The Woodshop Shed

My Tilt-Top Tool Stand

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


The stand is made from construction lumber. The sides are made from two 2×4 legs connected by 2×6 stretchers. The stretchers are attached with two 1/2×2 1/2 -in. dowels and glue at each joint. The front and back stretchers connect the sides together at the bottom. Two 1/4×4-in. hex bolts terminating into two cross dowels inserted into 15/16-in. holes in the stretchers make a secure connection for the stretchers at each corner. The eight cross dowels are made from 1 1/2-in. lengths of 3/4-in electrician's EMT. A 5/16 hole is drilled into one side of each and a 1/4-20 nut is used to secure the hex bolt to the cross dowel. The bottom panel is cut from a piece of 1/2-in. plywood and set in a 3/8-in. deep dado.The table top is constructed from two pieces of 3/4-in. plywood with two pieces of 1/2-in. MDF. The MDF pieces are separated at the center by 5/8-in. to construct a channel for a 5/8-11 threaded rod. A 5/8-in wide x 1/16-in. dado was cut in the plywood so the channel after assembly would be 5/8-in. square. I used MDF because it was in my scrap bin. 1/2-in. plywood would also work but the dado would need to be a little deeper. I used spray-on contact adhesive to stick the pieces together. To aid in alignment of the parts after the adhesive had been applied, I drilled a few 3/8-in. perpendicular holes through the parts and inserted 3/8-in. dowels. I considered assembly with the contact adhesive to be faster than using glue, weights and clamps.The corner hardware is made from 1/4 by 4-in. eye bolts. Carriage bolts 1/4×2 1/2-in. with lock nuts secure the eyebolts in 9/32-in. slots center of the top. 1/2 OD x 1/4 ID x 1/4-in. thick bushings fill up the space between the loop of the eyebolt and the 1/4-in. carriage bolts. The slots in the top were cut on my table saw using a jig that I made to cut the corner spline slot for picture frames. A 1/4-in. Forstner bit was used to “gouge out” room for the eye end of the bolts.The 9/32-in. slots in the top of the legs to receive the corner hardware were cut on the table saw using a dado blade. A 1/2×2 1/2-in. dowel pin was glued in a 1/2-in. hole between the slots and the top of each leg to prevent breakage.The 5/8-in. threaded rod is held in the top at each side by a flat washer, a lock washer and a 5/8-11 nut. Another flat washer acts as shim between the nut and the bearing block. The bearing block is made from glued-up pieces of Baltic birch plywood. I found two brass 1/2-in. NPT nipples in the plumbing department of the home center that would almost fit over the 5/8-in. threaded rod. After cutting the rod to length, a flat file was used to remove a few thousands of the thread so that the bearings would fit over the rod. The bearings were pressed into 3/4-in. holes in the bearing blocks and the blocks were mounted to the top stretchers using 1/4-in. hex bolts.The heavy steel brackets to support the casters are made by splitting with a metal-cutting bandsaw two brackets obtained from the deck and patio builder's section of a home store. The brackets attach to the legs with -in. carriage bolts. The castors attach to the brackets with two 5/16 hex head bolts and to the end grain of the legs with two hex head 5/16 lag screws.The table was sized to be just large enough for the planner. But if I were building it again, I would make the legs a little shorter because for me at 5'-8, the sander work surface seems a little high (47 -in.). I clamped on a stick to simulate a new position for the lower stretchers if the legs were shortened. My little test showed that I could reduce the distance between the top and the lower stretchers by up to 3 -in.Dimensions:
Table top 27 x 25 x 2-in.
Base: 30 x 25×31-in. (without casters)
Bearing blocks: 5×2 x 1/1/2-in. wide
Top of leg to upper stretcher: 2 -in.
Bottom of leg to bottom of lower stretcher: 2 -in.Metal Parts Used (except as noted, all parts should be available in hardware store or home center):
1 ea. 5/8-11×36-in. threaded steel rod, 2 nuts, 2 lock washers, 4 flat washers
4 ea. 1/4×4-in. eye bolt with 1/2-in opening in eye
4 ea. 1 1/2-in. plastic knobs with 1/4-20 threaded insert, 4 flat washers to put under knobs
4 ea. 1/4×2 1/2-in. carriage bolts with lock nuts and flat washers
4 ea. 1/2 OD x 1/4 ID x 1/4-in. steel spacer (Mcmaster.com 92415A862)
4 ea. 1/4×3-in. lag bolts to mount bearing blocks
2 ea. brass nipple, 1/2-in. NPT, 1 1/2-in.
8 ea. 1/4×4-in. hex bolts with flat washers and nuts for lower stretchers
12-in. 3/4-in. dia. electricians EMT cut into 8, 1 1/2-in. lengths (normally comes in 10 -ft. lengths)
4 ea. castors, 2 3/4-in. wheels seem okFor caster mounting:
2 ea. Simpson Strong Tie deck and patio connector, ML267
8 1/4×2-in. carriage bolts with nuts
8 5/16×1-in. hex bolts with lock nuts
8 ea. 5/16×3-in. lag boltsBolts, nuts and washers to mount your tools.

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