Why is it I get the feeling Camille is helping with this build? :)

Heh. I think he's encouraging me along so he gets to play with the MechMate the next time he visits :D. He's certainly not lifting any steel from 700 miles away! ;)

(for those unaware, Camille is my brother)

Only fair, Melissa helps me at a similar distance with aeromodeling and other bricolage!

First parts painted
 

I just finished welding the end plates on the legs, and cutting the foot plates (my laser kit predates the laser-cut plates).

It's currently -10°C outside, and hovering around 0°C in my workshop, so I had to get creative for the paint to dry. There's a 500W heater hiding in the foam "oven". The steel is around 23°C right now, which is enough to get the paint to dry. I just painted the bottoms of the table legs, as the rest will be painted once the sides are welded together.

That stable of sawhorses remains useful. On Dancer, on Prancer,...?

I like those pyramids...handy little things.

Painter pyramids
http://www.painterspyramid.com/ handy things

First Side Welded
 

The first side of the table is now welded. I used a whole bunch of wood blocks to shim the legs and lower longitudinals to the correct height, before tack-welding. I was more concerned with coplanar than level, so the legs are in line with the main beams (when standing vertically).

One "oops" on this stage: I knew I had to be careful about which end had the 100mm offset for the spoilboard. I carefully measured and welded. And once I had welded enough that I couldn't go back, realized that I got it backwards from the orientation I wanted :mad:. It is nice and accurate, though! So... once I've welded both sides, they'll get placed on moving dollies and be rotated around the other way.

...and I can't wait to see how that 5100mm long table looks standing up!
I certain you will get plenty of thanks from that gantry crane.

Great work.
Thanks for sharing.

Sean

Table goes 3D!
 

Well, upside-down 3D, but 3D nonetheless :).

The clamped 2x4's are to keep things in position, and to keep the sides from falling on me :eek:. The sides are positioned to within about 5mm of where they need to be.

Next up is cutting and tack-welding the cross braces. They'll be bolted in temporarily, so I can invert the table one side at a time. I did NOT want to weld the whole thing upside down, and have to lift 500 lbs eight feet in the air.

BTW, I'm really happy with how rigid the sides are. With the beams resting on blocks at the ends, the middle needs to be shimmed to within 1mm tolerance, otherwise the middle blocks are completely loose. All those braces are there for a reason!

Why not 500 lbs 8 ft up? Movie stunts do that kind of thing all the time!

8 ft is about the vertical hoist limit of my crane (beam is 10' high, chain hoist takes a bit over a foot of vertical). Plus, the chain hoist would require me to be almost directly below the object being hoisted. With that much potential energy... no thanks. I'll do it the slow and predictable way :).

Some recent progress photos: clamping the cross rails which will join the two sides of the table, prior to welding. I just about ran out of clamps. The good news is that nothing wiggled, and I didn't need to grind and re-weld any of these parts.

Next, what it looks like welded, but still upside-down:

With that completed, the table was disassembled and placed aside, while work progresses on the gantry. First drilling the gantry tubes, and then the Y-rails, for the mounting bolts and proxys.

Between the friction of turning all those shavings and the raw heat of a 6 kW welder, you'd think that boots mitts and toque wouldn't be needed for long in the workshop!

Thanks for the photos.

Great Progress Melissa. Keep going and posting
wish you all the best

Gantry welded
 

Good progress today, finished clamping and squaring the gantry (for the third time, after being reminded to smooth the edges of the laser-cut parts before welding). The beams are clamped to my table saw.

With welding finished, I actually had to use the crane to lower the gantry to the ground. I haven't weighed it, but it's seriously heavy, even without the rails or Y-car.

Up next is welding the Y-car, and then the table gets put together right-side-up.

Y-Car Welded
 

With Camille helping, I got the y-car clamped and square, sitting on the table saw. We ended up using a block of wood inside the car to keep the end plates exactly vertical. Also, the bends were a little bit off, so the large bar clamps are to bring the corners together for welding.

I'll work on grinding the welds a bit later. Tomorrow, it's full steam ahead to get the table standing.

Yep. That looks about right. :)

Hey neighbor, nice progress !! ;)

Melissa's working too hard to post updates, apparently. Be assured that the table is now standing, no bolts, all welded. She's not coming apart again. (Are Mechmates He or She? Boats are She, but they have way more feminine aspects than Mechmates.)

If you spend more time with your MM than with your wife, then the MM is a She.

First, the table bolted together and leveled, prior to welding. Also, three photos of welding the cross-brace assemblies to the table legs.

cross-bearers in snow
 

With all the winter pollen we've been having up here in Canada, my MM's cross-bearers got completely buried in front of the workshop.

I had to dig them out and bring them inside to dry off before cutting and drilling. Fortunately, after a few days of dripping all over the workshop floor, they're mostly dry now.

The x-rails were bolted on yesterday, in preparation for drilling the main beams. We used the rail off-cuts to clamp an alignment wire along the length of the table.

Not wanting to go shopping for just a bit of wire, I used a length of .030" MIG welding wire. It's a bit difficult to handle and tension well (and risky, prone to poking an eye out :eek:), but was accurate enough for this stage of assembly.

More photos, from my dad's camera.

Setting up the table, right side up. We hoisted one side, and braced it with 2x4 lumber. Each lumber joint was clamped and screwed together for safety. A rope at the bottom kept each frame from slipping out.

We also clamped a block of wood to the main beam, to give a predictable offset from the wall. This way, we could hoist the side and just push gently until it touched, rather than fussing with a tape measure while things were lifted.

Setting up for drilling the x-rails to 1/4". Two sawhorses on each side of the drill press allowed the rails to slide back and forth the full length. We used a laser level in the drill-press vise to set them all to the correct height.

Drilling Main Beams
 

I drilled one hole in the main beam with a handheld drill, before giving up and looking for a better solution.

Others have used small drill presses to drill the beams, and it works like a charm. The only hard part is coming up with a stand that's stable and portable. We adapted a roller stand normally used for a table saw.

Note the piece of plywood clamped against the beam -- this worked great to keep the metal shavings and cutting oil from flying all over the place.

The last photo gives an idea of just how LONG this table is :D.

First Accident
 

We've tried to be very careful when working around the MM so far. Well, yesterday, it finally happened.

We drew blood :o. Fortunately, it was only on the whiteboard :).