Making a new worktable.

[hman]

Wowsers .... just Wowsers!

 

[MrCrankyface]

So, still working on the details.
I've learnt from previous mistakes that the drawer front shouldn't protrude too much or crap will gather on it and fall into the drawer when you open the drawer...
So I bent this lip up, quite satisfied with the look.


Went over every single plate with the DA sander to get clean edges and chamfers.
Great way to absolutely destroy sandpapers but the finish is exactly what I was after.


Since I had to take the drawers out to flatten and sand everything, I decided to glue in some thin reinforcements underneath.
The weights preload the bottom a tiny bit so hopefully it prevents sagging when fully loaded with tools.
The plywood "floor" is only 4mm pine, so quite soft.


And then just repeat that a whole bunch of times...
Once this is all dry I'll fill some voids with plaster and they should be ready for paint to prolong their life.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Starting to feel like I'll be working on this project for the next 30 years.

Took all hardware off the drawers and marked it so they get back on the same drawer.


Plastered and started applying some kind of primer paint.


Sanded it smooth again since I had some severe brushstrokes and a few runs.
Then made up this ghetto-rigged spinner thing.
Let's me put a drawer ontop and easily rotate it around, whilst elevating it above the surface below.


I brushed a pretty thick layer of supposedly light gray paint on the underside(looks white to me) and then used a spraygun for the sides/top/inside.
Just one coat so far, will see if I need two or not.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Alright so the drawers didn't have the right "feel" to them with just 1 coat so I sanded down just the fibers that had risen up and applied a second coat, now they're perfect.
Reattached the handles, fronts and slides.
I want to fix the fronts to the boxes with contact cement but since that's pretty permanent, I'm going to wait until I've had a chance to do a final test fit with all the drawers.


So I proceeded with taking everything off the workbench itself, which was a challenge in itself.
Still need to remove the slides and granite level thingy.
Might have gone over the top with the filler but it's pretty therapeutic applying it.


Before taking the CI plates off I chamfered every edge all around them.
Not sure if it comes off on the photos but it makes them look way nicer "in real life".
Also sanded and wire-wheeled off all the rust and old paint from the sides, haven't decided if I'm going to paint that or just leave it.
To save space I put them high side up and to prevent a disaster if either of them falls over, I clamped them together.

 

[MrCrankyface]

To have a break from the nasty wood working, I had some fun with the two flatbars holding the CI plates to the worktable.
I figured it'd look better if I milled out the space between the plates, since I have a decent gap between them.


After that I went to town with a wirebrush and DA sander before painting them.
I had the choice between black and black. So black it is.


After sanding down the plaster I rolled everything with primer.
Serves two purposes I guess, it makes it easier to spot imperfections and also seals the wood a bit so the final paint doesn't get sucked in too bad.


I skipped priming these parts so I could insert some more stuff here..
These holes are right underneath the CI and granite plates and above the storage drawers/cabinet .. So any dust that gets in here will go right into the storage parts..
So I cut some slices of plywood for ledges, glued and screwed in place.


Then some more plywood ontop of this, the fit is so tight that I hope it will add further torsion resistance.
Everything is screwed and glued but I also went all around with some sealer to really guarantee nothing gets past here.


Feeling like I was nearing the finish line I decided to make things more difficult for myself.
Used a router trimbit to cut this huge hole in the back, then spent another hour cleaning everything up with a sander.


Why might you ask?
Well the bench is 80cm deep, and the drawers only go 54cm in.
This means there's around 26cm of unused space in here, not a huge amount but too much to waste IMO.
So this should open up this space in the back for further storage, no idea for what yet but rather have it than not.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Took all the feet off and put it up on jackstands.
After several coats of primer and paint with some sanding in between.
I had lots of issues with runny paint so it was a lot of "2 steps forward, 1 step back", but at least the finish is improving.


Eventually I managed to get all factors just right and got this finish.


I mentioned quite a while ago that the feet kept falling off.
Since I took them all off I decided to modify them a bit, there's now a tiny little magnet in the bottom of the foot.
Just enough force to make sure it can't fall off on it's own.


And with them all mounted back on the bench, measured to the same height from the bottom of the bench and locked down.
Might need to adjust in the future, we'll see.


