I’m not sure if this is the best place to ask, so if anyone has any suggestions of where else I could seek advice on this particular project, please let me know.
I need to build a table to get my Nomad 3 up off the floor. I don’t have any experience building furniture, or even much woodworking experience to speak of, but I figure I can handle something simple like this:
I figure I’ll make it out of 2x4s, then put some extra pieces across the top and stick a 30*30 (I’m not going to be using the dimensions here, just the design) piece of plywood on that. I’m just wondering if I’m missing anything in terms of making sure that it’s sturdy enough, particularly given all the vibration from the machine. I know I’ll need some way of levelling it, but other than that, is there anyone here more experienced with carpentry that can see any glaring issues? I want to make sure I can trust the table this thing is sitting on. Having it on the floor is a giant pain, but at least the floor is sturdy lol.
For a Nomad, the requirements are minimal, it’s not going to move lots of mass around with crazy acceleration, so anything you build out of 2x4 will likely work great. But at the price of wood these days, I wonder if just getting a cheap (and small) kitchen table from Ikea would not be even simpler and cheaper. I know I did, I bolted it to the wall and it used to be where my Shapeoko3 lived for a couple of years, it worked great.
If you dont have a lot of experience building then take a look at this article from Family Handyman Magazine. This gives you a step by step instruction. The picture above is alright but I think this plan gives you a good top and importantly a shelf for storage.
The thing I liked about this bench is the lower shelf is slightly inset so you can sit at the bench and not bump your leg on the bottom shelf. They have an upper shelf that you do not have to put on but again the extra storage space might be nice.
The article says you can build the project for $50.00. I think this may be somewhat out of date with today’s prices but still affordable.
I was about to respond that the inexpensive IKEA options that would actually suit my needs are all out of stock, and the cheapest AVAILABLE option is way more expensive than the DIY version. But I decided to check delivery options, and lo and behold, delivery isn’t nearly as expensive as I expected and I can indeed get a table that’ll do the job for under $100. Actually still more expensive than building it myself, since I can get really cheap SPF lumber that I’m sure would do the job, but I’m happy to spare myself the aggravation. Thanks for the suggestion!
Also happy to be reassured that it’ll do the job alright, though I’m curious about bolting it to the wall. Is that necessary? Or just added stability?
It was necessary for me and my Shapeoko because a) the Ikea table I reused had seen a lot of abuse and was not as sturdy as it originally was, and b) I modded the Shapeoko with an aluminium bed and 2.2kW spindle so it ended weighting quite a lot, and rapid changes in direction at high accels would make the table dance a little bit. But for a Nomad, I would really not expect to have to do that. It’s just an easy fix in case you find out that whatever cheap table you end up getting is not as stable as you would like.
If made a table for my Nomad i would arrange for it to have a hole 2 inches offset from the perimeter of the nomad, and a drawer underneath to collect the chips.
While i was it, i would add more drawers for all the bits, spanners, surfaces, vices, rigs and jigs.
Dust collection w/ the Nomad is interesting — most folks just seem to just brush up the debris or use a small hand vacuum — Winston’s dust shoe hasn’t been anywhere near as popular as I expected:
I bought a Craftsman tool chest planning on using it for my Nomad 3 when it arrived, but it has since been repurposed for my SO3 XL — probably my ideal unit would have a small vacuum and cyclone integrated into the base — if money wasn’t an object it’d be a stack of Systainers (which I’m starting to transition to from the hodge-podge of storage systems I’m now using) w/ a Festool Dust Extractor CLEANTEC CT SYS and a matching cyclone in the base. Though there was a really charming handheld Makita unit w/ an integrated cyclone:
Winston’s dust shoe hasn’t been anywhere near as popular as I expected
I don’t have access to a 3D printer, so Winston’s dust shoe design doesn’t help me. What I’d really like is a sweepy for the Nomad, so I can just buy something that works and not have to go through the hassle of DIYing it. But ultimately it doesn’t matter in my case because I have to be mindful of noise where I live and I can’t have a vacuum running alongside the CNC anyway. I’m going to build a soundproof enclosure at some point for my vacuum, but I don’t have the money for that right now. For now, I just vacuum everything up after the job is finished and try to stay on top of keeping everything wiped down.
