SS Accessory Cart & Bench
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:19 pm
- Mostly Finished Cart
- Cart Pictures 2.tiff (1.02 MiB) Viewed 12313 times
The original accessory cart (see my earlier posting) worked very well for me, but I decided to make a second version with a couple of drawers and a bench top with a vise. Sometimes you just do things because it seems interesting, and for the fun of it. Having an extra bench surface and large vise isn’t a bad thing.
DIMENSIONS & COST – The lower cabinet is 32 ½ wide “ x 22” tall x 16 ¾ “ deep. Dimensions were driven by wanting to use a sheet of ¾” plywood efficiently and to be able to store long lathe tools in a drawer. The overall height with casters and bench top is 31 ½”. The bench top is slightly over 36” long and 18” wide. The vise opens 16” – driven by the keeping the pipe lengths completely under the top and the pipe supports about 20” apart. There is about 14” of space between the pipes, enough to clamp fairly wide boards. Total cost for the project was about $200.
VISE Two ¾ “ Irwin pipe clamps were used to make the Moxon style vise. The release mechanism is a threaded rod with two levers and bolts. Rotating one lever disconnects both reaction ends and a clip (to be installed) keeps them disconnected while adjusting the vise clamps. The clamps ($13 ea) utilize multiple steel strips and a spring on each end to grip the pipe. This also allows the screw ends of the clamps to be easily taken off and a different vise jaw installed. Separate jaws could be installed for each clamp for independent tail vises. The total cost (clamps, pipes, release mechanism) was about $50. Several holes were drilled in the top for clamping dogs. Since the vise opens to 16” only a few holes are needed for complete adjustment coverage.
BENCH TOP - The top is made from 2x 6 pine boards, ripped into 2 ¾ ” strips, then run across jointer. The center section is tied together by 6 - 3/8 “ x 10” Spax lag bolts and 8 – ¼” x 5” Spax lag bolts hold the outside blocks where the clamps are located. The top is supported by 4 – 6” x ½” full thread carriage bolts. The bolts are installed from underneath the cart top, secured by washers and nuts to the cart and washers and nuts on both sides of the bench top. The bench top with pipe clamps weighs about 35 lbs.
OTHER COMMENTS: Full extension soft close 14” bearing slides ($30 for both drawers) were used for the 15” x 30” drawers. Casters are rated at 175 lbs each and have a lock for the wheel and the carriage - About $8 each at Lowes or Home Depot. The underneath storage dimensions are nearly identical to the original cart – 12 ½ “ height. 31” width, and about 7 ¼ “ depth on each side.