Assembly Table

[SwingKing]

I've finally finished my new shop assembly table, after about 4 months of on/off project time. It's based on Gary's workbench (http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=30759) but mine is more of just an assembly table with storage.



It's made of quarter-sawn white oak and MDF-Lite. The top is a torsion box using 3/4 MDF lite for the skin and 1/2" MDF lite for the grid. Finish for the trim is BLO, followed by a coat of wax-free shellac. I finished up the base cabinet with a few coats of Resisthane, sprayed on with my HF HPLV sprayer.

The one addition I made was because the top is VERY heavy. I had originally planned on installing a central post to lift the top, but it ended up not working out. Instead, I put in a air-powered jack on one end. It's a little cumbersome, but I can lift one end and control the jack for the other size to change the height.



Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out. The project had quite a few firsts for me: building drawers, resawing oak for the drawer fronts, creating a torsion box, and working with q-sawn oak. I need to spend some time rethinking how I mounted the fronts to the drawers. I thought it would be better to mount the drawer and then attach the front in place to adjust for any irregularities. Unfortunately, that didn't work as well as I hoped so I need to consider a different approach.

As always, I need to thank everyone here for their help. This place has the best people and a fantastic amount of stored history. Thanks for looking!

-- Ken

[RodKirby]

Lookin' good Great job.

You obviously have a lot of room and excellent lighting!

[drumpriest]

That looks great, very functional.

[shoottx]

very cool

I like the addition of storage to a layout table

[footprintsinconc]

that looks real nice. just by looking at the size i was starting to wonder how you were going to raise the top, but i see you have taken care of that with a air lift -- i like that idea. looks great!

[newood2]

Very good looking piece.

[gary]

Very nice - I like it. How fast does the air-jack raise that end of the table? Is it controllable?

Gary

[leehljp]

That does look great and very functional. I know that will get PLENTY of use. I think a good assembly table is the most under appreciated "tool" around.

[poolhound]

Thats a great result for a lot of hard work, you will find it invaluable and I am insanely jealous. Its the one thing I wish I could have in my shop (garage) but I just dont have the room. I have to mock up an assembly table on horses which is OK but its never level or perfectly flat.

[Pappy]

QSW for shop furniture? Should last forever. Like some others, wish I had room for a dedicated assembly table.

[lrogers]

Functional and good looking! It doesn't get any better than that.

[jhart]

Nice looking job on the table. Should serve you for a long time. Wish I had room for one like that in my shop.

[ironhat]

Air lift... doh!! I wonder if you could use pneumatic cylinders to do the lifting rather than a jack. You would need a compressor that would support the effort needed to lift the top. A hydraulic pump and two cylinders would work but it's a lot more hardware. I think that you have the better idea, Ken! Nice work.

[SwingKing]

Thanks for all the kind words. So far, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I actually used the table top when making the drawers and it was SO much nicer than my old setup.

Gary: the air jack takes about 30 seconds to raise the 6 inches to the next peg stop. It comes with an inline valve which lets me start/stop the jack from the other side of the table. Actually, letting it down is the tricky part. I have to start the air and then open the release valve slightly so the air in/out is balanced. I then go to the other end and turn off the incoming air, which lets it slowly drop back down.

BTW, thank you for posting the info on your workbench. I had been wanting something better than my hollow-core door / saw horse setup, but didn't know what do build. When I saw your workbench, I knew that was what I'd been waiting for.

Pappy, the QSWO is left over from another project. Actually, everything except the MDF is scrap lumber that's been cluttering up my garage for years. Using the QSWO pushed me into trying my hand at resawing, because I didn't want to go buy more wood for the drawer fronts. Now that this is done, I have more room to go buy wood for my next project.

-- Ken

[os1kne]

Very nice!