Vacuum Forming Table: Part 3

When we last left this project, Ellery and I had just about completed building the wooden cart that will make up the base of the vacuum forming table.  Since then we have completed two goals.  First, we completed the cart.  Second, we figured out how much steel we are going to need to purchase for the next phase of the project.

There was really only one thing left to do to complete the cart, and that was to attach caster wheels to the bottom so we will be able to move this huge thing easily once it’s fully assembled.  Ellery and I met last Tuesday to get this job done.  The main reason we didn’t get this done during our last meeting was that we didn’t have any screws or other hardware to mount the wheels to the cart.  We ran over to home depot and grabbed a few of these packets of screws.

Wheel mounting screws

The screws seemed long enough to really grip into the cart, and they also had a big enough head to actually hold the wheel to the cart rather than slip right through the mounting hole.

The next step was to lay out the wheels and mark where we needed to drill the screw holes.  Also, one of the legs didn’t sit perfectly flush with the bottom shelf.  This meant that our caster wheel didn’t sit against the wood correctly for mounting.  We came up with the solution of using a small sliver of wood as a spacer.  Ellery glued it in place so we could mark it for drilling.

Spacer with holes marked up

Once all of the mounting holes were marked up, we drilled them out.

Mounting holes drilled out

Then we attached all four wheels with the screws we bought from Home Depot.

Wheel attached

All four wheels mounted

Wheel set on the floor

All done!

And now the wooden cart is complete!  Once the wheels were added, I noticed that the cart wobbles less than it did before.  There is still a very slight wobble but it’s definitely manageable.

Ellery also crunched some numbers on Tuesday to figure out how much steel we are going to have to order so we can start building the top steel part of the vacuum forming table.  The steel structure is the main mechanical component of the table so I’m excited to start it.  He determined that we will need to order the following materials:

That doesn’t include the steel plate as we still have to determine exactly how much of that we need.  We emailed a local steel supplier (Coyote Steel) and received a quote for about $250 for the above mentioned materials.  Not too bad, but not exactly cheap either.  We are going to see if we can get a discount since this is a project for Eugene Maker Space and we have 501(c)3 fiscal sponsorship.  Hopefully we will get the materials this week and we can start cutting, drilling, and welding next Tuesday!