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Kim Mortensen
Registered
Username: Inwonder
Post Number: 7
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 12:29 am: | 
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Is this a possibility. I'm thinking more in terms of moving the machine, a 4*8foot table is gonna be quite heavy and rather impossible to move when first welded together. I'm just worried that the table top would flex to much without the legs on it. Or do I just have to make do with the table needing to be moved by crane when I'm moving. :-D |
Kim Mortensen
Registered
Username: Inwonder
Post Number: 8
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 12:41 am: |
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And by the way, the rails, do they really need to be hardened...??? |
Travis H
Registered
Username: Flyin04
Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 12:44 am: |
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Yes, This would be a good option to have. I too was looking at the table wondering if the table could be altered a bit for this same reason. In my case I would want to make it here at my the shop, then bring it to my home shop. What is your take on this Gerald? |
vadeem
Registered
Username: Vid1900
Post Number: 25
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 03:47 am: |
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My table will not be completely welded, in order that it can be taken with me every time I move. |
Kim Mortensen
Registered
Username: Inwonder
Post Number: 9
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 05:52 am: |
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That's excactly the same reason why I'm trying to figure out a way to build it without welding it together, I'm thinking of making it so that the legs can be taken of so It's a little easier to move around. |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 608
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 07:08 am: |
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Suggest you weld 2 pieces as per drawing 1010310W, but then bolt drawing 1010300W instead of welding. Fabrica seems to be following this bolted style - see his pages. I know of a table like this in Romania that has already been dis-assembled, moved and re-assembled successfully. |
fabrica
Registered
Username: Daya
Post Number: 117
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 08:24 am: |
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Just give a few hours I will uplaod some pictures which shows you the way i did it. |
Ted Gustafson
Registered
Username: Gus
Post Number: 4
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 08:27 am: |
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The only advantage I can see for taking the legs off would be to get the table through a doorway if my building did not have a large enough door to take a 4 foot + wide table through. The reason for bolting a table like ShopBot does is you can ship it in a smaller box. I picked one up at the factory (4X8) with table and took it back to Minnesota inside a Dodge Caravan. Would I do it again? No,I would use a 3000 lb capacity utility trailer. I could move the whole machine assembled with that.
The MechMate table should be very stiff. As for heavy it should be easy to move with timbers and pipe rollers and or a pallet jack or two. Now before someone says I am nuts I will tell you I have moved (buy myself as in just me alone) machines that I could not pick up with my 8,000 pound capacity forklift using timbers, pipe, bars and a 2 ton come-along. That is in and out of the shop and on and off tilt deck or beaver (drop tail) trailers. I still have all my fingers and toes and no broken bones. It takes more time to disassemble and reassemble machinery than it does to just put your mind and back to it and move it. It goes alot better if you bait some friends to help with a little free beer. Just don't let them have the beer till you get it moved or you may wish you had just done it all yourself. Sometimes thinking about doing something is harder than just doing it.
You could also bolt removeable casters on the legs. Larger ones roll over power cords, welding rod stubs and air hose better than small ones.
This is just the way I look at it. Other ways may work better for you. One of the nice things about building your own machine is that you are the one who has the last say on how it should be. |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 612
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 09:17 am: |
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Ted, our big table is one floor up from ground level. The doorway into that section is 6ft wide by 8ft high. The table had to be stood on its side before it could be "inserted" with a crane. But, being one piece all-welded, it coped quite well. |
Ted Gustafson
Registered
Username: Gus
Post Number: 5
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 08:54 pm: |
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Sometimes you just have to use a crane or lift. Have you done a drop test yet? If anyone does get photos. When I get in the position where I need another machine I am going to build one of yours in my size. I need to drop you a e-mail about another issue some day soon. |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 618
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006 - 09:18 pm: |
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Kim, I didn't notice your question until now "And by the way, the rails, do they really need to be hardened...???". That point is discussed in this archive, but the short answer is that they need not be hardened.
No Ted, no drop tests yet, not even planned, but that doesn't mean it won't happen... |
10. Base Table