What's the best way to fix this assembly table / cabinet?

[Alan Lightstone]

I knocked this together yesterday. I believe it will take care of sag. Twin 2” channel, 3/4x10 rod couplings and Bolts. End flanges to secure assembly to base. Also a jam nut to secure setting. Fun little project. Fingers crossed.

Thanks, Jack. I look forward to using it and fixing the sag.

[Alan Lightstone]

Working on raising the planer today. So a second issue should be solved. Definitely had a DOH!!! moment when that was suggested and I had never thought of it.

I'm pretty sure I'll be lowering the cabinet 1" with 3" instead of 4" casters and building a butcher block workbench top for it with dog holes. Ugh, another big project. And having to flip over the cabinet. Oh joy.

Jack's solution can be attached without flipping the cabinet, but I'll have to do that anyway to change the casters.

Will need lots of help flipping the sucker.

[Jack Frederick]

Don't flip it. Jack it up, so to speak. Rent or borrow a J-bar and you can raise it. You can probably do it with an 8' 4x4...a good one. Do it from the end and put a piece of angle across the end to carry and spread the load. Once you have it up a couple inches you can use a small 1 ton floor jack (Harbor Freight) if you need additional height. Block it so it is stable and take it to a height you can change out the wheels.

[Marc Fenneuff]

Don't flip it. Jack it up, so to speak. Rent or borrow a J-bar and you can raise it. You can probably do it with an 8' 4x4...a good one. Do it from the end and put a piece of angle across the end to carry and spread the load. Once you have it up a couple inches you can use a small 1 ton floor jack (Harbor Freight) if you need additional height. Block it so it is stable and take it to a height you can change out the wheels.

Jack it up, you say?

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Yes it might work. Just clean the grease off first

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[Alan Lightstone]

I've been thinking about how to best raise it, or flip it.

To get clearance to remove the present 4" casters with 3" ones, I would need to raise it up considerably. And then would need pretty tall blocking underneath. Not striking me as the safest thing in the world. And there's that shop adage of if you are wondering if a procedure is safe - don't do it.

I did raise the jointer yesterday. As it turns out, I needed to raise it 5/8" more than my pallet jack would do, so that got slightly complicated, but all is good. I'll post pictures later once I neaten it up. So now I really need to move the assembly table much more rarely. Good news there.

Jack's welded I-beam should arrive today. Really curious to see how that does. In theory, it should fix the sag.

[Marc Fenneuff]

Yeah, In my photos I was just replacing and relocating casters so I didn't need nearly the clearance you will. Got a forklift?

[Alan Lightstone]

Yeah, In my photos I was just replacing and relocating casters so I didn't need nearly the clearance you will. Got a forklift?

No. But at times surely wished I did.

[Alan Lightstone]

I had another thought. If I am going to flip the cabinet, could I remove all the angle iron, and casters on the bottom, install 4 workbench casters into the 3/4" plywood sides (or would they need solid wood reinforcement on the outside), and have the cabinet mostly rest on the presumably level floor?

Casters like these: https://www.rockler.com/rockler-work...ter-kit-4-pack

Would this eliminate the sag in the middle?

This would give me the ability to make a 4" thick workbench top (instead of 1-3/4"), but the drawers (especially the bottom ones) would be pretty low, so lots of bending.

[Jack Frederick]

You would be putting all that weight pushing out rather than down. My issue with those side casters is how often would I be tripping on them? I believe that if you remove the jam nut you can run the bolt deep enough to use 2” casters. It will be close. You can gain 1/4” by sawing the bottom off the rod coupling. You can also cut/grind the hex head Down for a bit more room.

[Frederick Skelly]

Jack's welded I-beam should arrive today.

It sure was nice of you to make that Mr. Frederick!

[Jack Frederick]

I have seen your Burke quote and am pleased to have helped. That is assuming it works.

[Jim Dwight]

My low profile car jack can go down to 3.5 inches or a little less. It is rated to raise 7,000 lbs. Maximum lift is over 20 inches. Should get it high enough to change the wheels if you have access to a similar jack.

