Bought an Equipto Desk/Work Station

Today SWMBO and I made the rounds of town running a few errands and decided to stop in at one of my favorite local places - the local university's surplus store, which is good for finding everything from old lab equipment, machinery, bikes, appliances, and furniture. If its owned by the college, theyll sell it. Well today I didnt end up with any tools or toys, I bought a really nice Equipto desk/work station. Im not sure how Im going to shoehorn it into the garage and I probably overpaid at $100, but when SWMBO beat me to it and said "thats a cool looking desk" and considering the quality I couldnt say no. Its entirely steel and without measuring Id guess most of it is 12 gage or heavier including the top. Its also got punch blanks in place in several spots so it can be wired with 110V outlets and additional hardware, so its definitely more plant floor than plant office. Unfortunately, we were there 20 mins before closing and only had the car, so I wont be bringing it home until tomorrow but its already paid for.....so nobody can snipe me on this one.

Sorry for the **** cell phone pics, will post more after I get it home and get the dirt (not rust) cleaned off it.

That looks like a nice heavy duty desk, it will serve well as a shop work desk. some new red paint (my personal favorite color hehe) and it'll be be great addition!

I would shoe-horn that in my shop AND gladly pay $100.00 for it. I've never told anyone they **** in my life, but I guess now is the time. YOU ****!!!

looks like it has an air regulator built into it... Is that also an air fitting on the front of it?

nice snag...

Those schools surplus property places are a favorite of mine.
A city high school or Jr Collage district is also an idea.
Some schools show inventory online.
It is worth some calls to the facilities department to find out.

That is really nice. You got a great deal!!

buffaloguy89 said:

That looks like a nice heavy duty desk, it will serve well as a shop work desk. some new red paint (my personal favorite color hehe) and it'll be be great addition!

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Thanks, Im working on getting it cleaned up at the moment and its starting to look good as industrial gray so I'll probably leave it at that. It is heavy duty, a few hundred pounds anyway, but Im not planning to use it as a desk, just another bench. The top is 12 gauge steel, the legs are 14 gauge, the drawers 18, and its obviously designed to hold serious weight as most everything is doubled. I'll probably put a few "standoffs" or legs under a sheet of 1/8" plate and drop that on top anytime I need a welding table, and use it as a general purpose bench otherwise, tho I will be careful and wont pound on it too much as I dont want to wrinkle it.

bimmer1980 said:

looks like it has an air regulator built into it... Is that also an air fitting on the front of it?

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There's a nice older Lincoln regulator and Central Pneumatic oiler on the side along with the necessary quick disconnects. Sticking through one of the 110V socket knockouts on the front right is a ~1" piece of pipe, not sure the purpose of it. Id guess it was some kind of a holder but its a tiny diameter, never really know how the school labs set things up.

kbs2244 said:

Those schools surplus property places are a favorite of mine.

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I'm definitely a fan of these places and also their auctions. My current lathe and some of my sheetmetal equipment were out of a high school, and Ive gotten a lot of other things at them as well.

Thanks for the kind words otherwise fellas. I'll post a few better pics once I get it cleaned up either later tonight or tomorrow. Im already an hour into scrubbing, its definitely dirty and got a few odd goo spills crusting it over in spots, but the end result Im sure will be well worth it.

IF you don't mind, would you post the steps you take in painting it? Whatever you feel like posting.

As soon as I saw the property tag I knew where you'd been.

Very nice, and very jealous! congrats

Wasnt feeling too well today (drank too much yesterday), so I honestly havent gotten much done on this yet. Still scrubbing the filth off. You can see in the first pic I had 4 of 6 drawers done. Restoring tools has me spoiled, this thing has some seriously tough **** dried to it so Im bordering on removing paint along with crud most of the time.



Once I get it cleaned up a bit, I will be wiring both legs for 110V.

Nowater said:

IF you don't mind, would you post the steps you take in painting it? Whatever you feel like posting.

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I'll post whatever I do to it, but honestly am unsure at this point if I want to bother repainting it. I'll probably just clean it up, wire up the electric sockets, and use it awhile to figure out what makes the most sense for me.

A_Pmech said:

As soon as I saw the property tag I knew where you'd been.

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I wish I had a use and/or room for half the items Im tempted by in that store. They had a large ornate old manometer among other items that was just begging me to take it home, but alas, I couldnt justify the space.

$100. A good deal in my humble opinion. If I had it I'd take it to the powder coater for a dose of Red Baron.

Nice table, should last a lifetime!