

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Man! I'm jelly (as the girls would say...) I however would not want to get any machinery down your stairs (saw plumbing in the ceiling, i assume its a basement?) Then again winter in Colorado in a garage isn't fun either!
Nice!

 

[Eddyde]

Thanks! Yes the shop is in a basement, getting machines in is a little extra hassle but they aren't going out, at least not in my lifetime Also, the temperature is pretty nice and stable year round.
Here's how I got the mill down there...
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...ling-machine-in-a-low-ceiling-basement.38765/
I will soon be posting my venture getting a lathe down there, it involves a backhoe, stay tuned...

 

[GunsOfNavarone]

Having all those floor joists has got to be awesome. You could put a hoist just about anywhere! Looking forward to the next (backhoe install)!

 

[C-Bag]

+1 on the slide outs, somehow I missed that. I don't see this flexibility as a lack of commitment. I've gotten really tired of major overhauls to something because I couldn't see into the future and grasp what I could do to help work flow.

One of the best things I've run across for how I do things and the projects I do is 80/20 aluminum extrusions. I needed flexibility above and beyond unistrut and happened to score 74' of the 2"x2" stuff plus a bunch of hardware for it off the local CL. It was originally an old DIY CNC router table that got scrapped. I made a jig table out of it and a radius cutter for doing precision convex and concave mating curves for metal forming. The true beauty of the stuff is if something doesn't work you can take it apart and reconfigure it. Here's the radius cutter:

 

[extropic]

I think your repurpose of the salvaged drawer units and also the mounting system are brilliant. I'm pleased to bump the thread so more people may become aware of it.

 

[Eddyde]

I think your repurpose of the salvaged drawer units and also the mounting system are brilliant. I'm pleased to bump the thread so more people may become aware of it.

Thanks!
Update: Using the bench for just over 6 years now, I can say it works very well, as intended. There is nothing I wold change about the design, though, I would have liked to have used a different color Formica...

 

[RandyM]

Thanks!
Update: Using the bench for just over 6 years now, I can say it works very well, as intended. There is nothing I wold change about the design, though, I would have liked to have used a different color Formica...

Eddy, In those six years how often have you rearranged the machines? And, what color top would you chose now? Does the rail fill up with debris? You can get covers to snap in the exposed rail. It is made of plastic and just snap in and out. Makes for a nice clean look. I used on my overhead lights mounting.