Mobile Metal Working Bench

[ranald]

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As I do mostly woodwork & am aware of the explosive nature of wood-dust I wanted a bench I could take out of the workshop when welding & grinding= anything that makes sparks needs to be outside.
My previous mobile bench, (prototype 1) was too restrictive due to the small wheels and lack of space to work. It was designed to be rolled out from beside the metal drill press many years back when family & contract commitments prevented me persuing my passion.
So here is the result of trying to fit my most used tools into one bench.

My homemade anvil from railway line needed a permanent home. A stick welder and mig needed to be accessed. I wanted an area for ark rods, drill bits, ball pein, small angle grinder, die grinder with burrs (when needed). Gloves and slag chipper could rest, on the welder not being used, at easy reach. I wanted at least one bench grinder that could be removed (this refurbished one is held in place by a locking plate at the rear & a R clip fastens the front allowing quick removal of the grinder if biggish items are worked on at the anvil.

The frame needed to be strong enough to withstand banging from a lump hammer. And as i ocasionally work on softer materials like perspex and wood, the engineers vice needed soft jaws (I use removable aluminium angle with leather epoxied). I employed old Kubota mower deck hangers for the two short wheel axles. The cast wheels are nylon coated (previously used on archaic "Skid Pan" vehicle attachment:so can hold the weight of 1/2 a car). The main axle sections are universal steel channel (& were offcuts from structural landscaping). The smaller uni channel was part of a tray I bought for an Isuzu truck that I had to cut down in length for legalities re axle overhang. The flat mild steel "fins" on either side of that channel are for clamping work onto as well as preventing loss of small bits from the channel. Magnetic corner brackets hold onto an upright.

One front leg is fixed at the same height as the wheels while the other has an inch bolt for levelling if required.


gal water pipe provides a swing down, out of the way, handle that has a bolt through a small Kubota seat bracket welded to the upright on the leg end.Welded on the adjoining face is a piece of axle u bolt that holds a 15 amp leed. (It also was used for one helmet but when I upgraded to an automatic one I needed to store it elsewhere as the battery flattens quickly unless exposed to periodic flashes of sunlight.) It now tidies the leeds of the mig. As I don't weld all that often I decided on not hiring a gas bottle, so I use the mig in gasless mode.

An engineering friend told me to look beyond the trees after I told him what a hastle it was dragging out all my stuff before attempting working steel & so I can thank Merv for inspiring me with this one. "You have a mobile wood bench so why not a metal one also". I could have made a bracket on the outerface of the upright at the wheel end for my 9" angle grinder but I seldom use it. To keep the size manageable I decided not to include space for the light drop-off saw.

All materials I had in the scrap bin excluding the heavy gal uprights (RHS). The cost of that was offset by the sale of prototype 1.
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Hope this inspires some of you other "woodies" to give it a go & design & build a personal bench that suits your requirements as I have done here.

[DIYer]

Thanks ranald! We've added your Metalworking Bench to our Workbenches category,
as well as to your builder page: ranald's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Metalworking Bench by ranald

tags: portable, metalworking