Mobile vice and small anvil / welding table

[Fred]

Super exciting bolts in position but not screwed into anything photos: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6705868801









It actually turns out I'd need about 22mm of engagement to ensure the fastener, and not the thread, failed first, however I'll get more than ample tension with ~17mm of thread engagement.

[Fred]

Not sure if I put this in the other page or not, but marked out, june 9th:







First hole drilled/tapped: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6283665408
Second round of drilling/tapping: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5506857984
All drilled/tapped/bolted up: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0062896128
Corners marked for cutting to match the vice shape: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9115288577
Table layout started: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6863654915
Bought new stronger screws for vice jaws: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2686201858
Vice last night, jaws flipped, stoned, surface finish restored, just have one small jaw alignment issue to solve before hand lapping the jaws to each other: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6608595968

Assorted pics from above:















Next steps:

• trim up plate
• correct jaw alignment
• design, cut, drill, and weld a plate to the top of the tube for mounting the table to
• fit plate to giant disk
• refinish vice in new paint
• accent the lettering with white and/or black
• mount wheel system to brake drum
• buy bolts to hold drum to hub
• decide how to attach tube to hub, and do it
• find balance point of vice+table+plate+wings and mark/drill/tap for the top flange plate, test fit
• design, cut, mount 6mm plate wings for placing gear on
• rub down the table until bright steel, and oil
• paint tube, hub, drum to complement blue vice and bright steel table
• enjoy/profit/use :-)

Tube to (cast) hub mounting options:

1. Preheat both parts and just weld them, risk of cracking, but if peened may be okay
2. Have someone machine the hub for a close press or shrink fit of the tube and do that
3. Preheat and braze the two parts together
4. Make shims to get the fit tighter on the step that's already there, drill, tap, bolt together

Open to input on that, any tips/suggestions welcome/considered. For example options 2/3 are from RobR33 :-)

[ehb]

Re tube to hub mounting:
Welding might be okay. I've had luck with TIG and stainless steel rods on cast. Also, I've had cast iron just boil up and no luck (with TIG). Also, sometimes it looked like the weld was okay, but the cast iron right next to the weld got very brittle. All in all, I don't think I'd try to weld it. Maybe.

2) That would be luxurious, but would need a pretty long overlap, right? Also, depends on your access to a machine shop.
3) Seems feasible, but I've never brazed before.
4) You mean a shim around the spigot of the hub, and then radially drill and tap in 3-5 places? That sounds ok if the spigot offers enough meat.

My #5) suggestion: Weld a plate with a couple threaded holes (3?) to the inside of the pipe, vertically screw both together through inside of the hub with a corresponding counter-plate.

[Fred]

I think your suggestion plus the shims to centre it would be a winner! Nice idea! Thanks :-) A piece of box and a single big threaded rod in the centre would probably be more than sufficient. I will play around with the geometry and lengths and see if I can get it nice. Thanks! <3 Fasteners/pins around the edge would just keep it snug and rattle free. A plate above the threaded or captive-nut'd one to contain a sand filling would be good, too. Ahhhh the internet, the best way to collaborate since the early 90s :-D

[Fred]

Measured up: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8810170370













Paste with edits and enrichment:

Tube ID 128.20mm versus hub step OD of 125.24mm equals 1.5mm shim all the way around + some sanding for clearance, equals snug fit. Or heat/cool and shrink fit.

Height only 7.5mm before taper and 11.18mm total, so fasteners are out unless M6 12.9 button head cap screws? Roll pins are in. 3 or 6 of them pre drilled in tube on press, then follow-through into shim and hub and hammer in pins while under tension from internal fastener as per ehb's #5 :-D Maybe 3 pins and 3 M6 offset from the edge of tube by 2 or 2.5mm or so? Waste of time? More pins instead?

Need to check and maybe true up both ends of the tube prior to that adventure, too.

[ehb]

Glad to be of help

Yeah one fat center bold should be alright, but I'm thinking M16 (preferably even larger). This quickly becomes a question of how much power the drill press has.
When shimmed and tightened manly, I doubt you'll need any fasteners radially. You can still add those lateron, in case of a defect, which will never come.

Hope the ends of the pipe are sawn perpendicular, as you said.

Love those Mitutoyo calipers

[Fred]

Yeah, depending on the grade, smaller could be fine even. To up the grade and the stiffness, it could have two bolts, one from stiff member to tube cross disk/plate/bar/box/beam and the other from the other end to the other bar, both shorter, then I could use high-grade JDM metric fine stuff and it'd be strong as hell :-D

Drill press thinks it's up to 32mm, and given how it didn't even remotely flinch at 12mm and has 1.8kw/2.4hp, anything will be fine :-D above 32 I can holesaw.

