Make this small sturdy I-beam work table. Easiest ever to make
and a very useful tool in any shop. It is very strong and can even
hold my weight. It has many clamping possibilities and can clamp
many different size parts as well as very small parts and will fit
securely on a table or drill press table.
To start I found some old plywood that came from a cabinet that
was well over 40 years old and it was very good quality. I glued
some pieces together and got a thickness of 1 1/4 inches.
The pieces are cut to L 7"x W 8".
The middle support piece is 3.3"
The table height is 4.25"
I installed a dado blade into my saw and ran it through a couple
of times to get the right thickness of the plywood.
The depth of the cut into the top and bottom boards was 0.6".
On purpose I made the dado a tight fit. With some glue and a good
whack with the hammer I now have a very strong and sturdy I-beam.
Now to install the insert nuts. This could've been done before
glueing but I wanted to lay things out and get a better idea of how
things would work and look the best. After I decided I drilled two
holes.
A hand screw clamp and block are on the table so when I drilled
the holes for the insert nuts there would be no tearout.
Another plus for this table is the hand screw clamp, they do not
work very well on a drill press table but fit very nice on the I-beam
table.
A close up of the insert nut. I used an Allen key to turn it in. It
may seem difficult but in fact is very easy to do.
I used some clamps and secured the I-beam table to my workbench.
I put on a small vise using some Phillip screws and turned them into
the insert nuts. This is put together very quick and easy. I even tried
it on my kitchen table and it worked great and did not mark anything!
Now to the drill press
I made a few hold down clamps out of maple and some T-nuts
at one end. The clamps are holding a Canadian dime and after
tightening the screws the dime would not budge.
Philip screws are in the insert nuts and lag bolts are in the T-nuts.
Now there are many possibilities for clamping parts.
The I-beam table is clamped to the drill press table. It can be
turned over and now we have a whole new table.
See also:
