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In my first post, I said I was going to use 3/4 plywood for my bench shelves. That was part of my early enthusiasm. After going to Lowes and pricing the stuff, I starting thinking about using the existing crate. When you get right down to it, the only part of the shelf you ever see is the front edge when you open the doors, plus, eventually it will be scratched and stained from your various projects. I followed the instructions in my manual and glued the crate panels together with a tube of construction adhesive and let them set up overnight. Then I marked out the shelves so that when I cut them out I would have fresh edge cuts all around. The crate is made from a " crate grade" 1/2" plywood, so after laminating them together you have a nice 1" thick shelf. The bench has welded in supports with pre-drilled holes to secure the shelves from below, but its not necessary, as they are captured by the steel side panels. I'm not a tree hugger type, but I hate to toss out good materials too. Once all the panels were cut and installed i had a few scraps left over which i can burn in my fireplace. I think Shopmaster did a good job of designing this whole bench/crate assembly to get maximum use and minimum waste.
Hey, it was good enough for Henry Ford, he used the packing crates for floorboards on the Model T. Even specified the crates exactly so they fit. I covered mine with rubber as I found that humidity can darken the metal parts when they are in contact with plywood.
Dennis
The table/cabinet is first class, it is built very well & has lots of storage. The wheels were a perfect addition. I did just the opposite. I threw the crate in the dumpster. Went to Home Depot & bought some 3/4" Hardwood Plywood, $35.00 a sheet. I have been using my new Patriot everyday, or should I say late every night. I have been so busy making things, that I have not posted anything. I am impressed with the new machine. It seems with the accessories, that the Chinese need to learn how to thread things properly. One of the Tee bolts on the Palmgren style vise striped the first time I tighten it & one of the indexable tool holders threads were non existent.
The only other thing is I figured out out to tighten up all 3 of my triangle knobs last night. All 3 were loose, the shortest one I had to modify it & add a high collar lock washer to get it to tighten up with the small allen screw. A little red thread locker should keep them tight.
Regards,
Scott
I rolled that plywood thing around in my head for a couple of days, but couldn't figure out how to get 2 shelves out of a 3/4 sheet and didn't want to have a whole bunch of odd pieces leftover piled up in my garage. I remember hearing that story about Henry Ford's floorboards when I was a kid. I wonder if its true or just one of those urban legends. Ford was probably the world's richest man at that time, but I can see he would do something like that. Today, the CEO of Ford probably has little idea what a floorboard looks like and would hire 10 new engineers to design one.
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