Build DIY 3D fixture table

WiscoF100

WiscoF100

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 28, 2023
Member Number
5998
Messages
1,099
Loc
Minnesocold
Commercial cast 3D fixture tables are serious coin and I’m a cheap skate who thought it would be a good idea to build my own.

Let the struggle begin
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Table specs:

877 holes
Heavy

30x60x6
42” height….maybe 40” not decided
1/2” plate construction 3/4” holes 2” center (Fireball)
5 x 1/4 web structure
4x4x1/8 legs
(4) 6x3/8 circular leveling pads - 1-1/4 thread

24x36x6
Same same
4 x 3/16 web structure
6” permanent swivel casters

Both tables can be adjoined/bolted together in any configuration.
 
WiscoF100 said:
Commercial cast 3D fixture tables are serious coin and I’m a cheap skate who thought it would be a good idea to build my own.

Let the struggle begin
IMG_2972.jpeg
IMG_2979.jpeg
IMG_2980.jpeg
IMG_2983.jpeg


Table specs:

877 holes
Heavy

30x60x6
42” height….maybe 40” not decided
1/2” plate construction 3/4” holes 2” center (Fireball)
5 x 1/4 web structure
4x4x1/8 legs
(4) 6x3/8 circular leveling pads - 1-1/4 thread

24x36x6
Same same
4 x 3/16 web structure
6” permanent swivel casters

Both tables can be adjoined/bolted together in any configuration.
Click to expand...

Looking dam good. That is a **** load of holes to drill and chamfer. What size holes did you select?
 
I was sold on the 3/4” system. 5/8 too small and what is this metric they speak of?

Def a bunch of holes. 44 drilled and chamfered so far. Cutting the table material is the devil but I’m getting through it.

The large table will need a series of holes drilled outside because it’s still 4’x5’ and I’m not wrestling that back and forth until I get some more drops off it.

The skirts are drilled first as to utilize the surface area for the mag drill. Once skirts are drilled, I can cut them off and move on to the table top surfaces. They’ll each have a 1/2” lifting eye provision drilled so I can begin moving parts with the cherry picker.

I’ll need a fixture table to begin….ahh crap, never mind, setting up and squaring these tables prior to welding. Oh what a chore ahead
 
Working through some growing pains and getting into a rhythm with the template and mag drill setup.

For some reason a carbide tooth left the chat or the flute split
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Emergency plan was a cheap Amazon 2” cutter and it died marvelously on the first cut
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For fun here’s the weight of a 2’x3’ plate 122lbs
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A lot of my trouble is using 1” DOC cutters and this template. The chip evacuation isn’t great and causes problems just before breaking through. So I made a center punch tool that would follow the template and I could drill each hole utilizing the ejector point
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It worked great. Very tight tolerances. Punched 11 holes in record time….however the end play in the ejector point threw off the accuracy of each hole in that row. So I spent some time getting back on track with the template so that row could be reamed. Once they were corrected I moved on making plunge cuts with the template followed by resetting the cutter over each previously drilled pilot hole. Worked great but twice as long for production.
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Satellite table is half drilled. Very satisfying. It’s punishment but hot damn am I going to love these tables!!!!
 
What i've had to do with the spring center pin thing on the annual cutters was center punch, then hand drill touch the plate with a 1/8" drill bit to make the dimple a little deeper. Then the center pin has a spot to sit into much better.

Also when using my hand annual cutters when drilling frame I use 1/8" drill bit to drill hole for the center pin to just go through the hole to keep everything solid and keep from walking.
 
WiscoF100 said:
I was sold on the 3/4” system. 5/8 too small and what is this metric they speak of?

Def a bunch of holes. 44 drilled and chamfered so far. Cutting the table material is the devil but I’m getting through it.

The large table will need a series of holes drilled outside because it’s still 4’x5’ and I’m not wrestling that back and forth until I get some more drops off it.

The skirts are drilled first as to utilize the surface area for the mag drill. Once skirts are drilled, I can cut them off and move on to the table top surfaces. They’ll each have a 1/2” lifting eye provision drilled so I can begin moving parts with the cherry picker.

I’ll need a fixture table to begin….ahh crap, never mind, setting up and squaring these tables prior to welding. Oh what a chore ahead
Click to expand...

I do believe he is the only one selling 3/4 hardware. 16mm and 5/8 is far more common or 28mm for the big boy ****. 28mm is way to big for the home projects but 5/8 just felt to dam small when I used it some at work. I went with 22mm which is uncommon but I can produce my own fixture parts due to equipment.

But a fixture table of any size is still well worth it.
 
Also fellow cheap ass here, never got around to actually drilling the fixture holes lol. Didn't see you mention anything about what the base is gonna be like, but here's some pics of mine that I've been pretty happy with. 12" W beam lowers, 6" I beam uppers with two 4x2' 5/8" plates because that's what the scrapyard had. Was able to make some shims for under the top plates and got it shimmed flat within .010" or better.