Not such a great angle but this is the "new" compartment I made in the back.
Sure looks better than plain wood...


To make sure not too much garbage gets in beneath the surface plate I added this foam stuff.
Should help quite a bit.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Been procrastinating this quite a bit since I was sure reinstalling everything was going to be a pain in the behind..
Started laying everything out yesterday to just get it over with.


The drawers were a tiny bit too close to eachother last time so I 3D-printed custom spacers for an easy install.


This made the spacing between each drawer perfect BUT the top drawer now doesn't fit, and this was the ordeal I was really not looking forward to.
Decided to just sand it down with with a rough 36 grit paper, actually went quite fast and had to be careful to keep it even to the scribed line.
Went around all edges with a brush and a few coats of paint afterwards just to seal it up.


Finally got everything back in place, I really hate lifting those CI plates, had to do a real sketchy setup with my engine hoist..
Need to come up with a better solution for the future but don't have time to rebuild/modify my hoist right now.
The small area in front of the surface plate will hopefully get a steel plate ontop of it, both to protect and to have an "abuseable" surface.
At least I was smart enough to put the bench in the right-ish place before I put the CI plates on it.


Tons of drawer space and place for more tools that I (currently) own.
I think the added thickness of paint made the slides on the tooling shelf too tight so it's not very smooth,probably need to sand that down a bit to improve the slide.


The tool shelf ended up fairly low to account for my tallest tools, which made the understorage a lot less than I hoped.
But used wisely it should be good for those rarely used tools, time will kinda have to tell.


And finally a proper shot of the backstorage.
50cm/20 inch ruler for scale.
Really need to make a new cover for the surface plate, the current one was part of the crate it came in and is absolutely falling apart.
Would be nice to have something light yet sturdy I could take off and hang on the short side of the bench when not in use.

 

[woodchucker]

good luck with your new bench.
My metal surface plate has two pins (ones missing)... but they were lifting pins, that you wrapped a strap around both and lifted.
you may want to drill deep holes (to help support those pins) and have threads at the ends so that they don't just pull out.. if you make it a tight fit on the shaft into the deep hole the hole takes the weight, not the threads. just an idea, you can remove the pins when not needed.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Thanks! Currently I use these, it's mostly just the sheer mass and the engine hoist not being very easy to move that just makes it difficult to move things around.
The granite plate doesn't have any holes though, but it's light enough to be able to move somewhat easily(50-60kg).


I've made some more progress, finishing touches I guess.
First with a proper cover for the surface plate.
Glued and nailed a bunch of leftover plywood together.


Some plaster and paint later, and the addition of a 10mm thick steel plate infront of it, I think that finishes it off nicely.


I'm positively surprised by how much you can fit in this unit, still got a few empty drawers.
The brown "shelf" on the bottom is a bit of a temporary solution since I didn't have any material in the right size at home, it will work for now.
The upper 'shelf' ment for ISO40 cones also works with some adapters I printed for holding other tooling I got like custom flycutters and sawblade arbors.


I've spent a rdicilous amount of time designing holders for stuff but it really pays off in the end.



So that finishes this project for now, now it's just minor visual details(like that brown shelf) and filling the thing up.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Just a bit of experience dumping after using it for a while.

+The weight is amazing, absolutely no movement no matter how hard you pull and twist on things, even when levered out from a vice etc.
+Plenty of storage room, still got plenty of room left and tons of things I no longer have to have laying around in piles.

-The cast iron was more sensitive than I expected, might have to add a steel plate ontop in the future.
-Total user error, managed to somehow get water into one of the drawers, causing swelling and some rust on the tools. I suspect it might have come through from the threaded holes ontop.
-Boxes have too little spacing between them so even tiny bit of swelling causes issues. Mostly a issue between 2 boxes at the moment, the rest work fine.
-Too few threaded holes in the top, often find myself missing "just that one extra hole" for fixturing.
-The threaded holes are M12 whilst the hold-down kit for my mill is M14, would've been great to upsize to M14 so I don't need multiple fixture sets.
-Pure bonus would've been if the granite plate sat lower than the cast iron plates, and could be raised above when in use.