Sheet metal thickness for machine base

[durableoreo]

I'm building a machine base for 2 1-hp drill presses. It's mainly to conserve space and add point-of-use storage. Here's some inspiring links

machine base examples http://lathes.co.uk/aciera/
multi head drill press http://www.lathes.co.uk/aciera22/

How would you approach building a sturdy machine base? My first thought was heavy sheet metal (like 11 ga) with welded corners. My brother, who has some specialty sheet metal experience, suggested a square-tube frame with very thin sheet metal fastened with rivets.

In addition to the base, I'd like to add a bib. I'm a 1-man shop and I already spend a fair amount of time cleaning up. What thickness would be adequate for something like this:

Christen Drill Grinders

Christen Drill Grinders Switzerland

www.lathes.co.uk

A metal cabinet with a wood insert is also appealing

Caser Ernesto & Figli Machine Tools - lathes

un catalogo del tornio Cesare con testo in italiano. Caser Ernesto & Figli, based at Via Gaspare Aselli 58, Pavia 27100. Caser Ernesto & Figli, con sede in Via Gaspare Aselli 58, Pavia 27100<br>

www.lathes.co.uk

What thickness would you use?

 

[aliva]

You don't mention the weight of the drill press. 11 gauge seems thin to me is around .119 or just under 1/8" The square tube frame sounds like a good idea. I would use nothing less than .250. 1/4'' with cross supports underneath. You want to minimize any flexing. If you go thick material you might not need the cross braces. A lot of this depends on the size of base you want. The larger the base the thicker the material. But that's just me I tend to over build stuff like this

 

[C-Bag]

I'm building a machine base for 2 1-hp drill presses. It's mainly to conserve space and add point-of-use storage. Here's some inspiring links

machine base examples http://lathes.co.uk/aciera/
multi head drill press http://www.lathes.co.uk/aciera22/

How would you approach building a sturdy machine base? My first thought was heavy sheet metal (like 11 ga) with welded corners. My brother, who has some specialty sheet metal experience, suggested a square-tube frame with very thin sheet metal fastened with rivets.

In addition to the base, I'd like to add a bib. I'm a 1-man shop and I already spend a fair amount of time cleaning up. What thickness would be adequate for something like this:

Christen Drill Grinders

Christen Drill Grinders Switzerland

www.lathes.co.uk

A metal cabinet with a wood insert is also appealing

Caser Ernesto & Figli Machine Tools - lathes

un catalogo del tornio Cesare con testo in italiano. Caser Ernesto & Figli, based at Via Gaspare Aselli 58, Pavia 27100. Caser Ernesto & Figli, con sede in Via Gaspare Aselli 58, Pavia 27100<br>

www.lathes.co.uk

What thickness would you use?

sheetmetal done right is incredibly strong. Like with right angles and especially beads to stiffen. They turn 22ga into something 4x stiffer. And sheetmetal can hold a lot of weight in compression.

It would be nice to see what you are trying to mount as that is a huge factor. My last machine stand was for my incredibly heavy Delta UniDrill. It has to be 7-800lbs at least. I engineered to stock as metal is stupid expensive around here and a guy on local CL was selling 3x3x3/8” by 6’ long angle irons for $15ea. I bought 6 thinking they were a good deal holy cow are they heavy! But they ended up being the ticket for the UniDrill. They are so insane I didn’t need cross braces or anything. All my machines have to be portable so are all on castors. And I’ve started incorporating 3-4drawer file cabs into all machine bases for the associated tooling. I found the cabs for free when offices go out of biz they just put their furniture on CL free and put them in the parking lot. I think the most expensive parts for this base was the cast iron castors. Total I think like $50?

 

[durableoreo]

You don't mention the weight of the drill press. 11 gauge seems thin to me is around .119 or just under 1/8" The square tube frame sounds like a good idea. I would use nothing less than .250. 1/4'' with cross supports underneath. You want to minimize any flexing. If you go thick material you might not need the cross braces. A lot of this depends on the size of base you want. The larger the base the thicker the material. But that's just me I tend to over build stuff like th

The drill presses are about 100 lb.

I have a few other machine tool knocking around and their bases are quite thick, over 1/4" on the side walls. I also have a book from Lincoln which has a lot of information and arguments for making steel structures that are equivalent in strain, not equal in thickness. When you design a welded steel structure to be equal in strength, it has good damping properties and weighs much less than cast parts. But all that said, maybe 1/4" plate is the way to go.

