I just got my bench together. Its not bad. Not great, but for the price, I can work with it. Needed a couple upgrades right out of the box through, luckily, they only took me 20 min or so to do.
First, I ditched the stock 1/4" table for some 3/4 MDF. Then, I drilled new holes for the light strip, which now holds that board inside of the upper shelf, no more flopping around when you turn the light on.
Then, I fired up the laser and made some floor protectors for the feet. Broke 6 of those plastic caps already. The floor pucks are just 1/2" poplar, with a channel engraved in them real quick to hold the foot in place. Super 90 contact cement and some quick laser cut felt circles, and they are good to go, and i can move the table around a bit easier, without worrying about it tearing up the floor.
ok, so you put 3/4 pdf in place of the stock peg board, is that what you meant to say? looks like it… for me i will probably have to think of a way to stabilize those frames for my light strips as I have an XXL, and will need to put it through so to speak, and will use those as more light on my table…
Instead of the 1/4" tabletop I used MDF. It comes with the 3m tape to hold it down, but Im just going to run some self tapping screws through there for now and countersink it all. Pegboard will probably be replaced, or backed, with acoustic panel board (carpet underlayment board, great for soaking up sound).
If I need it more rigid, I’ll run some angle iron from corner to corner underneath, just bolt it to it all. So far though, its fairly rigid. Ive got more moving mass in one of my lasers and it can shake a decent bit, but still keep .002 accuracy at 250mm/s.
On my laser at work, I made some brackets to bolt the legs to my 2x4 base (and eventually my aluminum frame). If I hadn’t started the aluminum frame already, I might have just stayed with the 2x4’s… they seem to work fine.
I haven’t added any bracing yet, but I haven’t used the machine much yet. The consensus seems to be that it’ll shake a little… not enough for most to worry about, but if it needs stiffened, some simple cross braces or side panels will do it.
I’m looking forward to using the spare parts to MacGyver some sort of enclosure, but I have some cool work projects that need to come first.
Unboxed my S3 last night. The XL is a bit too deep for this table’s default surface. Im going to add some MDF, basically a cover for those rear bins, and see if that will do the trick and allow for me to level it, and then I’ll sort out some walls later. Pics to come. @brrian, nice brackets for the feet.
I have the knockoff version of the Dust Deputy but I think it’s the same size as the real one. I double-stacked my sliding drawers on the right side of my table, so there’s no drawers in the way. It won’t fit if you put it on the shelf, but if you remove the shelf & put the bucket on the floor there’s about 6" from the top of the dust deputy to the bottom of the rail.
Since my tables are bolted to a frame, I can get rid of that rail in front of the bucket & make it easy to get the bucket in and out.
And by the way, for anybody using these tables - the two black ‘boxes’ in the pics are the shelves that are meant to be used up on top of the pegboard. I mounted them under the tabletop instead & I’m currently using them to hold most of the table parts that I didn’t use (& don’t want to throw away) but it could also just be tucked-away storage for miscellaneous machine stuff.
Dumped my MDF today for a piece of 7 ply oak (I’ve got other uses for the 4x8 sheet) and bolted it to the top, as well as covered up that back section, added 2" to the font (should have 1/2" extra for the XL on the bench).
Fancy for a $49 bench, but it certainly looks a hell of a lot better in the shop. Probably going to be building tonight or tomorrow.
Sure. I have them here at my desk. Message me privately with your address & how many you need (enough for 2 tables?). I’ll let you know what it’ll cost to ship them & if you can just pay for that I’ll get them sent out. It’s probably too late to send them today, so probably tomorrow.
I abandoned the top I made for the XL, in favor of a slightly larger version that sticks out over the edges. Bolting to the top rail is key though, if not, you will tip over. You can see it now goes out past the edge of my XL here
If you want the full working space of the machine, that prevents using the front 2inches of travel for cutting vertical material mounted to the front, just be aware.
Yep, Im aware of that. The wasteboard pictured will handle probably 90% of what Im using this machine for. But, I can also be used to move the project up and over that front lip.
