So… My shiny new Onefinity finally showed up at my door last night. I am very excited to start playing with it. Feels like I ordered this thing MONTHS ago. Oh, wait. It isn’t very often that I say this about workshop tech, but this is a beautiful machine.
I won’t be able to play with it right away, though. First, I need to make a table to set it up on.
In coming up with how to build a proper table suited to my needs, there were a few restrictions. Among them:
It will need to be easily disassembled and reassembled. I will be using my Onefinity in a room that is eventually going to be my library until it warms up and I relocate said Onefinity to the shop.
The individual pieces need to be light enough to lug up and down a flight of stairs.
I want to be able to add onto it with off-the-shelf hardware to eventually set it up in an enclosure.
I want it to be expandable with a minimum of fuss. I want to make things, not spend a lot of time making things to make things on.
I want it to be sturdy, but also very inexpensive. I’d rather spend my hard earned cash on making things, not on things to make things on.
Have I confuzzled anyone with awkward sentence structure on #4 and #5?
After giving it a fair bit of thought, I decided that my best bet was to repurpose one of those garage shelving units available at rather a lot of building supply stores. This particular one separates into a top and bottom half, which are occasionally set up side to side. I will be setting them up back to back and using some nuts, bolts, and washers to make certain that everything is quite sturdy.
The total cost of my initial setup will be under $100.
That being said, I actually purchased two of these shelving units. When I move out to the workshop, the second set will be attached vertically and converted into an enclosure with a bit of plywood and some clear doors, which will easily mount onto the convenient holes that are already conveniently in the corner pieces that you attach the shelves to.
Last night, I started plotting out exactly how this all will work. This picture should give you an idea of where I’m heading with it. The pieces are not firmly attached together and I haven’t put the MDF shelves in yet, but I’ll get started on that tonight. Won’t have a lot of time to work on it until this weekend, though.
Interesting idea and w/o the full picture it’s hard to say how it will work out. A few concerns come to mind that you will want to consider:
2 separate section on carpet, or any floor, will not allow for a smooth accurate and square surface. You will get flex between the 2 sections in various ways - top/bottom, front/back, and side to side which will be very probelmatic. Plus they are rarely ever “square”. In my experience these type of shelving units are rather flimsy and move/flex very easily even when all put together.
Attached plywood to the existing bolt opening will not firm this up as you are still relying on the frame work to hold it all together. These shelving units have too much “play” in them as mentioned in item #1. The frame work of any unit is critical and must be solid. If you bolt, nail, and/or glue the plywood pieces together around this frame then it would work, however, then you would not need the metal frame.
@Unclerico Unclerico mentions mass - It will be very flimsy and again its important to be very solid and sturdy. When the CNC runs it will cause movement in the framework if not rock solid. Any movement will affect quality. It will also allow for more noise and vibration - Noise can be tolerated but vibration will affect cut, quality, finish.
Again, w/o envisioning your full plan I could be off here though they are things to consider when building a table. If money is a concern, is for most of us, I have built several out of 2 x4’s framework, plywood base top, with MDF main top, for $124 USD. This cost includes the MDF wasteboard I put as a 3rd layer in machine cutting area. If we are buying a machine for $2k, more with tooling and accessories it would be wise to spend enough time and money to make the table solid. Yes, it is painful as it is always, just a little more money & time until we’re broke and impatient. The base is absolutely critical in producing quality work.
Great ingenuity and that is a large part of what we do as makers - figure things out, learn, share, grow. I look forward to seeing you finished product. I actually have several of these shelf units in my basement and now thinking how can I use them to make an enclosure for my 3d printers.
It isn’t very often that I say this about workshop tech, but this is a beautiful machine.