Rolling Stands for your Metalworking Machinery · Aug 29, 02:50
Every so often, we’ll get inquiries about where and how to situate one’s mill, wether it be the smallish X2 mini-mill or the larger models of “home-shop”-style mills such as the clone Rong-Fu 45 benchtop mill/drill (which weighs in at a hefty 800 lbs. or so).
In the past, we put the X2 mill and even the 8x lathe on Craftsman 5-drawer “professional” rolling toolchests. This works fine, but it raises the machine base height to somewhere above 30”. This can be a problem for some. It was for us.
After setting aside some time to re-work the shop space, we realized the timing was optimal for making our own stands.
Having the machines on a rolling base was crucial for various reasons. Having the height of the milling tables and lathe centers somewhat consistent was also important. Working on a few different designs, we ended up figuring that the “optimum” set-up was as follows:
1. 4 swivel casters (all with posi-lock brakes which not only prevents the wheel from spinning, but it also prevents the wheel from rotating.)
2. solid cast wheels for strength with poly to prevent marking
3. quality. read: no Harbor Freight casters (even their heavy duty ones broke on us…)
4. Metal, metal, metal. Having been through the wood workbench route as well as the toolchest route, this one had to be solid. Square structual steel tubing was the material of choice.
In future articles, we’ll discuss pros and cons of each method we’ve used in the past and explain how our set-up can work wonders for those with small shop spaces.
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