Building a Shorty

[jjbuzard]

I cut 18" off to make my shorty. It works fine and I use it mostly as a sanding station. I used the left over 18" pieces of bench tubes to make my dedicated drill press.

That is what I want my Shorty to look like, what is the drill press capacity on the Shorty? Your caster assemblies are polished, did they come that way or did you polish them? I like the look, I could polish mine I think.

[jsburger]

I cut 18" off to make my shorty. It works fine and I use it mostly as a sanding station. I used the left over 18" pieces of bench tubes to make my dedicated drill press.

That is what I want my Shorty to look like, what is the drill press capacity on the Shorty? Your caster assemblies are polished, did they come that way or did you polish them? I like the look, I could polish mine I think.

The castors come that way now since the Greenie. I guess the Greenies were painted.

I am not sure of the DP capacity but I will measure it if you want. It is certainly enough for most "normal" DP uses. The only caution is that with the bench that short, in DP mode pushing down on the front of the table you can slightly tip the assembly. It is not a big problem because your drilling pressure is at the back of the table which is no problem. My wife used it in DP mode to drill hundreds of holes for her scroll sawing until we built the full size MK V DP.

I always installed the connector tubes and the telescoping legs on the table when in DP mode. Problem solved.

[jjbuzard]

The castors come that way now since the Greenie.

No not since Greenies, my '81 came with painted casters, maybe if you order them after the original purchase, they come raw, but as a complete Mark 5, they are painted.

[jsburger]

The castors come that way now since the Greenie.

No not since Greenies, my '81 came with painted casters, maybe if you order them after the original purchase, they come raw, but as a complete Mark 5, they are painted.

OK, I bought mine new in '94. Most of the ones I see on eBay are not painted. I know the Greenies were green. Were there grey ones?

[jjbuzard]

The castors come that way now since the Greenie.

No not since Greenies, my '81 came with painted casters, maybe if you order them after the original purchase, they come raw, but as a complete Mark 5, they are painted.

OK, I bought mine new in '94. Most of the ones I see on eBay are not painted. I know the Greenies were green. Were there grey ones?

Yes they are painted Gray, but seeing yours I think I will Polish mine on the 81 and this Shorty build.

[JPG]

Fer a spell they were copper colored!

[jjbuzard]

Fer a spell they were copper colored!

[jjbuzard]

Took all of the pieces and mocked up the Shorty with 34 inch way tubes. Considering making it shorter because I could do with limited drill press mode.

Shorty.jpg (1.1 MiB) Viewed 15693 times

[jjbuzard]

You can make a temporary shorty using inexpensive EMT conduit from Home Depot ala JPG. They will cut it to length for you. Put it together and try it out before you cut your good tubes.

Great idea, will do that. Will also alow for set up while Bench tubes are being powder coated.

Instead of the EMT Conduit I used the Plastic conduit, about half the price to mock it up.

Mock up with Plastic Conduit Bench tubes

Shorty w Plastic conduit.jpg (697.89 KiB) Viewed 15655 times

Close up

Plastic Conduit close up.jpg (522.92 KiB) Viewed 15655 times

[jjbuzard]

I cut 18" off to make my shorty. It works fine and I use it mostly as a sanding station. I used the left over 18" pieces of bench tubes to make my dedicated drill press.

Jsburger, what are the 2 verticle tubes in the picture of your dedicated drill press for, looks like a wooden dowel joining them at the top.