 

[durableoreo]

sheetmetal done right is incredibly strong. Like with right angles and especially beads to stiffen. They turn 22ga into something 4x stiffer. And sheetmetal can hold a lot of weight in compression.

It would be nice to see what you are trying to mount as that is a huge factor. My last machine stand was for my incredibly heavy Delta UniDrill. It has to be 7-800lbs at least. I engineered to stock as metal is stupid expensive around here and a guy on local CL was selling 3x3x3/8” by 6’ long angle irons for $15ea. I bought 6 thinking they were a good deal holy cow are they heavy! But they ended up being the ticket for the UniDrill. They are so insane I didn’t need cross braces or anything. All my machines have to be portable so are all on castors. And I’ve started incorporating 3-4drawer file cabs into all machine bases for the associated tooling. I found the cabs for free when offices go out of biz they just put their furniture on CL free and put them in the parking lot. I think the most expensive parts for this base was the cast iron castors. Total I think like $50?

I have a smaller Craftsman drill press and one of those new fangled Nova units. Nothing like the quality or weight of a UniDrill. I like that stand. Good idea to farm out the labor on the drawers.

based on the feedback, I'm thinking 1/4 to 3/8 for the base. Maybe 14 ga for the bib.

 

[C-Bag]

I have a smaller Craftsman drill press and one of those new fangled Nova units. Nothing like the quality or weight of a UniDrill. I like that stand. Good idea to farm out the labor on the drawers.

based on the feedback, I'm thinking 1/4 to 3/8 for the base. Maybe 14 ga for the bib.

when you say bib, what is that?

 

[durableoreo]

In the link below, it's the second picture down. It's a sheet metal shield to collect swarf. It could be 1 piece but I might make 3 separate parts. Older machines had shields like this but they were farther down, coming a little above the knee. I think it was mainly to manage coolant/oil but in my shop, it would be contain the chips

Christen Drill Grinders

Christen Drill Grinders Switzerland

www.lathes.co.uk

 

[C-Bag]

hmm, be interesting to hear how that works out for you. I'm more into easy access a la being able to roll the whole thing out in the middle of the floor and sweeping it off. My immediate reaction is it would just be in the way and make for a huge trap that would be full of chips until I got around to digging them out. But to each his own. Many of the German mills like Deckel come with those and the couple I've seen on YouTube they take them off. My impression is they are more for coolant than chips. In my case I need to make some t slot covers for the UniDrill because those are swarf magnets and messy. But I love having that huge cast iron table to work off. I have my Beverly B2 shear bolted to the back corner out of the way for ease of access. There has been 2-3 gang drills come up for sale here on huge cast iron bases. The last one had Delta 4 drills and it was only $800. It sat there for months. I've seen just the base trying to be sold down in LA for $600. Fantastic work benches.

 

[RJSakowski]

When I built my stand for my RF30 clone, I used 2-1/2 x 1/8" square tubing with two ribs running front ti back under the base of the machine. It is covered with a 1/4" plywood skin and has been in service for over forty years. Ten years ago, I built a stand for my G0602 lathe from 3" and 4" channel with a piece of 7" channel laying flat and running lengthwise to support the lathe. I covered this with a skin of maybe 18 ga. steel sheet, fully welded on the perimeter, primarily to contain any chips and fluids. It has proved to be a very sturdy stand.

As long as there is adequate structural support under the machine, the thickness of the skin isn't that important. However, without the underlying structural support, even 14 ga. sheet won't provide a stable base..

 

[Provincial]

I used a Craftsman workbench (sheet metal frame with tool box drawers) and glued two layers of plywood sub-floor on top. I had the local heating contractor make a drip pan with a lip to cover the top and mounted an Atlas 10x24 lathe on it. Very sturdy and lots of storage space. I think Waterloo made these for Sears in those days.



The drip pan extends about an inch beyond the plywood top in the front, and has a 45-degree angle upward to aid in access. It doesn't seem to get in the way, and keeps the swarf from getting into the drawers.

I have a friend who is modifying a "tanker" desk to support his 9" South Bend lathe. They are very sturdy and the top comes off easily to replace with a special use surface.