I will attempt to roughly check the pipe now. Looks okay at a glance so any error will be minor and easily corrected.

I love the calipers, too! A little treat for me after many many years using chinese junk ones. Will probably get a 300mm digital set and 150mm digital set to go with them, but they are a true work of art. <3

Might pull the tube off, chuck it on the ground and pop the hub on upside down to see what sort of internal brace/plate would make the most sense while I'm down there.

[Fred]

Okay, so the situation is as follows:

Tube squareness and hub detail: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1761605632

Tube is square on fresh end, that can be the bottom. Slightly off on older cut end, that can be the top, and either shimmed prior to welding to the top flange, or ground till square first.

Bottom of the hub is not hollow like I had poorly / wrongly remembered, it has bearing stuff in there, and a nice obvious machined flat surface to put a disk over. If it was aligned perfectly, 102mm would be spot on, but given it likely won't be, and more weight down low = better, I'll make it oversize and maybe just square despite the round surface. If round 160mm would be max diameter before it fouled other surfaces.

I have a few things that can make this decision easier:

• 35mm ID seamless API tube, very strong (200mm piece available, 300mm piece in service elsewhere)
• 35mm bright engineering round bar (250mm available, need very little for original purpose)
• M14x2 tap, Australia made, quality, intermediate (not taper, not plug/bottoming)
• Knowledge that the "proof" load of an M14x2 12.9 fastener is 112kN or 11,000kg
• Knowledge that I don't need more than a few hundred kg of clamp force for this
• A drill press and an angle grinder and boundless enthusiasm :-D

Small tube and round bar: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8575535104

So what I think I'll do is:

• Cut out the disk to go inside the tube, drill it for M14, space it up correctly, weld it fully around the lower side, drill and plug weld around the edge in 3-8 places
• Find some sort of rubber or plastic press in bung/cap for the top, size a hole in the top flange to suit that and ensure I can get my hand through to start the bolt
• Weld on the top flange with as much preheat as possible to reduce cupping of the flange, made of ideally 16mm plate but 12mm may have to do, same for 2 disks
• Sit tube upside down and rest small tube on welded in plate through hole in bottom of hub, measure and mark tube for cutting, cut say 5mm shy of the bearing surface
• Cut two pieces of 35mm bar stock in the 35-60mm range, drill to 12mm, centrally, maybe on a lathe, tap to M14x2, bevel heavily on one end
• Bevel the inside edge of both ends of the tube to match
• Weld in fully around the end, then through several holes around the sides
• Buy two more M14x2 cap screws and hardened washers
• Buy or scavenge a strip of 1.5mm sheet steel or even aluminium, maybe 11-25mm long (plate to end distance, minus weld height)
• Buy M20 (or smaller if cost prohibitive) cap screws and hardened washers and nuts for around the hub to drum interface
• Buy or scavenge some 1mm sheet to wrap around 4 of the M20 fasteners (or thicker if thread smaller) to get the hub centred on the drum

Then it's back to the top and the paint scheme!

Colours? Have black and white, could mix grey, or buy any other colour.

• Drum?
• Hub?
• Tube?
• 50mm table sides?

Not sure what will emphasis the nice blue vice on top best :-D Table top will be bright oiled or waxed steel. Will be etching the mill scale off with hydrochloric acid and rubbing with stones and oil until pretty. Cap screws likely to be black with gold passivated zinc hardened washers, but not sure yet.

Best photochop job of the below photo wins a thank you :-D

[ToxicGumbo]

I like the direction you’re going, and perhaps I missed this, but one other alternative: Weld a separate pipe to the base and slide the existing pipe over top with graphite (or size the inner pipe with bearings) and drill holes every 45deg for locking. I would consider this approach if the thing is damn heavy and will mostly sit in an area where turning it will be difficult or common.

[Fred]

I intend to have it on wheels as it'll live inside and I'll primarily want to use it outside at least until I get my dream workshop with 3.6m ceilings :-) So rotation isn't a big deal, but rock solid stability is.

I haven't designed the wheel setup yet. My original intent was to roll it over on one side and clamp a second pair of wheels in the vice, but I think that's actually dangerous and it'd require locking wheels to even be feasible at all. Best to keep it upright and roll it around, I think. But wheels need to retract for good footing.