docmirror wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 1:14 pm
I'm sure a base with tilting can be made from wood just fine. Knowing nothing about the wood process, I would personally want some kind of hardwood like Oak or Maple, and not a softwood of Pine family. That would make up the diff in materials cost compared to sheet steel.
I just looked over my existing supply of long and heavy metal. I have a 10 ft. length of 2-1/2" square steel tube with 1/16" wall, several pieces of 2-1/2" square steel tube with 3/16" wall of currently unknown length, a variety of steel angle with 1-2" legs with 3/16" thickness, around 8 ft. of 3"x3"x 3/16" aluminum angle and 8 ft. of 4"x4"x1/2" aluminum angle. That's more than enough for the bottom rails and cross members to mount the casters and the cabinet on. A cabinet made of plywood with metal angle reinforcement should work fine but I'd still like to have a cabinet made from sheet steel. That shouldn't be all that expensive, my local sheet metal guys are great and love doing stuff like that instead of just making duct work and drain pans. But I'll work it all out with 2x4s and plywood to until I get the measurements finalized.
Reinforcing the base casting shouldn't be too hard. Meaning it will be more difficult than I think of course. I would like to use a 1/2" aluminum plate that fits in the bottom of each casting flush against the bench tubes. It will need some kind of tabs to attach around the edges of the plate to mount it with existing screw holes for the legs, plus a few more, and then the plate will be clamped to the bench tubes with at least one U-bolt through the aluminum plate on each tube.
In drill press mode the plate will sit flat on the right end of cabinet top and be locked down on it. So the cabinet will extend nearly all the way to the end of the bottom rails on the right side, leaving just enough space to mount the casters. Note that only the way tubes are tilted up in the drill press mode just like any Model 4/5/7xx machine.
In under table mode the entire assembly of castings, bench and way tubes has to tilt on a pivot somewhere around 10-12" inward on the bench tubes from the left base casting. That pivot can just be a rod that runs between the bench tubes and brackets that attach to the top or the left side of the cabinet. Another method would be to make a hinge assembly that connects to the bench tubes with U-bolts, similar to the way it was done in the Popular Mechanics article. In the vertical position the bench tubes or casting is locked on to the left side of the cabinet. Ideally with the lock mechanism is located the top of the cabinet so I don't have to bend down to lock it.
I'll still start with a wood mockup, maybe never get a steel cabinet made. So far it's hypothetical but doesn't look ridiculously difficult or costly. The remaining issue is the main table only tilting 90° in one direction. Apparently the Mark VII table tilts in 90° both ways using some magical tie bar configuration that doesn't get in the way. I'd like to find out how that works. I think that may not be possible with standard tables but I already have two tables with the legs reversed in one of them to accommodate tilting in either direction. They're currently 500 tables but I have another 510 carriage and table I can use on it.
Sorry to fill up your thread with this stuff but it's a good way to think it all through.
you had a double tilt table with the power pro double tilt unit. 