Mill accessory storage

[Lo-Fi]

Anyone come up with anything cunning for storing mill accessories when not in use? I've been lucky enough to pick up a 10" rotary table and 4" universal dividing head for my mill, which are both extremely heavy and take up a lot of room on the table.

I'm thinking about building a cabinet that fits behind the table on the left so I can slide said tools carefully from the table straight in or out. If the rotary table lives up top, with the dividing head on the second shelf, all I've got to do is move the Y fully back and wind the knee down so the table is at the right height. The lower levels can be used for drawers with other bits and pieces such as clamps and less frequently used collets and suchlike.

Thoughts and any other clever solutions?

 

[Winegrower]

That’s a good idea, Lo-Fi. In my case, I have a 12” Bridgeport rotary table which is getting almost too heavy for me to move...it’s not changing, I am. So I have a Craftsman roll around toolbox that I put a wood top on, and it works fine to adjust the knee to the right height and slide the rotab back and forth. A concern is detecting chips that could get under the table.

 

[Lo-Fi]

A wheeled tool box would be nice actually. Hmmm....

For the potential chip problem, I'm thinking of putting some felt down where the accessories sit. It can be cleaned with the shop vac, and so long as the tools are cleared of chips before being put away, should stay fairly clean. It should hopefully grab hold of any chips that do make it onto it too, so they don't end up making it back onto the table!

 

[mmcmdl]

Vidmar boxes .

 

[ezduzit]

Keep the rotary table near the mill so the X-Y table can be positioned next to it and the rotary table simply slid into place. Mill tooling in a rollaway cabinet underneath.

 

[tjb]

I had a bunch of spare metal, an electric motor that came off of a retired grain auger, and a gear box from and old Harrison lathe. You know - the kind of stuff everybody has laying around a shop. I used it to make a rolling elevator for my 12" rotary table. I can use the elevator to lift it onto the mill or store it on a heavy duty shelf. It's totally portable - an advantage, but it's also fairly big, so it really wouldn't be too practical in a small shop.

The older I get, the heavier some other tooling becomes (must be gravity), so I'm sure over time I'll be using it for other implements.

Regards,
Terry

 

[Lo-Fi]

Thanks chaps, looks like a roll cabinet of some kind is in order. Would make sense on many levels. Think I've got a lead on something perfect from ebay that's local.

 

[Dan_S]

I make custom boxes out Baltic Birch plywood. I do it for almost everything. for small stuff its a simple lift top box, for big stuff it usually a crate/pallet like the box below. Throw in some descent packs and you will have no worries no matter how long you store stuff.

 

[eugene13]

I keep my rotary table on a four caster movers dolly that gets rolled under a bench near my mill. I lift it on and off my mill with a 1/2 ton chain fall supported by my Little Giant ladder.

 

[Firstgear]

I bought a 1,000 hydraulic table lift from Harbor Freight. I had some boxed aluminum sections and bought some linear rails and bearing blocks. I was able with the boxed aluminum sections to get the sliding plates high enough to slide my rotary table over onto the mill table. Also there is room beneath the sliding sections for storage. The table in this configuration can also easily reach the top of my lift gate on my 2500 pickup. It makes moving heavy items off the back of the truck very easy after I put the two items on the mill table.