Input needed for Performax 16/32 Sander Stand

[Doug Shepard]

I need to find some additional storage space and started looking at what's currently under my Performax sander. That's the accesory stand and casters plus a small storage box for sandpaper rolls that I hung from stretchers between the stand legs. I've got a lot of unused space under the sander and need to reclaim it. So I'm going to ditch the stand and build a cabinet to set it on. I've got a rough cabinet size worked out but the sander weighs 175 Lbs and I'm wondering if I should partition the cabinet vertically with another fixed horizontal piece if racking might be an issue. This will get wheeled around a fair bit and I'm not sure if 175 Lbs should be a concern or not. Plus the weight of any wood running through the machine.
I dont have the drawers drawn yet but was planning on putting the lighter weight sandpaper rolls and sanding sleeves for my OSS in the top drawers and heavier stuff nearer the bottom. Sticking another horizontal piece halfway up wouldn't be ideal for letting me configure different drawer sizes but I'll do it if the consensus is that I need to.

What do you think?
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[David Christopher]

Build it out of 3/4 plywood and you will be just fine

[Chris Padilla]

3/4" plywood would be fine but personally, I'd double it up for the two outer "legs" and I might even double up the top. This is probably way overdoing it but it would be very strong and last practically forever....

Then I'd edge-glue some hardwood on the plywood edges both for more strength and to protect the plywood edges.

But, hey, that is me and you asked! ;) :D I also happen to have a vacuum press and so I'm BIG on laminating things together....

[Dewey Torres]

Doug,
I have been thinking the same thing, I may follow your thread for a future build with my 16/32. 3/4" ply is what is holding up my planer (with no sag) but it also weighs a bit less. If you want to be sure and as Chris eluded to..2 ply 3/4 would almost hold up a car and take little space away from your storage idea.

[James Suzda]

Here is a link for a nice design for a 16/32 sander.

http://benchmark.20m.com/tools/PmaxSander/toolspmaxsander.html

[Doug Shepard]

Hmmm. Hadn't thought about doubling up the ply but doing the end panels that way might not be a bad idea anyway. I was just going to butt the top onto the ends and glue/screw. If I doubled up, I could set the inner one down by the ply thickness and form a rabbet there. I didn't bother using the Sagulator to see what it says but the middle upright would probably make that calculation irrelevant anyway. I wasn't thinking sag would be so much of a problem anyway with the middle divider for support but was wondering about side-to-side racking. The back panel (glued/screwed on) would probably handle most of that but there's nothing on the front side which was why I was wondering if I should do a middle horizontal divider too. I don't know if 175 Lbs on a cabinet that size might be affected by some racking or not. Maybe there's a Rackulator web tool out there somewhere?:confused:
The plan James linked to is nice but not big enough. I've also got the factory fixed infeed/outfeed tables and dont have any problem dealing with the extra storage length but just want to put most of that space under the unit to use. The length measurement I came up with would still have 6-8" of the I/O tables hanging over on each end so plenty of toe-kick room for standing.
Normally I do put hardwood edging on ply but this was going to be BB ply and I actually like the look of BB ply edges (just look at my bench for chrissake:D) and was going to leave all that exposed.

Forgot to include pics of the current meager storage underneath, so this will be a big increase. There's pics of the current setup on this thread
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=160595&postcount=8

[Jim Kountz]

Ive been using a cheapo used microwave cart for about the last 5 years. Its a cheap one too! Its one of those things you tell yourself will work for a while until you can work up something better. Well its still going so you know what they say about fixin it if it aint broke!!

[Norm Koerner]

Make a angle iron perimeter for the front of the cabinet. That will give you support AND prevernt racking. Of course the metal would be better welded rather than bolted.

The front might not have sagged much anyhow has the machine will be supported near the sides of the cabinet.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I think angle iron might be over kill. If you do a face frame design, you could add some supports behind and attached to the face frame with a tight fit between the side for a little extra strength.

This is also on my to-do-someday list. I have one designed with folding in/outfeed tables.

[Doug Shepard]

I've been meaning to get back to this but have gotten tied up with a few other odds & ends. The face frame idea is one I've been considering to help stiffen the front a bit. I've also been meaning to call a place near me that I think had some 1" ply the last time I was there. If so, I probably wont double up on the sides but I'll have to see. I did get the casters from LV the other day and took advantage of their free shipping deal.

[Doug Shepard]

Well I just got off the phone with Drayton Plywood. They do have a 1" ply that's Maple C-grade for $80 and more of a paint grade ply. So if I go that route I'd have to do the edges in hardwood and paint it instead of clear finish over BB ply with no edging. I'll let you know when I finally get something.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I'm not sure if I was clear in the first post. I was suggesting that the face frame could be used hide a support piece mounted right behind it, and no one would be the wise that it was there.

[Russell Tribby]

If I remember correctly Jim Becker had a pretty nice stand...check his threads.

[Nate Folco]

A quick check to amazon shows


Weight: 110 lbs.
Shipping weight: 141 lbs.

and that includes the heavy stand. (no in-feed/out-feed though)

I'd say 3/4" would be plenty especially with the center divider.

[Doug Shepard]

Well that's truly bizarre because I used Amazon to find out the weight in the first place. That's where I found the 175 Lb figure. That ceratinly sheds a new light on things. Thanks

[Doug Shepard]

I finally got the carcass for this done. I got the plywood the week before busting my hip so it sat for quite a while before I was able to do anything with it. Still need to plan out the sizes of the drawers and get those built. I ended up using 3/4" paint grade ply except for the back which is 1/2". Then poplar for ply edging and the frame. Lee Valley casters (nice casters BTW) underneath. The whole thing comes to 40" long, 30" deep, and 24" high (w/o the casters) and takes up the same storage footprint as the metal stand but probably gives me a 5-6 times greater usable storage space than what I had tucked under the metal stand.
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[Jim Kountz]

Hey Doug, good to see you posting again, hope the hip is doing better. That stand looks like it ought to hold up a tank!! Well built and a good design, lots of nice storage there.
Well done!!

[Robert Reece]

Scroll down a couple of posts here
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=105371

It's all 3/4" ply and doesn't seem to have a problem with the weight of the sander.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

It didn't (or doesn't) come with a stand? I'm pretty sure mine did. It's a perfectly good stand. Did you look into buying the stand for it? I remember buying (pay extra) the infeed and out feed tables, but not the stand. It has holes in it so all I did was mount 4" casters and it's mobile.

Making a custom cabinet would certainly make it more efficient though. And look much better to boot. The stand does have a lot of wasted space.

[Doug Shepard]

It didn't (or doesn't) come with a stand? ,,.

... The stand does have a lot of wasted space.

I have the metal stand, but just wanted to put some of that wasted space to use underneath.