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Flood plain work bench.

gte718p

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
3,983
I live less then 100 ft from the ocean, well more a swamp then the ocean. The views are nice, but the down side is the ocean has a nasty tenancy to come into the house. Several times a year I own a private island and a couple of times a year water comes into the garage. Most of my storage is in pallet racking off the ground, but I had on tool box that I didn't have room for. If is just a HF 44 inch box. I wanted make it easier to move, put on jack stands, or load on the truck. I also need a welding bench so I combined the requirement.

The frame is 1" square tubing with 1/8th wall thickness. The top is a 2ftx6ft sheet of 3/8th steel.

Table after being fabbed up
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I screwed up on the design. Oh well. I meant to slide the box in from the front, but I was to short. I ended up having to drop the table onto the box. The HF engine hoist and truck crane were invaluable.

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Table on the box

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I went with these wheels from amazon. The top weighs 150 lbs, the frame another 35 and the tool box, tools, and vise at a couple of hundred. It rolls flawlessly.
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Wheels

A little black spray paint and the final product came out quite well. I think
I works well. I can sling the table easily with the truck crane and load it on the flat bed with no stress on the box. I've loaded that box and others with slings, it works but over time it takes its toll on the boxes. They are just not meant to be loaded that way.

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I'm not going to start the great HF debate thread again, but I did use several HF products. I've used the truck crane and the engine hoist for years. They have paid for themselves so many times over it is incredible. I bought the HF metal cutting circular saw for this project. I generally cut tubing with an angle grinder and cut off wheel. I've always been good at it, but I'm out of practice and wasn't making square cuts. I got frustrated and bought the saw. It has only survived one project so far, but it made quick work of the 1/8th wall tubing and the 3/8th plate. It is not quite like cutting butter, but it is quick and cuts square. It is incredibly superior to torch cutting, jig sawing, or cut off wheel cutting for straight cuts in plate.

For anyone in the Hampton Roads area. Public Scrap in Hampton was awesome. Unfortunately in a couple of years there will not be places like it open. I went in asking about buying some plate. They sent me wondering through the yard looking for a guy named Randy. I was able to wonder through the yard dodging industrial equipment and watch some of their operations. They have some pretty cool large equipment. All their plate is covered in converted CONEX boxes so it is in pretty good shape. I picked the plate I wanted, they pulled it out with the fork lift and cut it to shape so I didn't have to buy more steel then I wanted. $.35 a lb is not to bad and 4 dollars for the cuts.
 
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lotsoftools

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Joined
Oct 22, 2011
Messages
1,317
Location
Inland Empire
I like it. Do you think it might bow from the weight of the full box? I think I would add 1 or 2 more casters to the frame at the end of the box just for extra support.
 
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OP
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gte718p

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
Messages
3,983
I have spare casters if I need to slap a few on there. Right now there is no indication of bowing. The majority of the weight is carried on plates under the original casters mounting points. They don't have a very long lever arm to bend the tube. I also have a lip front and back that distributes some of the weight.

I'm still considering adding another vertical support in the front. There is one on the back, but I didn't put on on the front as I originally intended to slide the box in the front. Tying the top and bottom together in another location would prevent any possible bending. I don't think I could load it with enough weight to bend a 3/8" plate welded to a 1" bar.
 
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