Stone sculpting table help

[stephen wood]

My wife is a stone sculptor. I'm looking to make a stand/table for her, like the one in the attached picture. Does anyone have ideas on:
1- How can I make the height adjustable, but still very sturdy?
2- How can I allow the top to turn, but once turned, stay firmly in place?


file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/woodsh/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.png194197

[Todd Bin]

How adustable do you want the height to be? I notice the one in the picture is not height adjustable. As for locking the rotation, I think I would drill maybe 8 holes through the center pipe and use a metal bar to lock it. This is similar to the way a lathe head is locked. So you would reach under the table a little, pull out the bar, rotate the table a litte and re-insert the bar to lock again.

[Jamie Buxton]

Vertical steel axle -- probably steel pipe with a flange on the end screwed to the underside of the work platform. The axle runs in holes in the base, so it can go up and down. The lifting is done with a bottle jack at the bottom of the axle. It gets pumped by a foot pedal. To prevent rotation, there's a friction brake on the axle. It has a big handle with lots of leverage to do the locking.

[Ryan Hellmer]

I would agree with an indexing pin as stated in the first post, not infinitely variable, but they lock down pretty solid. As for vertical adjustment, I'm wondering if one of those hydraulic tables from harbor freight might not be a good choice. Use the factory vertical adjustment and custom build the turntable to be mounted on top. More than 1 way to skin that cat.