Making a Unique Machine Stand - Easier ways but worth the Extra Effort?

some of you may have seen my recent video where I restored this amazing old drill press it needs a stand as it can't stay on my workbench so that's what I'm building in this video I designed it on the computer with the style of old cast iron Machinery legs in mind I didn't pay any attention to how I could reproduce it as an actual item though I intended to make it from steel but I haven't thought about it long and hard I've decided to make it from plywood instead anyway the first thing I'll do is make a template of the legs using this old piece of construction ply I did think of ways of making it from steel but they wouldn't have been very elegant methods with bits joined together all over the place and a lot of welding anyway plywood will be more than solid enough and much easier to shape now that's marked out I'll cut it out with a jigsaw and I'll get pretty close to the lines to minimize any sanding the center needs cutting out too and that will be to house a cabinet with four drawers I'll try and sand the inside somewhat squarish it doesn't have to be perfect but it should be pretty good for the cabinet to fit into that's the template ready now I can start to cut some leg pieces from three quarter inch plywood each leg section will be made up of four laminated pieces which will make a fairly solid base now it's pretty much the same as cutting out the template but this time I stay to the outside of the line leaving some extra on which will get trimmed back using a template and a flush trim bit in the router that's one done now for another seven here's the waste pieces which I'm sure will be useful for another project another day four of the leg sections need a piece cutting out these will make a pocket for a top piece to fit into and that will become more obvious further into the project I'm just roughly removing the waste now but I'll finish it with a router later on this shows how the legs will be assembled and how the top will fit into them next I'll attach the template to the first piece I'll use screws as the project will be painted and any holes can be filled out that's the first one done now I can glue on the next layer and then I'll use the first layer as the template I put a couple of Brad Nails in just to stop it from moving around while I add clamps off camera I got the other leg section up to the same stage after they'd set I unclamped them and routed the second layer flush with the first now I can glue on the last two layers one either side it's already feeling like a pretty hefty piece and will be a very sturdy support for the drill press I reckon they look pretty cool next I'll round over the edges with a three-quarter inch round over bit and this is what will give the legs that cast iron look they're looking great but there's still a couple more things need doing to them before moving on to the next part of the project the feet need a decent chamfer which will finish them off and prevent the edge of the legs from splitting if the stand is dragged or moved around the last thing to do is clean up the pocket for the top piece to fit into I'll screw down a few pieces of plywood for the router bit to follow that's the leg sections done so next I'll start on the cabinet and drawers which will join the legs together I'll rip down all the pieces I need for the cabinet drawer sides and bottom from 12 millimeter plywood I'll then roughly cut into length on the miter saw before cutting them to the final dimension on the table saw using the sliding table and this ensures everything is square making it easy when it comes to assemble them I could round over the edge of this board but instead I'll square up the corners in the leg section it's very easy to do laying the back of the Chisel flat against the inside faces and it only took a few minutes to do all of them I'll do a quick dry fit to make sure it's okay that looks good so I'll glue and assemble the cabinet and legs together I thought about putting the cabinet together first and then attaching it to the legs but I reckon building it inside the legs will be easier the second leg section was a tight fit and it did take a couple of attempts to get it to fit on hammering it down wasn't doing the trick so I had to work quick before the glue started to set and used clamps to pull it into position I really like how that's looking and far more interesting than a square looking stand a lot more work but hopefully worth it anyway next I'll make and fit the top piece this is to tie it all together and add strength but it will have a steel tray fitted to it later on two laminated piece of three quarter inch plywood will make a super sturdy top I rounded over two the edges to fit into the recessed pockets in the leg sections that looks like it's going to fit so I'll glue and clamp it down the base is pretty well done so I'll make a start on the drawers roughly cutting the pieces to length before trimming them down to the correct dimensions on the table saw to find the length of the front and back pieces I placed two drawer slides and two side pieces into the opening and then measure what's left I also cut the bottoms now and also out of 12mm plywood I've made heaps of drawers like this for the workshop and they're quick easy and super strong just glue and nail them together it really doesn't get any easier now that the drawers are done I just need to do a couple more things to the base before I can start to sand and finish it I'll cut the chamfer in the front and back openings but first I need to sand the edge of the cabinet flush with the legs there was a bit of tear out there but I had to do a final pass so I slightly lowered it and did a climb cut to finish it which worked much