My new toy came in...a giant shuriken (aka ninja star)

Here's the 5/8" thick steel, 80+ pound weapon of mass destruction:

Refresh my memory, what will this be used on?

speedjunkie wrote:Refresh my memory, what will this be used on?

It's the base for a JD2 Model 4 Bender. I'm going to use it when I build my cage...as well as other projects.



I also snagged a JD2 "Beast" tube notcher. At 1.5" thick steel, it truly is a beast.



Both the bender & notcher are still disassembled. Been busy with other projects. One in particular is this little guy here...a Grizzly GO704 Milling Machine:



It just arrived before the weekend...and I bought it solely for the purpose of converting it to CNC.

First I needed to build a rolling base for it. 11 gauge might have been a little excessive...but it's what I had in the garage:


I decided to mig weld this thing together...for mig seat time. I think the welds turned out ok:


With the base built...getting this heavy thing onto the platform was a pain. Had to take my engine hoist out of hibernation to do it:


Before ripping the milling machine apart for the CNC conversion...decided to use it first to build some leveling feet out of hockey pucks:






NOW...I can rip it apart (after only having it for a few days) for the CNC conversion:


Not sure when I'll have the conversion done...but it'll probably take a few months.

I need to come see your shop!

Nice work on that base!

Hockey puck feet! Genius!

OH. SNAP! lol

Nice new toys! with the CNC are you going to use a servo or stepper set up? Also I recommend converting to ball screw at the same time. I know mine has been quite a learning experience.
Also what program are you planning to use to control it? I had an older TMG (The Motion Group) controller that was nothing but trouble and recently converted to Mach 3 and love it.

Shadowden wrote:I need to come see your shop!

Nice work on that base!

Thanks! I don't have much of a shop. I permanently park my diesel truck on the driveway now and mostly use the third bay in my garage for tinkering. For big projects, the Caddy sleeps outside with the Cummins. I, however, never park the FD outside.

Dwduc wrote:Nice new toys! with the CNC are you going to use a servo or stepper set up? Also I recommend converting to ball screw at the same time. I know mine has been quite a learning experience.
Also what program are you planning to use to control it? I had an older TMG (The Motion Group) controller that was nothing but trouble and recently converted to Mach 3 and love it.

In a nuttshell, the plan is to swap in a 3 hp spindle and VFD, convert to belt drive, use stepper motors and ball screws, and finally have Mach3 control it all. Basically, I'm going to gut the machine and replace with different stuff. For g-code generation, I'll use MeshCam.

Haven't posted or worked on the car in a while. Got a new job (again)...but this time it's a Mon-Fri, 6:30am-6:30pm gig. Most weekends now are used to recharge for the next work week :-(

Decided to use this weekend to finally build a work/welding table to house the tube bender I've had laying around. It ended up being a 54" x 36" table that weighs a ton. I added four receiver hitches (2.5"x2.5", quarter inch thick tube) around the table to mount the tube bender (as well as additional things) and 4 receiver hitches on the bottom of each leg to raise & lower the table & mount casters onto.

Anyway, didn't take much pictures...just wanted to knock it out a quick as possible.

Here's the frame:
5" c-channel to support the table top & 4" c-channel as the legs.


Here's a side view. Making use of the left c-channel leg to mount my welding clamps, lol.


Welded some expanded steel on the bottom frame to use as a bottom shelf.


Here's the first configuration: nine 36"x6"x3/8" plates forming a 54"x36" flat tabletop.


Here's the second configuration: seven plates with 2" spacing to facilitate clamping points. I milled the c-channel to easily move from one configuration to another.


The mill scale is a PITA to remove.


Tried muriatic acid...but ended up just using a little bit of elbow grease to remove as much as I could. If my Dewalt grinder didn't have a trigger lock, life could've been a lot more painful. Having 13 amps of grinding power didn't hurt either.


I didn't get all the mill scale off, but I think the results turned out ok so far:


If I could do it all over again, I would definitely use 1/2" steel plate at minimum next time. 3/8" just doesn't look like it'll be enough. Anyway, hopefully next weekend I could start adding things to those receiver hitches.

