Will it support my mill? Or should I quit being lazy and do it right?

[Bob Korves]

Regardless of the material used, make sure that there is good provision to prevent racking. Heavy timbers or steel beams will only make structures as rigid as all the corners are held square. Plywood, sheet metal, diagonal cross braces, and other ideas will make it rigid. Design them in from the beginning.

 

[MontanaLon]

One word.

Steel

That is all.

Steel is just not in budget at moment. If I had the material laying around I’d go that route in a heartbeat. I have to get it out of car this weekend and would rather have it on stand than laying around in pieces.

Do it right, Mine is 4X4 legs & 2x6's solid no vibration, 6 years old.

That is where I am headed.

Regardless of the material used, make sure that there is good provision to prevent racking. Heavy timbers or steel beams will only make structures as rigid as all the corners are held square. Plywood, sheet metal, diagonal cross braces, and other ideas will make it rigid. Design them in from the beginning.

Plan is to enclose 5 sides of it, top, bottom, back and 2 sides. Leaving front open for storage. I’ve got old bolt bins that will fit and allow room to store accessories I am acquiring over time.

 

[matthewsx]

Steel is just not in budget at moment. If I had the material laying around I’d go that route in a heartbeat. I have to get it out of car this weekend and would rather have it on stand than laying around in pieces.
That is where I am headed.

Plan is to enclose 5 sides of it, top, bottom, back and 2 sides. Leaving front open for storage. I’ve got old bolt bins that will fit and allow room to store accessories I am acquiring over time.

That's a pretty tight budget, I could probably do it with new angle steel for less than $75.

Of course I already have the welder and tools to fab something like this up. One source of good angle steel is old bed frames. Not the new ones that are flimsy but the nice old ones that you can usually get for free or cheap at Goodwill.

I'm sure the wood will work, just make sure to glue AND screw the joints so it doesn't vibrate apart over time.

Cheers,

John

 

[RJSakowski]

Steel is my first choice for a stand, the primary reason being that steel doesn't change dimensionally with temperature and humidity changes.
All my machines are on steel.

If I were making a stand from wood, I would make it using 2x and 4x stock and use construction screw or bolts and nuts rather than nails. I would also glue all joints. I build my work benches this way and have no problem with racking even under heavy use. Plywood backs and side will also stiffen up a bench. I would run 2x4's or '6's under the mounting pads. Vertical would work better than horizontal.

 

[hman]

+1 on everything RJ and others have said. My biggest concern with your crate is that it was probably put together with nails. As others have pointed out, nailed assemblies can loosen over time, especially when there's vibration.

Whenever I want to build something stout and long-lasting out of wood, I use nuts/bolts/lockwashers for the major joints and good quality deck screws (not drywall screws - I've had too many of those snap while driving them) for minor ones. And as RJ and others have pointed out, plan ahead to avoid racking. Even thin panels of plywood spanning the legs can often do the trick. I've not been using glue, but probably should.

 

[dulltool17]

My stand is 4x4s, 2x4s and the birch plywood that was the crate in which it arrived. Top is heavily braced 3/4" plywood with 4x4s directly under the mounting locations. As Bob said, one needs to keep it from racking; this is done with multiple 1/8" dia cables, 1/4" eyes and turnbuckles. Like hman said, I used quality deck screws, with the brackets used for deck framing. The 500# machine is still exactly where it was 4 years ago.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

wood will work fine, just build it as if you and 2 buddies will be standing on top of it jumping up and down

Don't forget to leave a hole for the knee elevation screw, it protrudes below the base of the mill when the knee is in the lowest position.

 

[MontanaLon]

My stand is 4x4s, 2x4s and the birch plywood that was the crate in which it arrived. Top is heavily braced 3/4" plywood with 4x4s directly under the mounting locations. As Bob said, one needs to keep it from racking; this is done with multiple 1/8" dia cables, 1/4" eyes and turnbuckles. Like hman said, I used quality deck screws, with the brackets used for deck framing. The 500# machine is still exactly where it was 4 years ago.

I was actually looking at all thread today to tie the sides and front and back together diagonally.

wood will work fine, just build it as if you and 2 buddies will be standing on top of it jumping up and down

Don't forget to leave a hole for the knee elevation screw, it protrudes below the base of the mill when the knee is in the lowest position.

Good point. I almost forgot to leave a gap between the bolt bins for the elevation screw. Will have to rearrange how I have that arranged.

How high is the standard stand for a machine this size? I've I have limited head room in the basement and would hate to have to drill a hole in the floor above to get the drawbar out. I see the overall height of the Grizzly on the stand is 68" so I am shooting for that or a touch lower.

 

[projectnut]

Here's a partial picture of a wooden work bench I made back in the 1980's. It's 14' long 36" deep and stands 30" tall. It's made of treated lumber with the top and stringers being 2x6's, while the legs are 6x6's. I originally made it as a rebuild bench for GM 8.1 liter V8's. There is enough room to disassemble the entire engine and organize all the components on the bench. I no longer rebuild engines, but it has doubled as an anchor for a drill press, and assorted unfinished projects.

Note the top is screwed and glued to the framework. The stringers/legs are mortise and tenon joints, and also glued. You can see the lag screws in the center leg You can't see the entire bench, but there are 3 sets of legs.

 

[Aaron_W]

The Clausing sits on a steel box 21x21" x 24" high. Mine has the optional 4" riser block so it is 70" tall sitting on its box, but the standard is 66" tall. I had a similar issue with ceiling height, and my wife wasn't open to the idea of cutting a hole in the kitchen floor so I could get a bigger mill in there. It seems like most of the mills put the motor above the head, greatly increasing the height.

Grizzly sells a base for its mill / drills that is very similar to the style of the Clausing's base, but the dimensions are a different 18x28 x 24"H so longer but narrower. It is $325 so you could make something for a lot less but might be of interest from a design point of view.

Mill drill base


I was thinking a well built underbody truck box might be an option, if you could find a used one within your budget.

Something like this. The cheap ones are tin foil, but some of the ones I see used on semi-trucks are built with probably 16 or 18 gauge and are pretty solid.

Truck box