Turning a center post lift into a chassis/jig table?

[action fab]

I have had this idea for a few months now and figrued I'd through it up here to see if anyone else as done it.

I have an old center post lift in my shop that I don't use. I build rock crawlers and am starting to get into manufacturing of a few off road products. The lift isn't good for lifting vehicles with long travel suspensions... the links get in the way of the lift. So it goes unused.

I do need a nice big jig table and want to make it usable for building buggies too. I like the idea of mounting it to the lift so that the table is adjustable. I can also lift it all the way up to allow room to park a rig in that bay if I needed to. Along with lower it to the ground to drive onto/off of it with crawlers. So I will probably invest in a 6'x12'x.500 sheet of hot rolled, and build a strong frame for it to mount onto the lift with. I will make it removable (bolt into where the arms bolt in) So that when I leave the shop I can take the table with me. (I rent my shop space). So it sounds like I got it all figured out. But I wanted to see if I was the only one with this idea or if anyone had any pictuers of a simular table.

Discuss

 

[NUTTSGT]

I sounds lilke a good idea but you might want to figure out what the sheet of steel weighs vs. the capacity of the lift.

Another thing to consider is if the lift will tilt from front to back with the weight on it. That'll make it a pain in the *** trying to build something and using a level on the long axis.

 

[action fab]

I sounds lilke a good idea but you might want to figure out what the sheet of steel weighs vs. the capacity of the lift.

Another thing to consider is if the lift will tilt from front to back with the weight on it. That'll make it a pain in the *** trying to build something and using a level on the long axis.

little over 1,500lbs... lift as picked up my 4x4 diesel that weighs about 8,000lbs. The lift has a 16" cyl. so it's pretty strong... It doesn't tilt now.

 

[Milton Shaw]

On the table I made for my single pole lift, I built a frame of 2x4x12ga steel. I leveled it on the lift arms and then welded the lift points to the frame as the lift is about 1/2 inch off level from diagonally. Mine is only a 4x8x 1/4inch that I can remove and still use the lift for car/truck service. The lift makes it easy to get stuff at the right height to work on it without being a pain in the back. I put 2" receivers on the frame on one side and mount, vice, pipe vice, bender etc in those. They also hold the casters for moving the top vertically when I need it out of the shop.

 

[action fab]

On the table I made for my single pole lift, I built a frame of 2x4x12ga steel. I leveled it on the lift arms and then welded the lift points to the frame as the lift is about 1/2 inch off level from diagonally. Mine is only a 4x8x 1/4inch that I can remove and still use the lift for car/truck service. The lift makes it easy to get stuff at the right height to work on it without being a pain in the back. I put 2" receivers on the frame on one side and mount, vice, pipe vice, bender etc in those. They also hold the casters for moving the top vertically when I need it out of the shop.

Do you have any pics?