better I did the opening on the other side off camera and then I finished all the corners with a chisel and the last thing to do is add a back panel I made it to tight fit so I can just glue and wedge it in place one small area was lifting up so I kept that down with the weight now it needs sanding to prepare it for paint I want to hide and smooth out all the ridges on the plywood edges so I'll need to build up the coats of undercoat I'm using water-based paint so I don't have to wait too long to re-coat it to help hide the plywood edges I filled out the worst areas with a two-part filler if the edges still look like plywood underneath the finished paint it will lose any chance of looking like a convincing cast iron stand at close scrutiny you'll always be able to tell but I'm not worried about that as long as it looks good from a normal viewing distance before I go any further I'll add some cast lettering which I've done a couple of times before in recent videos I use JB Weld and a plastic mold which I carved the letters Out by hand I'll link the video above and it was this project that inspired me to make the cast lettering in the first place I left it to set for six hours but I still put more undercoat on the rest of the stand where I could that looks pretty good but after sanding off any squeeze out I decided I couldn't live with the wrong year so I chiseled off the last two and I carved out to number three I left this one for three hours which worked fine I wasn't happy with it though as the three was too big so I carved another one and I did it again off camera anyway now I'm putting on the final color which is similar to the drill press I wasn't trying to match it I just wanted something that was a few shades different but it got closer than I thought it would be but anyway I'm gonna go with it if I remember correctly I think I gave it four top coats next I'll fit the drawer slides which is pretty straightforward inside the cabinet I cut the spacer on the table saw to make it easy to space them correctly now I need to make a few steel parts and I'll start with the tray top I'll make it from this piece of 3mm plate and add a 12 by 12mm steel rim around the outside I'll bend the corners of the rim like on this test piece using the fly press I'll make the rim in two halves and then weld it together I'm marking out where to put the bends and I'll do both pieces together at the same time to keep them the same I'll set the stop on the top of the fly press to limit its travel and keep the bends consistent it was difficult to hold on to the pieces so I taped them together the bigger fly press would have done this easier but there's less clearance around it so I chose to use this one instead and it's still managed with no worries at all I'll just check them for square and make any adjustments before cutting them down ready to weld now that the rim is done I can use that as a template for the top I'll extend the marks and then I'll cut it out and weld it to the rim from the underneath it doesn't look that pretty from the underneath but it should look fine when it's installed I'm super pleased with the top next I'll make the drawer fronts from this 100 by 3mm flat bar they just need trimming to length and hopefully along with the top it will add to the stand being convincing in that it's made of steel next I need handles I made this one off camera but I need another three so I'll show that next I made this jig for the fly press and it works awesome the handles are 25 by 3mm flat bar and I did put some grease on the corners of the dies to help the steel slide and form into shape the best thing about this is they all come out exactly the same I just need to trim them to length and drill some fixing holes I'll clean everything down with methylated spirits ready for painting and I'll do that with etch primer I'll paint them with the same water-based paint as the plywood base and although they're made of steel they'll be fine once they're primed before I paint on the top coat I'll drill a few holes for mounting the top and the drill press I also drilled holes for the handles in the drawer fronts before I put it all together I need some fitting screws to put the handles on these cheap hex bolts just won't do so I'll reshape the head by putting them on the lathe and making them into a dome now it's finally ready to put into position and fit the drawers on top I'll hot glue the drawer fronts on just to position them and then I'll bolt handles through the front and the drawer to hold it all together I'm just placing the top on to take a look and I reckon it looks awesome I have made a pretty big error though the top isn't quite deep enough I changed the depth of the whole unit at the start of the project and then I made the top from the original drawings which I hadn't changed anyway it's not noticeable at all in this position you'd have to lean right over the back to see it and I'm sure we can all keep it to ourselves it's not the easiest thing to get into place especially without scratching the paint which I pretty well avoided when it's all lined up with the holes that I've drilled I'll use lag bolts to hold down the drill press and it'll also hold down the tray in position too I'll screw the vfd to the wall but I definitely plan on making a vintage style control box that I mentioned in my last video I was super pleased with the drill restoration and now I'm even more excited about the whole setup I love the stand and I reckon it suits the machine let me know what you think hopefully you enjoyed the video thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one

Channel: Pask Makes

Views: 255,828

Keywords: paskmakes, pask, pask makes

Id: TnLlWvagt2s

Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023