New Grinder + Misc Bench Project

The original setup was 2- 8' benches on the back wall and was really too big and turned into another catch all for a ton of things... Then, I had originally planned to reuse the old 12' test bench for this but the more I looked at it the less I liked it, plus it was still a little big.  I did a mach up on one of the old 8' benches and it was more than enough room.  I never used the vise on the back bench much anymore so it can go somewhere else and make room for the smaller drill press instead.  Since it was only 4 pieces of equipment now 8' was plenty.  A friend came up this morning and he had a use for it so I gave him the old 12' test bench and he helped me build the new one today.  

Most of the time was spent planning where the bolts would go through the top to mount everything without hitting anything crucial underneath, while also anchoring the top to both wood shelves under the metal.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get the 4 pieces of equipment mounted on it and clean up some more of the mess around here.  All of the Fastenal stuff is back out in the 4 car garage and some room is starting to appear in the shop again. 

 

Been a really busy week but I've made time to work on this bench some every day.  I really need everything working again so I can get back to some kind of normal around here, whatever that is... 

Most of the mounting was done yesterday and today with what I use on a lot of projects, grade 9 bolts of course.  A little overkill never hurt anyone.    These fixtures are a little over 4' each when assembled and the metal was a little short so I made an overhang on the drill press end for the outer trim, then made an end cap out of some 1 1/2" angle iron for the other end.  It just bolted on through 2 of the top holes in the fixture posts.  One of the little tricks I do is in a pic with the magic marker in it.  When butting 2 pieces together just make a wide black strip under the 2 pieces being butted together and it will make it look perfect.  

Next up was insulating the belt mill.  It always had a little vibration through the bench so I cut a piece of the 3/8" rubber flooring, punched a few holes in it, then put it under it.  That should make it nice and smooth.  I also doubled up on the front to rear braces to make it more solid. 

It's coming along pretty good.  I finished up all of the mounting + outer trimming today and I think all that's left is figuring out where to put a hidden power strip, put the cords back together, then put some shelves on it and the bins in it. 

I need to make time this Winter to redo some of the other equipment like the grinders, they are my fav Wheel Horse tools lol.  

 

Got this bench mostly done this morning.  While all of this cleaning + rearranging was going on I found some quick disconnects I forgot I had.  They made things really easy, and they're easy to disconnect at any time if need be.  Everything is wired up and working nice + smooth. 

The red cart that was sitting the back storage room came in real handy too.  All of the bigger hand tools fit in there without a problem.  The other nice thing is now there's another tabletop with wheels, can't ever have enough of them...