Will it support my mill? Or should I quit being lazy and do it right?

[Aaron_W]

Make sure you factor in room for the table movement. I found you need to leave quite a bit of room to either side of the mill to allow full travel and leave room for your hands to comfortably operate the controls. Once I started setting mine up I had to make some adjustments to give it more room than I had initially planned.

 

[MontanaLon]

The Clausing sits on a steel box 21x21" x 24" high. Mine has the optional 4" riser block so it is 70" tall sitting on its box, but the standard is 66" tall. I had a similar issue with ceiling height, and my wife wasn't open to the idea of cutting a hole in the kitchen floor so I could get a bigger mill in there. It seems like most of the mills put the motor above the head, greatly increasing the height.

Grizzly sells a base for its mill / drills that is very similar to the style of the Clausing's base, but the dimensions are a different 18x28 x 24"H so longer but narrower. It is $325 so you could make something for a lot less but might be of interest from a design point of view.

Mill drill base


I was thinking a well built underbody truck box might be an option, if you could find a used one within your budget.

Something like this. The cheap ones are tin foil, but some of the ones I see used on semi-trucks are built with probably 16 or 18 gauge and are pretty solid.

Truck box

I looked at the Grizzly but it is outside of the budget. The truck box actually crossed my mind this afternoon. I have one sitting in the garage but the more I looked at it the less inclined I was to think it would work. My basement floor is pretty rough. My guess is at some point the floor was dirt and someone put in concrete. But they had to use bagged concrete and could only afford a couple bags at a time. I really need the ability to level whatever I put the machine on and it would be tricky to get it right. Would probably need significant reinforcement to have a chance of working.

Make sure you factor in room for the table movement. I found you need to leave quite a bit of room to either side of the mill to allow full travel and leave room for your hands to comfortably operate the controls. Once I started setting mine up I had to make some adjustments to give it more room than I had initially planned.

I have lots of room around where I want to put it in every direction but up.

I started putting the wood together. I think it will work fine, if I hadn't forgotten to pick up the nuts for the bolts I would probably have it done by now. Pound for pound wood is stronger than steel so given proper design and build it will do the job. It won't be the prettiest but it will likely outlive me.

 

[matthewsx]

I’m sure the wood will work but I doubt it has a greater tensile strength than steel
Ever pick up a steel framing joist (metal 2 x 4)?

 

[fixit]

I’m sure the wood will work but I doubt it has a greater tensile strength than steel
Ever pick up a steel framing joist (metal 2 x 4)?

I can fold a metal 2 X 4 in half by hand but I can't fold or break a wood 2 X 4 by hand. Metal studs are weak till sheating is added.

 

[matthewsx]

I can fold a metal 2 X 4 in half by hand but I can't fold or break a wood 2 X 4 by hand. Metal studs are weak till sheating is added.

Yes, that is true. But how much does it weigh? Perhaps a broomstick would be a better comparison.

Or from wikipedia.

A36 steel in plates, bars, and shapes with a thickness of less than 8 in (203 mm) has a minimum yield strength of 36,000 psi (250 MPa)

and engineeringtoolbox.com

Compression and bending strengths of wood species typically used in beams:

Maximum Stress (psi)

���

Wet	Dry	Wet	Dry	Wet	Dry
Horizontal Shear - τ -	Perpendicular to Grain - σ -	Parallel to Grain - σ -
Wood Species	Bending	Compression
Birch, Yellow	1417	1668	477	715	960	1200
Fir, Douglas	1417	1668	417	625	1360	1700
Larch, Western	1417	1668	417	625	1360	1700
Maple, Red	1271	1495	410	615	880	1100
Oak, Black	1369	1610	590	885	920	1150
Pine, Eastern White	1222	1438	223	335	960	1200
Redwood	1320	1553	433	650	1200	1500

• 1 psi (lb/in2) = 6895 Pa (N/m2)
• 1 MPa = 106 Pa

Wood is a fine material. It is used for many, many things and will probably make a fine stand for the OP's mill. Unless he has a great deal of woodworking skill he will need to use steel in the form of screws, bolts, etc. to hold it together under the stresses it will have in this application.

However, pound for pound wood is not stronger than steel by a very large margin.

Cheers,

John

 

[mattthemuppet2]

I was actually looking at all thread today to tie the sides and front and back together diagonally.

Good point. I almost forgot to leave a gap between the bolt bins for the elevation screw. Will have to rearrange how I have that arranged.

How high is the standard stand for a machine this size? I've I have limited head room in the basement and would hate to have to drill a hole in the floor above to get the drawbar out. I see the overall height of the Grizzly on the stand is 68" so I am shooting for that or a touch lower.

the original stand is 20 3/4" high, with the roll around base and feet under that it's 25 1/2". That's still a little low for me at 6'2" but works ok. When I put a 4 1/2" riser on the head it should be just right. Loads of space still above the machine with a 9ft garage ceiling. The drawbar is also pretty short (18"?) so I wouldn't be too worried about that. If you can open the belt guard and have some space about that you should be fine.

 

[stioc]

I can fold a metal 2 X 4 in half by hand but I can't fold or break a wood 2 X 4 by hand. Metal studs are weak till sheating is added.

When you say a 2x4 I'm thinking a 2x4 rectangle tube. A mil stand would be made out of something like 1/8" 2x4. Am I misunderstanding something?

 

[MontanaLon]

When you say a 2x4 I'm thinking a 2x4 rectangle tube. A mil stand would be made out of something like 1/8" 2x4. Am I misunderstanding something?

Yes, a metal 2x4 is about 16-20 ga sheet metal folded into a u shaped channel that is 1.5"x3.5". Until they get sheet rock on them they behave like 20ga sheet metal with a bend in it. You can literally fold them up and toss them in the trash can but once they are sheet rocked they are pretty damn sturdy. Not in a structural sort of way but as a wall they hold up well.

I finished the stand. 4x4 legs, with 5/8" carriage bolts and nuts for a leveling feet. Cross pieces are 2x4's fastened to the 4x4's with 3/8"x6" grade 2 bolts, washers, lock washers and nuts. Diagonals bracing on each side is 2x4's fastened to the 4x4's with the same hardware as the cross pieces. Each wood joint is also held together with exterior grade wood glue. All horizontal wood surfaces are sealed with the same glue. Hoping that will keep the oil from soaking in.

Base of mill is attached to legs of the stand with 3/8x4" lag bolts with washers and lock washers. Column of mill is already attached to the base. Now I am cleaning off the cosmoline and limited amount of swarf off the moving parts to relubricate it before I put it all back together.

In looking over it while I took it apart and now as I clean it up and reassemble it appears I got lucky with a unit that has very few casting flaws. At least any that intrude into the sliding surfaces of the ways and dovetails. They all appear to be well cast. The ways themselves seem to be smooth but the gibs are rough. I haven't seen a surface yet that even remotely appears to have been scraped. At the cost of the machine I didn't expect that though. It does give plenty of room for DIY improvement down the road.