# Another shop project, rolling work table ...



## Geezer Garage (Oct 30, 2022)

Have a serious lack of flat surfaces in the shop. As most garage monkeys will tell you, any flat surface almost instantly attracts things until completely covered. This project started with a pair of 100 year old cast iron wheels that had been collecting dust in the garage loft for 40 years. Very cool looking, but out of round in nearly every direction. Chucked them up in the lathe, and trued up the rolling surfaces, and the edges. then moved them to the milling machine and re-bored the axle holes back to true. Next I found some round stock and turned a pair of axles for them to run on. The table itself is entirely built from found materials, with the exception of a few pieces of steel that were part of 10 tons of steel I bought for almost nothing from someone who was moving and needed it gone. the main frame is one of three that came with the house next door when we bought it. I believe they came from the local power plant when it was being built. They were just thrown together, and covered with expanded metal on the top and two sides. Probably 80% of the work on this was removing paint and mill scale. The bench top is 24"x 8' and is 3/8" hot rolled steel plate welded to  1"x3" rectangular tubing. The top was very rusted an under the rust I encountered the hardest mill scale I've ever come across. Tried sanding discs, muratic acid, to no avail, and finally settled on 40 grit flap wheels on a 4 1/2" angle grinder to break through it. I probably should have just remove the rust and left it, but my ocd had already kicked in. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of as the table turns.



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## Geezer Garage (Oct 30, 2022)

More pics.



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## Geezer Garage (Oct 30, 2022)

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## Pinky (Oct 30, 2022)

Unfortunately, cannot see any of the images


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## Tish (Oct 30, 2022)

Wow, can't wait to see it finished.


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## SeniorBen (Oct 30, 2022)

That's going to be one beefy table! Keep the pics coming!


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## Gaer (Oct 30, 2022)

Extremely impressed with a man who can build things with tools!


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## Geezer Garage (Oct 30, 2022)

May have been when I was messing with pics. Can you hear me, I mean see them now?



Pinky said:


> Unfortunately, cannot see any of the images


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## Jules (Oct 30, 2022)

It will be interesting to see the finished product.


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## Pinky (Oct 30, 2022)

Geezer Garage said:


> May have been when I was messing with pics. Can you hear me, I mean see them now?


Yes! Always good to see what you're working on


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## Sliverfox (Oct 30, 2022)

Very interesting,, good to watch a project come together.


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## katlupe (Oct 31, 2022)

You remind me of my Dad. He would make what he needed. Looking forward to seeing your project finished.


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## Ken N Tx (Oct 31, 2022)

No more room to roll that around my work area!!!


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 3, 2022)

Love the bookend 8N's.


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 3, 2022)

In  all transparency, I actually finished this project a few weeks ago, but not wanting to bore everyone with a long post, and limiting my time on the computer I'm posting this up in easily written, and consumed sections. As seen in some of the earlier posts I boxed in the lower sections of  table legs with 2"angle iron for strength to mount the solid wheels and axles, along with the front casters, which were disassembled, cleaned greased and put in the hydraulic press to take out the play in the rotating bearing assembly, and then welded to the legs. Along with the swivel castors I added a leveling leg that was sourced from the same pool cover cart that I found for free on FB market place. This leg takes the load off the casters to keep the table from moving. The original frame structure was stripped of two coats of paint, and mill scale, reinforced and welded in critical areas, and treated with cold gun bluing solution, rinsed/neutralized, and ultimately coated with a clear, high temp engine coating. The first pic is the table top in it's original condition, and later after removing the majority of the mill scale, which took two solid eight hour days. After welding the table top to the frame I welded 3" channel steel to both ends, and the length of one side along with an inverted piece to form a tray on the other long side, extending the top from 24" x 8' to 30" x 8'6". Then the welds were ground level to the table top, and the top was belt sanded with two different grits to smooth the surface. More soon, and thanks for following along.





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## Geezer Garage (Nov 3, 2022)

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## Nathan (Nov 3, 2022)

Geezer Garage said:


> Love the bookend 8N's.


Same here!  Nice John Deere modification.


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## RadishRose (Nov 3, 2022)

My goodness is that all your stuff? Is there anything you can't build?


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 4, 2022)

Geezer Garage said:


> Love the bookend 8N's.


Thanks, they are 9N and 2N..1939 and 1945..8N's came out in 1948..

Great work on the tables..


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## Alligatorob (Nov 4, 2022)

Very impressive @Geezer Garage !  Always wished I had learned metal work.


Geezer Garage said:


> any flat surface almost instantly attracts things until completely covered


Has to be one of the laws of thermodynamics or something!


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 4, 2022)

I'm afraid so, actually a small portion of it. Have been running into some glitches with the fusion reactor project. 



RadishRose said:


> My goodness is that all your stuff? Is there anything you can't build?


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 5, 2022)

Made a removable 3" surround to go on three sides of the bench which is held on by 1x1/8th" tabs. This way if I have something longer than the 8' 6" top to work on I can just remove them, but my guess is the y will stay on most of the time. Got the vice mounted, and then started on the drawers, which were another freebee. Had to do a fair amount of slice, and dice to separate the three drawers that were originally a three drawer file cabinet. Fabricated a lot of different mounting brackets to get them hung under the table, but they came out nice, and open , and close smoothly. Prepped, and painted the drawer fronts and surrounding cabinet sections, and then welded everything in place. Moved on to welding in supports for the bottom shelf which is a piece of 5/8 USB for now, until I find the proper piece of steel to replace it, or I may end up making it a lattice work of  2"x3/16" flat strap steel, kind of like an old castle portcullis. One last installment coming up on this project , then on to something new. Thanks for following along.



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## RadishRose (Nov 5, 2022)

That's some table. You can fold laundry on it! Thanksgiving Buffet table!


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2022)

I can't remember the last time I bought ten tons of steel!


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 5, 2022)

Probably just slipped your mind. One of the issues with the elderly, or so I hear.


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## hawkdon (Nov 5, 2022)

Put a drain in one in, wala...morgue table>>>>>>


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2022)

Geezer Garage said:


> Probably just slipped your mind. One of the issues with the elderly, or so I hear.


Thanks.....that's a WEIGHT off my mind!


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## Gary O' (Nov 5, 2022)

Nicely done, Geez
Nicely done


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 6, 2022)

Last installment on this one. Decided to allow my inner child free reign, and put some stickers on the drawers, and made a protective discard-able cover for the for the bench top out of some melamine taken out of an old shower enclosure. The bench is now residing in the welding shop, but may move into the main shop area as things get finished up. Hope you enjoyed journey, I know this kind of stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea.



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## Gary O' (Nov 7, 2022)

Geezer Garage said:


> Decided to allow my inner child free reign, and put some stickers on the drawers


Gotta have those

It's the coup decal de grâce 
....or something like that


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## SeniorBen (Nov 7, 2022)

Nice job! I may get a little welder next year to make steel sculptures. I see artwork around town that I could make fairly easily... abstract stuff. The artists probably got paid quite a bit for them. I'd like to have something like that but I'm not going to pay up the wazoo for a piece just because the artist made a name for him/her-self.


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## Geezer Garage (Nov 7, 2022)

Ben, take a look on FaceBook market place or Craigs list. I see them often for cheap. I recently picked up a Lincon 170 mig machine that had almost no hrs on it for $150. It was completely covered, and full of sawdust of all things. Blew everything out, and cleaned it up, and it works great. Will probably pass it along to my son, as I have several other machines.


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