My outfeed/track saw cutting/assembly table is 3 feet by 7 feet and I store a bunch of tools on it. So it is heavy. I have 6 totally locking casters on it. It rolls fairly easily except for the weight and junk on the floor. If I clean the floor I can push it around fine. Middle casters seem to work fine. Is it possible you had not-so-great casters on the previous attempt? I've done that before but on anything heavy I now go to caster city and buy a decent caster. I think center casters is a far easier fix but if you weld up a solid steel base that is heavy enough you can support the cabinet by the corners.

The key parameter for deflection calculations is the moment of inertia. You can google it up and know in advance what the defection will be if you know the weight of the cabinet and contents. I got a mechanical engineering degree many years ago but I think many people could work the formulas and do the calculations. You may be able to find tables of the moment for common steel shapes. Rectangular tubing is much more resistant to deflection than angle iron.

[Alan Lightstone]

Ok, now the second issue.

Looking at materials to build the top, or perhaps buy a top and modify it to size.

The best size I think considering the cabinet base below, and to allow sufficient space on the sides is 73" x 32". Of course if I choose to buy one, that extra inch from 72" might be a non-starter and I might have to stick to 72".

My questions are (and I know some of this is covered by some old threads which I have looked for):

1.) Is a 1-1/2" top thick enough for dogs? I know that it's probably too thin for a holdfast (is that true), but I haven't ever used one.

2.) I was planning to make holes every 4", but the Woodpecker jig I have had for this for about a year, makes the holes every 3-3/4" on center. Weird. It's about 96mm, so it's not a convenient metric spacing either. Weird.

3.) I was planning on using hardwoods. Still not sure which one. Suggestions? I don't know if I can easily get Red Beech, so perhaps something else (? Maple).

4.) If I go thicker, I'll have to lose the casters and put on legs, perhaps with workbench casters. Don't think that's a terrible downside.

5.) Is 1-1/2" to thin to build or buy an end-vise, and have it work?

6.) Advantages / Disadvantages for making an end-grain butcher block top vs just using long face grain pieces.

This is mostly an assembly table on the side of my table saw, with lots of storage. I do have a decent size workbench in the workwhop.

[Marc Fenneuff]

A guy on YouTube built a "Paulk" workbench out of single-thickness 3/4 ACX ply and he covered it in dog holes. Not saying I would do that, but I have also seen quite a few tops made of 2 layers of 3/4" MDF, with dog holes.

[Alan Lightstone]

I don't want to highjack Bob Reifer's thread on building a workbench, but in many ways what we are doing is now similar.

I ordered a 74"L x 33"W x 2" T workbench top from Baird Brothers. It's hard maple butcher block, and should be very strong and hopefully very straight. This 2" thickness, I would think, will make a great workbench and make the dogs holes a sufficient depth. Man, it's not going to be fun to rout all those holes. I just thought that time, effort, and supplies to make a hard maple top myself wasn't worth it, so I ordered one.

I also purchased a Rockler 12" Quick-Release End Vice which I'll install. I'm going to lose the top left drawer to accommodate the vise, but in the grand scheme of things, that's a small price to pay.

I'm going to try to install the steel beam with adjustable bolts that Jack Frederick built for me, which should eliminate the sagging, I hope. This may become unnecessary, as I'm pretty sure I have to lose the conventional locking casters. The height of the table cannot exceed a certain level, as it will live next to the table saw. I'll only have 2-3/4" at most for casters. I think workbench casters will work best. I bought some quick-release removable ones from Rocker. Hopefully they can handle the weight. They'll have to support the bench only screwed into 3/4" plywood sides. Not sure that's strong enough.

I'm thinking of putting four 12"x12" plywood sheets in the four corners to act as legs (might be 8"x8"). I could put two more in the middle to prevent sag, which is a thought. In that case, the steel beam might be unnecessary.

Are the 12"x12" legs better or worse than just using 4x4's?

Moving the large butcher block top from the truck to the workshop could be quite the ordeal. Gotta get lots of help. They said it will come on a pallet. I was hoping to transfer it to a dolly.