What's under your (little) mill?

[great white]

The only filing cabinets I have, (and have had) were all pop-riveted things of thin steel that would "wiggle" a bit if you shook the top sideways. Until I saw yours, and the other sturdy-looking job from @ChazzC , I would not have thought it would work. These look great! I guess there can be better grades of cabinet made of 1960's style thicker steel that can do the job

Wanting the mill at a convenient height is the same for me. I am a tall guy.

Your mill may be atop a cabinet, but it looks altogether a beefier, more powerful machine than mine. It looks "heavy". Are the 1 x 2's on the corners inside? Looking closer, there are more things that catches the interest like the fat X-axis stepper motor, and the huge screen. Nice setup!

You need to find a cabinet that is “commercial grade” and not a retail box.

the cabinets that are used in stores and offices are much better built than something you would buy retail. A good place to find them is building salvage places, clearance houses, surplus stores, etc.

 

[graham-xrf]

Steelcase is one brand of early file cabinet that were built to last, these are in no way comparable to the cheap box store cabinets they have been selling for the last 25+ years. When I went to look at it I jumped up top and hopped a bit, solid as a rock. My mill weighs If I recall correctly 650lbs before the CNC stuff was added.

I kinda guessed that was a CNC setup.

 

[C-Bag]

Through a thread here on H-M I was enlightened to the background of Steelcase desks also called tanker desks. My parents had one. They used to come up for free all the time on CL. What I didn’t know until the thread here was they were made to come apart easily for transport. So each desk has two of those file cabs under it.

 

[ChazzC]

Steelcase is one brand of early file cabinet that were built to last, these are in no way comparable to the cheap box store cabinets they have been selling for the last 25+ years. When I went to look at it I jumped up top and hopped a bit, solid as a rock. My mill weighs If I recall correctly 650lbs before the CNC stuff was added.

I have several Steelcase lateral files and a credenza all of which I got when a company I had consulted for was sold - the auctioneer retained me to help answer questions. As a result, I was able to get a number of beautiful vernier calipers, dial thickness gauges and other small metrology items, plus furniture that wasn't of interested to the bidders (including a beam scale from the infirmary; the X-Ray equipment went to the auctioneer's son-in-law, who was a Veterinarian: the company had been in the friction business since the early 1900's, and when they worked with Asbestos they were required to X-Ray all employees periodically).

However, the file cabinet that is under the mill is a Steelmaster. It has welds, not pop rivets; formed box-channel corners; the main box is 15 ga. and the thinest material I could find is in the drawer fronts, which are 22 ga. I could probably have skipped the interior bracing I installed, but it still seems like a good idea. The original mill-drill I had was maybe one size down from yours, and while I don't know what it weighed, it took a half-ton hoist and three beefy guys to get it in place, even after breaking it down into manageable parts.