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DavidR8's shop shenanigans

20 years ago there was a time when wrought iron dinette sets were in vogue.
I made a table and 6 chairs that looked good and had that same weathered iron look.
The table top, seats and back boards were all made of routered oak and I roll formed all the frame section from hydraulic steel tubing that I painted Black Oxide.
We were buying, renovating and reselling houses at that time and I ended up selling the dinette set to a guy when we moved to our current house in 2006.
 
Wow! After looking at the pictures on the previous page I must say - I didn't realize you were so rich DavidR8.

Anyone who can afford 3/4" plywood has my respect.
Hah! I'm too cheap for that. I scour Used.com and Facebook marketplace for surplus materials and wood/metal items for sale.

Case in point was the 8 ft 2"x3" rail for $25. This supplied the legs for my new mill base. The rest came from the $1/pound metal surplus sale.

A free 8 ft x 3 ft boardroom table base got turned into a sewing table for my wife with a top of 3/4" pre-finished birch ply for $30. The old table top will eventually become wall cabinets.

A 3-drawer cabinet from a hairdressing shop for $20 became a cabinet for my drill press.

I built the flip top cart from three 3 ft x 4 ft pieces of 3/4" sub-floor sheeting that I got for $40.

The welding cart drawer was built from 1/2" ply that I got for $50 sheet from a lady who bought a container of lumber and sheet goods to build her house. Unfortunately the wood is not CSA approved so she couldn't use it for sheeting or framing. Not a great buy for me as the plys are very uneven and lots of voids.

I very nearly jumped on a 20 ft x 10 ft metal shelter frame but I had no way to easily cut it up as there was no power on site.

I know that lots of folks are not Facebook fans but I have scored some amazing deals from the Marketplace.
 
I know that lots of folks are not Facebook fans but I have scored some amazing deals from the Marketplace.

I absolutely HATE Facebook.
I absolutely LOVE Marketplace.

Had to install Facebook and actually use it before the creeps gave me access to Marketplace. That was also the last day I used Facebook.

If you wanna buy used farm equipment, you better have access to Marketplace cuz that's what 95% of farmers use to buy and sell equipment.
 
I find the deals are both facebook and kijiji, gotta shop both for the best results.

Don't forget Craigslist, ebay Canada, and auctions.

I would also add that some of the best deals I got were gems hidden under a mis-spelled title. For example, I search mil and mill and mille, Lathe and laith and lath. Farmers are notorious for bad spelling.
 
Don't forget Craigslist, ebay Canada, and auctions.

I would also add that some of the best deals I got were gems hidden under a mis-spelled title. For example, I search mil and mill and mille, Lathe and laith and lath. Farmers are notorious for bad spelling.
In my small market Craigslist, Used.com have the same listings with maybe a few more on either. kijiji doesn’t seem to have a big presence here.
 
Excellent flip-top !! Great space saver !!
Where are your dust collector inlets ?
You might plan on vacuuming around, before you ‘flip’ your lid !!
Nice build though, very robust and the plywood is a strong dampener.
Looks good David !!
I wish I had photo's of a "space maker" I built in a previous garage shop I owned. It was a single car garage & the wife parked her car in it every night .
I used every extra inch of floor length for the lathe base and the side room was totally used up by the mill bench...but I had a bench grinder & two different belt sanders that I used often enough that I wanted them to be handy. so I hung a 2x10 x 12 ft bench from the rafters of the garage. There were 2 hanging legs on each end of the bench plank that were attached to the rafters with bolts through angle iron brackets.
This bench was retractable with an inexpensive PA boat winch. I space & placed the machines on the bench so that when the bench was lifted out of the way of the car, the machines fit between the rafters. When I wanted to use any of the machines it took 30 seconds to lower the bench to the middle of the floor and it retracted just as quick.
 
I wish I had photo's of a "space maker" I built in a previous garage shop I owned. It was a single car garage & the wife parked her car in it every night .
I used every extra inch of floor length for the lathe base and the side room was totally used up by the mill bench...but I had a bench grinder & two different belt sanders that I used often enough that I wanted them to be handy. so I hung a 2x10 x 12 ft bench from the rafters of the garage. There were 2 hanging legs on each end of the bench plank that were attached to the rafters with bolts through angle iron brackets.
This bench was retractable with an inexpensive PA boat winch. I space & placed the machines on the bench so that when the bench was lifted out of the way of the car, the machines fit between the rafters. When I wanted to use any of the machines it took 30 seconds to lower the bench to the middle of the floor and it retracted just as quick.
Sounds like a brilliant solution to a lack of space problem. I also have a lack of rafter space as my garage has a flat roof. I've considered adding trusses to create an attic but the power comes in from the street over the garage so I'd have to have that lifted which would require a new mast on the house. All in all a very expensive proposition.
 
Welded up the main part of a new stand for my RF mill.
Need to add some angle iron across the lower part of the legs to support a cabinet.
93B5963E-F8FC-4C0A-A916-335D8A08DB30.jpeg
 
Is that a ‘ShopFox’ welding jig holding the legs ?

Is that the same company that makes the ‘M1111’ Mill ?
 
Is that a ‘ShopFox’ welding jig holding the legs ?

Is that the same company that makes the ‘M1111’ Mill ?
Yep it surely is :D
I'm quite impressed by the base actually. It's very stout, rated for 1300#, the plates in the corners for the legs are 1/8" thick, the wheels are cast iron.
 
Yep it surely is :D
I'm quite impressed by the base actually. It's very stout, rated for 1300#, the plates in the corners for the legs are 1/8" thick, the wheels are cast iron.
Make sure you pile some MASS in the area within your ‘tube base’ to lower the C of G.
I was talking to a friend the other day that tipped over his mill when he was replacing some leveling feet.
Luckily it fell on a pile of cardboard.
 
Make sure you pile some MASS in the area within your ‘tube base’ to lower the C of G.
I was talking to a friend the other day that tipped over his mill when he was replacing some leveling feet.
Luckily it fell on a pile of cardboard.
I'm planning to build a cabinet to go inside the legs. It will hold all of the mill tooling and some lathe tooling. I also have two 50 lb lead ingots that I'm going to try to attach to the base. That should add at least 150 lbs to the base.
 
Added in supports for the yet-to-be-built cabinet. Should be able to fit four 5” tall drawers.
A1778075-F5E7-45C9-9BE9-8CE37C319B7E.jpeg
 
Two fifty lb lead ingots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! o_OThat would make a lot of bullets for those into casting slugs. Lets see 7000 grains in a lb, 130gr bullet just because, that would make 2692 bullets from 1 of the ingots. Keep a fellow shooting for a while.
 
Two fifty lb lead ingots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! o_OThat would make a lot of bullets for those into casting slugs. Lets see 7000 grains in a lb, 130gr bullet just because, that would make 2692 bullets from 1 of the ingots. Keep a fellow shooting for a while.
They are not worth much here as lead is easy to come by because of its use in fishing lures.
 
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