I seem to find myself in an ever shrinking amount of workshop space and so I’m always looking at space saving measures for my shop equipment. Sometimes there just isn’t a way to make something smaller, so making it easily movable becomes the option that keeps premium space free from clutter and easily configurable for whatever the task may be. We would all love to have enough space to have a dedicated welding, fabrication, and machine shop area, an area dedicated to tearing stuff apart and doing all the dirty stuff, and an area that is clean and nice for assembling hot rods. And who doesn’t want a completely separate area just to keep our finished hot rods. Well, we can dream can’t we?
The reality is our shop is storage, fabrication, welding, machining, assembly, and everything else all in one spot. That means we have to be smart with space and that means stuff that rolls around if at all possible.
This video from Wesley Treat, Maker of Things, shows his design for a one lever operated set of retracting casters that allow moving of the welding table anywhere and everywhere you want. When the casters are down it rolls easy. When up the table sits on adjustable feet to make everything perfectly level and nice. Sounds like a winner to us.
Check it out.
Cool video. Everthing in my shop has wheels so the metal working and wood working tools are not mixed ( my father, the chemical engineer, would never allow). My radial saw sits on a table high enough to slide the table saw under it. And what doesn’t “wheel” hangs from the wall when not used. Even my workbench folds against the wall. With small shops you must be creative.
Wow! Very cool. Really well thought out. Great editing too; makes it pretty entertaining.
Love the welding bench. A flat bench would be a novel idea with or without wheels.
My 30’X40′ shop is still too small – they can’t be big enough. I’m slowly adding wheels to everything though I still have a way to go. My welding table is Certi-Wavy so it’ something I’ll try to replace as time goes along (though I’m 71 so I guess I better get on with it……).
I too have the issue with woodworking and metal working tools though I DO mix them a little. Wood cutting tools (table saw, chop saw, etc.) work great on aluminum especially with fine blades so I abuse my stuff frequently.