Nice! I like the sliding pieces for the table top, that way it's flexible for different projects. You can still slide them all together for a good size tabletop if you need them together, or you can slide them apart. That's a great idea.

Have you tried the scotch brite pads for angle grinders? They knock down mill scale pretty well and leave a nice finish. You really need it for a welding table top though. An advantage to the pads is that you are unlikely to dig into the table top.

How did you anchor the top pieces to the channel? Did you make a mounting place to mount the extra two slats when you are in the 7- panel configuration? Great work on that table!

1/2" would be great. That is a lot of steel to drill through though. I don't weld anything really heavy so was considering 3/8" myself. Would like to get your impressions once you use it some.

speedjunkie wrote:Nice! I like the sliding pieces for the table top, that way it's flexible for different projects. You can still slide them all together for a good size tabletop if you need them together, or you can slide them apart. That's a great idea.

I appreciate it, thanks! Btw, I can't wait to see your car back on the road. It's definitely a top notch, high quality build. I'm still not sure if you're building a show car or a race car, lol

Shadowden wrote:Have you tried the scotch brite pads for angle grinders? They knock down mill scale pretty well and leave a nice finish. You really need it for a welding table top though. An advantage to the pads is that you are unlikely to dig into the table top.

How did you anchor the top pieces to the channel? Did you make a mounting place to mount the extra two slats when you are in the 7- panel configuration? Great work on that table!

1/2" would be great. That is a lot of steel to drill through though. I don't weld anything really heavy so was considering 3/8" myself. Would like to get your impressions once you use it some.

I've used the scotch brite pads (both the AvantiPro & 3M) for this table. They easily stripped the mill scale on everything except those 6" plates. The mill scale on those plates are unbelievably thick (which is why I dipped them in muriatic acid). I went through several of those strip discs...but after a while, it starting getting expensive. After the scotch brite, I switched to muriatic acid, then 80 grit flap discs, then trying out 80 grit on my belt sander, then 100 grit when the 80 grit broke, then back to 80 grit flap discs.

I used 1.5" x 5/8" socket/allen drive countersunk head screws to secure the plates to the c-channel. Surprisingly, there was about a 40 cent difference in price between a 1" long screw from the Ace Hardware in Stetson Hills and a 1.5" long screw at the Ace Hardware in Austin Bluffs (for those local to COS). What's surprising was that the 1.5" long screw was 40 cents cheaper (Austin Bluffs) than the 1" screw (Stetson Hills). Alas, I went with the 1.5" long ones due to price.

As far as the extra 2 plates (when in 7 plate mode), I haven't built anything to accommodate them (yet). For now, I'll probably just lay them on the shelf under the table.

Things I would change if I could do it all over again:
1. Cold-rolled 1/2" plate instead of the hot-rolled steel I used
2. 5" c-channel for the legs (for a cleaner look)
3. Add gussets for the receiver hitches (which I still might add)
4. Use the "Safer to Use" muriatic acid...and use a gas/face mask approved for this stuff
-- I wouldn't recommend this stuff without the proper safety PPE. This stuff (at full strength) is BAD!!! The pros don't outweigh the cons, IMHO.

FDEEZ wrote:

speedjunkie wrote:Nice! I like the sliding pieces for the table top, that way it's flexible for different projects. You can still slide them all together for a good size tabletop if you need them together, or you can slide them apart. That's a great idea.

I appreciate it, thanks! Btw, I can't wait to see your car back on the road. It's definitely a top notch, high quality build. I'm still not sure if you're building a show car or a race car, lol

Thanks! I'm not sure either, maybe a bit of both? Lol More function than form though.

FDEEZ wrote:

Shadowden wrote:Have you tried the scotch brite pads for angle grinders? They knock down mill scale pretty well and leave a nice finish. You really need it for a welding table top though. An advantage to the pads is that you are unlikely to dig into the table top.

