I constructed the frame out of good old southern yellow pine. I bought 2x8s and milled it to get the sizes I needed. I chose 2x10s because they are made from larger trees and are a better grade than 2x4s and 2x6s. The thickness was a little under bit 1.5” after jointing, but I had a better surface. The corner posts were glued up to get 4x4s.
This is the frame of the 36”x72” module. The slats on the bottom support a piece of .75” plywood. The slats on the top only support a piece of .25” hardboard, which is a dust shield. I may eventually enclose the bottom of the modules, and I don’t want them filling with saw dust. There are four 5” heavy duty swivel casters. The frame of the 24”x72” module is constructed the same way.
The tops of the modules float on the bases. The floor of my shop, like most shops, is neither level not even, therefore, the tops can be adjusted to make them level and even with each other. This is the frame of the top for the 36”x72” module. It is 6.75” deep and can travel up about 4” from resting on the base.
Here you see the construction of the larger bench top. The section along the left side is for mounting the fence. The notch in the closest end is for the fence rail to extend beyond the bench. This allows for the maximum length of cut using the fence.
After mounting the rail mounting hardware (angle iron), I added the .75” plywood sub-top to the assembly. Note that the rail mount is upside down. This allowed me to get everything that is steel as far below the top surface of the bench as possible, thus greatly reducing the chances of hitting steel with a moving blade or bit.
Once the bench tops were assembled, I did a dry fit of the bases to assure that I had planned the fit between the two correctly.
After assembling the 24”x72” module base on my assembly cart (not shown, and too low to comfortably do the assembly on), I used it to assemble the 36”x72” module base. Here, the assembly is on its side.
I used a .325” bolt in a pocket hole to fasten the rail to the leg, and dowels to prevent twisting. You can see the three holes for the bolt and dowels at the top of this picture. The bottom of the picture shows the pocket hole for the nut and washer.
In this shot, you can see (barely) the rabbet in the side rail that accepts the tenon on the end of the slats that support the bottom shelf.
This is the finished 36”x72” module base.
The finished top is on the base, still needs the sliding modules between the SMEs.
This is the adjuster that is used to level and align the tops. It consists of a 8”x.5” all-thread, two nuts on the lower end (the bottom one is pined with a roll pin), and a nut embedded in the top of the block that is lag bolted to the leg.
Angle strapping is used to tie the tops of the two modules together in whatever configuration I’m setting up.
Next time I’ll look at some more details and some accessories I’ve made.
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