Great Idea or Just Madness...

[tfrayne]

I have an idea about storage for my ShopSmith related items. (Which are currently neatly but disorganizedly strewn about the shop.)

I'm not sure if this is an excellent idea or sheer madness.

I have started on a giant lazy susan cabinet. It would be about waist level in height, and no more than 44" wide. The top and bottom wheels will be made of construction grade lumber (I believe it is fir, but not sure. Ace Hardware calls it "white wood") in a butcher block style glue-up.

I suppose when it is finished, it will resemble a large spool for heavy duty cable.

So far I have milled 90 pieces of lumber 46"x 1 1/4" x 1".

The top wheel will house my bandsaw and jointer, as well as often reached for items like the rip fence, etc. It should have room to grow. The bottom wheel will have pull out trays, roughly shaped like slices of pizza. This will hold lesser reached for items. The slide out trays will probably be 3/4 ply or another butcher block glue-up.

I have not sourced the hardware for the lazy susan part but this should not be hard.

This will be a HUGE project for me, and will likely take a few months. I used my conical sanding disc for the first time on this project.

[JPG]

Interesting idea! The hardware will be the critical part.

That 'whitewood' resembles spruce.

[edflorence]

Interesting idea! The hardware will be the critical part.

That 'whitewood' resembles spruce.

I agree...a VERY interesting idea. That will be a lot of weight, though, so the hardware may turn out to be some sort of roller bearings and not just oversize lazy susan hardware. Maybe an opportunity for some spindle work on the lathe?

I think "whitewood" may include spruce, various pines, hemlock and the white firs.

[edma194]

If it's gotta spin with a joiner and bandsaw on top you might wanna be looking at trailer axles.

[tfrayne]

Haha, Yeah. I have emailed a supplier of lazy susan hardware to ask for advice. I will finish the two wheels and build around that.

I hadn't considered spindles..... interesting

Also, I will need to build in a very low center of gravity to avoid tipping.

[chapmanruss]

tfrayne,

Interesting idea. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Your picture rotated for clarity.

_

Lazy Susan 01 tfrayne.jpg (78.71 KiB) Viewed 6680 times

[tfrayne]

Thankyou. I need to remember to take horizontal photos...

This will be a slow project but I will update as I go. RIght now I am fighting time with my initial glue-up. I want to get 18 sections of 5 pieces each before the wood starts to bow.

Just found the SS biscuit joiner in a box, complete with original packing, instructions and a small supply of biscuits. I was going to dowel the sections together but I think I will try this thing out.

[tfrayne]

I ordered the hardware; an aluminum piece 36" in diameter and rated for 850 lb. I have some ideas on how to mount it but I guess I'll have to wait until it arrives so I can really see how it works.

In the meantime, I glued up all my sections (90 of them) into groups of 5 and now have 18 sections of 5 pieces each. I milled those down to a common size and am now using my ShopSmith biscuit joiner for the first time. Literally had to take it out the box its been in for twenty years and read the instructions.

The pieces are big enough to feed into the cutter without ever getting my fingers too close to anything that moves. I used my outfeed fixture (Thanks Scott M!) just to provide more support. Since it attaches to the rip fence, I needed the rip fence to hold the fixture. Otherwise I don't think the rip fence would have been necessary for this operation.

I'll do the glue up in sections as it is very hot in TX, I don't have air conditioning in the shop, I need to take frequent hydration brakes and the glue sets up fast.

Hopefully I will have two (roughly) square pieces by the end of the weekend.

[algale]

I just noticed the quote from Mr. Roberts (which was on TCM yesterday) in your signature. Great movie!

I also just noticed your combination rip fence extension/outfeed support, which I really like the simplicity of! I'm thinking of shamelessly ripping it off and building my own, and would like to pick your brain.

Is it 3/4" plywood or some other material? Attaches to fence with t-nuts? I assume you drilled the holes in the surface of the outfeed table to reduce weight? Also, can you comment about the Shopsmith support legs in the photo -- I can't tell what they are doing or if they are needed for that set up. Anything you would do differently if you were starting from scratch?

[tfrayne]

The outfeed support is a direct copy of Scott Markwood's YT video here:

https://www(dot)youtube.com/watch?v=8KE7U2GrsZ4&t=7s

Not sure of the policy of linking YT videos on this forum, but if you paste that into your browser and replace the (dot) with a . it will work.

It uses ShopSmith T Nuts to attach to the rip fence. The holes are indeed to reduce weight. The material is 3/4" phenolic that I had left over from another project. I've just gotten into the habit of using the support legs whenever I have the machine upright.

The one thing I would do differently is to make little "feet" protruding from the edge of the support piece where it touches the table. It would be intuitive to snug the fixture up to the table but this causes the rip fence to hang up when making adjustments to it. I think if it had two little nubs to touch the fence instead of the whole leading edge, it would slide more smoothly. To remedy this, I just need to remember to pull it back about 1/8" before tightening down the T nut bolts.