How did you anchor the top pieces to the channel? Did you make a mounting place to mount the extra two slats when you are in the 7- panel configuration? Great work on that table!

1/2" would be great. That is a lot of steel to drill through though. I don't weld anything really heavy so was considering 3/8" myself. Would like to get your impressions once you use it some.

I've used the scotch brite pads (both the AvantiPro & 3M) for this table. They easily stripped the mill scale on everything except those 6" plates. The mill scale on those plates are unbelievably thick (which is why I dipped them in muriatic acid). I went through several of those strip discs...but after a while, it starting getting expensive. After the scotch brite, I switched to muriatic acid, then 80 grit flap discs, then trying out 80 grit on my belt sander, then 100 grit when the 80 grit broke, then back to 80 grit flap discs.

I used 1.5" x 5/8" socket/allen drive countersunk head screws to secure the plates to the c-channel. Surprisingly, there was about a 40 cent difference in price between a 1" long screw from the Ace Hardware in Stetson Hills and a 1.5" long screw at the Ace Hardware in Austin Bluffs (for those local to COS). What's surprising was that the 1.5" long screw was 40 cents cheaper (Austin Bluffs) than the 1" screw (Stetson Hills). Alas, I went with the 1.5" long ones due to price.

As far as the extra 2 plates (when in 7 plate mode), I haven't built anything to accommodate them (yet). For now, I'll probably just lay them on the shelf under the table.

Things I would change if I could do it all over again:
1. Cold-rolled 1/2" plate instead of the hot-rolled steel I used
2. 5" c-channel for the legs (for a cleaner look)
3. Add gussets for the receiver hitches (which I still might add)
4. Use the "Safer to Use" muriatic acid...and use a gas/face mask approved for this stuff
-- I wouldn't recommend this stuff without the proper safety PPE. This stuff (at full strength) is BAD!!! The pros don't outweigh the cons, IMHO.

I figured those abrasive pads for the angle grinders would have worked pretty well. I use the pneumatic angle grinder and those abrasive pads from HF and it usually removes stuff pretty well. That must be some serious shit stuck on there.

Should pull this outside your car thread!

I had considered doing something similar to your table, but having the plates always separated for clamping or doing a solid top and drilling and tapping evenly spaced holes for adding fixtures to clamp to. I like that you can make a solid table top. I could drill and tap the holes to add fixturing or open up slats for clamping as I see the need to. I was going to use I beams instead of channel to hold the plate , but I also like the idea of channel better. Did you just thread the channel or did you tack a nut to the underside? I was planning to tack a nut there.

what saw are you using? I sold my Ridgid abrasive chop saw and was planning on buying an Evolution Rage2 cold cut. I fear space required for a band saw may be limiting.

Shadowden wrote:Should pull this outside your car thread!

I had considered doing something similar to your table, but having the plates always separated for clamping or doing a solid top and drilling and tapping evenly spaced holes for adding fixtures to clamp to. I like that you can make a solid table top. I could drill and tap the holes to add fixturing or open up slats for clamping as I see the need to. I was going to use I beams instead of channel to hold the plate , but I also like the idea of channel better. Did you just thread the channel or did you tack a nut to the underside? I was planning to tack a nut there.

what saw are you using? I sold my Ridgid abrasive chop saw and was planning on buying an Evolution Rage2 cold cut. I fear space required for a band saw may be limiting.

Drilling/tapping the channel is a great idea. With the thinnest area being 1/4" thick, there's plenty of room for thread. I chose to just use a removable nut on each bolt...figured it was the easiest method for how i designed the table.

For cutting, I use a Dewalt chop saw 95% of the time. The other 5%, I've got a Dewalt jigsaw, various cutoff tools, and a Milwaukee deep cut bandsaw (could be used vertically, horizontally, & handheld). Would like a plasma cutter...but maybe later.

A cold saw would be an awesome addition to any garage. Accurate cuts with minimal burr are great selling points. Just be prepared for super expensive blades that may or may not last long. I definitely want one