With the limited space in the workshop a fold down work station is required, I have plans for a piece of machinery which requires 1.2m x 1m of worktop space, this would fill the middle of the workshop with not much room to get around, so the plan is to have a fold down worktop, on Castor's for manoeuvrability, fold down legs, and a footprint of approximately half that size, so when folded up will fit in between my lathe and assembly table without anything sticking out. Also the machinery going on top needs a height of approx 360mm, so I'm going to make the pivot point 400mm from the wall with a little extra for that "fudge factor" ?
Construction will be mainly 2"x4" timber, with sheet material for the top, and some off-cut sheet material for some bracing.
Dimensions for the frame are 1124mm (1000mm inside width plus 2 x 44mm for the metric 2" timber and 2 x sheet material braces at 18mm each ) x 500mm depth x 800mm height.
Got my cutting list...
With some off cuts of sheet material I made a couple of braces for the bottom of frame, and while the construction was still fairly light I added the Castor's to the bottom, 2 swivel and 2 swivel with locking levers.
Centre length (1000mm) fitted, and you can now see where the extra measurements come from for the width of 1124mm
Made a simple box frame for the folding top with a centre brace, and added the fold down legs.
Adjusted and checked with the spirit level... spot on now.
Cut the work top to 1.2m x 1m and fixed to the folding mechanism, fits .... just !
Works well, just need to add a locking aid to the legs to stop accidental folding, and another locking aid to the frame to keep it from falling down while folded up. (3 x coach bolts)
Build Summary
6 x 2.4m 2"x 4" timber (£3 per length) £18.00
7 x coach bolts plus nuts and washers (10 pack) £6.99
1/2 sheet OSB 18mm £6.49
2 adjustable feet (£1.00 each) £2.00
Total £33.48
Build time 5 hours over 2 days, a bit slow but right arm/elbow not working very well ?
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