Box section wall thickness - milling machine stand

[Ben17484]

I may be buying a new milling machine and I’m considering making the stand myself, as the stands that come with these machines are pretty bad.

The mill is 320kg (roughly 700lbs) and I want to make the stand essentially a cube.

What wall thickness and dimensions would be best for that weight and application?

Also, I remember seeing that adding same to the inside of the box section would help add weight and dampen vibrations. Is this worth it?

Thanks in advance.


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[Firstram]

I built a stand for a friend’s RF-30 out of 2” square with 1/8 wall, it’s stout enough that it didn’t need any diagonals. I would even be comfortable with 1 1/2 square 14ga tubing. This has a 1/4” top and 4x8 forklift pockets.

 

[Eddyde]

Also, I remember seeing that adding same to the inside of the box section would help add weight and dampen vibrations. Is this worth it?

"same" I assume you mean sand. I doubt filling 1 ½"- 2" tubes wold make much of a difference as far as dampening machine vibrations. However, if you filled the entire space below the machine it probably would have a noticeable effect. Though I'd opt of the storage space...

 

[cooper1203]

I once tied myself up in knots when i wanted to make some car restoration ramps worrying about bending moments etc etc. in end end an engineering company said dont worry about it as long as the droop in the middle is less than the length divided by 360 its fine.

i made them out of 50x50x5mm angle iron with the biggest gap between supports around 500mm can drive a 1.5 tonne car up them and leave it there for 2 years with no bowing whatsoever

the idea of filling the stand with sand is an audio suggestion when dealing with audio speakers you ideally want them suspended in space not touching anything to allow the resonances of the speaker to be clear. this of course is impossible so they limit contact with the stand by use of spikes and fill the stands with sand to eliminate any harmonic vibrations or outside vibration that would counteract the ones produced by the speaker. In your case you want the machine to be solidly attached to the stand so sand wouldn't do much other than add more weight

 

[RJSakowski]

I used 2" x 1/8" sq. tubing for my RF30 clone stand. No problems after 40 years.

 

[cooper1203]

if it helps i used canterbury steel as they were the only one interested in delivering to a private address.

 

[C-Bag]

My old RF30 came with a table out of 1 1/2” tube with 1/4” top 34”w x32” deep which is roughly the real footprint of the machine. I would never go with anything smaller IMHO as the space underneath is the perfect size for toolboxes full of the tooling and gives me plenty of room to keep tools and indicators on the table during a project. I’m not a believer in added mass etc. I do believe in get er done.

 

[Ben17484]

if it helps i used canterbury steel as they were the only one interested in delivering to a private address.

Thanks Cooper.

I’ll look them up.


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[Ben17484]

My old RF30 came with a table out of 1 1/2” tube with 1/4” top 34”w x32” deep which is roughly the real footprint of the machine. I would never go with anything smaller IMHO as the space underneath is the perfect size for toolboxes full of the tooling and gives me plenty of room to keep tools and indicators on the table during a project. I’m not a believer in added mass etc. I do believe in get er done.

Thanks.

I was actually planning on going larger than the standard base the mill should come with as I want to be able to fit a tool chest under it.


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[SouthernChap]

40 mm box section should be fine. If you want to be sure you could go 50 mm (and let's face it, it'll look cooler too!).

50mm x 50mm x 3mm Mild Steel Box | metals4U

50mm x 50mm x 3mm Mild Steel Box

www.metals4u.co.uk

To be honest 2 mm wall thickness would be fine but eh, the difference in price isn't that big.

I've used metals4u and they're pretty good.