It seems a lot of projects in the shop are making things for the shop itself. The latest creations are a wire spool cart and a teardown bench.
The spool cart was put together with some spare 1″ tube steel left over from our zombie defense fence project. The design is pretty straightforward.
Rods (spare pipe or conduit) sit in the notches and hold wire spools. The bottom is large and has a floor for CAT6 and other cables that come in boxes, or for other items that might not fit easily on a rod. Like most items in the shop, it’s on casters so it can be easily moved.
Next up was a more ambitious project: a heavy duty teardown bench. These are commercially available, but for the cost I was able to get super heavy duty materials: 1/4″ plate steel for the top, and 0.125″ thick angle and channel for the rest of the structure. I played with different ideas in Trimble Sketchup and settled on this design.
I got to work on the real thing and between the portaband and the MIG welder, knocked it out in a few hours.
The top surface is tilted at 3° toward the back, where it meets with a trough that tilts down to one side. All of the “wet” surfaces are seam welded.
At the end of the trough is a steel drain tube, to which a hose can be attached, or a receptacle placed underneath.
I lucked out with a standard auto parts store waste oil jug, which fits nicely below the tub. I put the bench to immediate use, tearing down a Miata power steering rack. These are the kind of jobs that normally end up with a huge mess, so I’m calling this project a success.