Need to add a cross brace on the legs cause it does flex and wobble a bit back and forth in one direction.

The W beam makes a nice spot for a big ass drawer for all my junk. Made out of street signs from the scrapyard with reflective safety corners. UHMW gibs to take up and play side to side and adjustable back casters to keep it tight inside the W beam.

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Duc said:
I do believe he is the only one selling 3/4 hardware. 16mm and 5/8 is far more common or 28mm for the big boy ****. 28mm is way to big for the home projects but 5/8 just felt to dam small when I used it some at work. I went with 22mm which is uncommon but I can produce my own fixture parts due to equipment.

But a fixture table of any size is still well worth it.
Click to expand...
3/4 made sense because it’s very common in my shop. There’s so much 3/4 on the race car that I have bolts and plates and things and stuff for days along with the ability to make tooling now that I have a lathe.

Trevlaw good use of the flanges to make a drawer track. My table will just have (4) 4” square legs with adjustable pads and 2” sq perimeter rails closer to the ground. Not entirely decided if legs will be welded to table or bolt on. I’d like them to be removable because the table could be lowered for chassis work but a lot more time consuming to engineer depending on my current attention span.
 
PAToyota correct plus a starter fixture kit and handful of squares.

TTMotorsports I’m in to the (2) tables for $4,000 total. The labor sucks ass but I’m getting what I want, not what the market offers. And I walk away with ownership of the tools to do more cool ****. I purchased $1,000 of US and Canadian steel and a Hougen 904 manufactured in Michigan. Very few dollars went to Spokane Washington and Taiwan. About 1/4-1/3 of investment went overseas.

The cost for (1) 54x30 dragon wagon with comparable options/tooling as I purchased to build my own is $4,500 +freight+taxes. For anything larger (4’x8’) regardless of brand, sets you back over $10,000 plus freight and taxes. I don’t have the space for or even want a 4x8 table. Not even if I still had my 40x60 shop.

As to the other inquires about cutting the plate, I purchased a Skil outlaw but ran into some trouble in the first few cuts where there wasn’t room for experimenting with blade depths etc. I’ll try again for the next cuts to come where I have enough margin to **** up. There are some variances in edge surface depth utilizing a cutoff wheel but with minor surface adjustments, there’s no detectable inaccuracy. I plan on tig welding all of the outside seams. The edges will all be treated with a pneumatic carbide chamfer tool. Including the outside weld seams, so a tidy tig bead will settle nicely.

The 24x30 table is within 1/32” of square. The grid location within the table surface is no exception. And as long as I’m working solely within the grid utilizing fence block tooling, there is absolutely zero error.

What remains of the plate (4x6) includes all four 30x60x6 skirts and the 36” skirts. That plate is about 1/16” out of square right now across all that area.

Think that about covers it for now
 
TTMotorsports said:
Have you contacted any machine shop to have the top CNC milled/drilled for you? Would be much easier but more money out of pocket.
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Then you’re in as deep as a commercially available cast or welded steel table conveniently delivered to your door. And I’m not talking about 1/4” tab and slot plates. I’m talking 1/2”-3/4”-1” slabs of beef with various surface coatings and fancy engraving.

Fireball and most likely WestWeld “brand” and quantum MG (siegmund distributor) pricing includes import fees etc. Kovosu and other comparable imports are going to have all that on top of the window price.
Duc said:
Push hard enough the chips will be a solid string coming out of the flutes also.
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SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
like steve said
My mag drill likes pressure, I dont stop until I hear the motor bogging down
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Steve300xcw said:
How much pressure are you using? Those annulars like to be leaned on. Not much pressure will **** them up like that.

Also cant believe you cut that plate with zipwheels :laughing:
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As much as I can without stalling the motor but not dumb-**** pressure. You can tell when the motor/cutter are in the sweet spot. Each hole copiously flooded with Hougens specified fluid. I’ve got 11 gallons on hand so no shortage. If anything, my HMD904 is too slow for carbide although the manufacture doesn’t discourage their use.

On average this is what the chip load looks like.
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Here’s a stead and fast brand cutter from Amazon. HSS steel, import and $32. 88 consecutive holes and you can’t even tell it’s been used.
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The Hougen Copperhead is made in china. And you can see how much wear is on it, the 5 remaining carbide teeth look okay but doesn’t matter now. Keentech is the 2” DOC broken on the right after 1 hole.
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What I’ve ordered for backup is (1) Hougen copperhead carbide 6 tooth, and (3) Hougen 12000 series HSS 4 tooth cutters- 2 with TIN coating. $3 upgrade.
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Plain 12000 series up to bat for another 88 holes to finish the 24x36 table. I’ll punch them through tomorrow.
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Honestly for $32 same day Amazon delivery, the S&F is hard to beat.
 
584 ain’t no joke. Much less threaded. 🍻 That’s about what my 30x60 will be

Kinda like HF warrior drill bits. I kill them in a hand drill with a pentagon hole but in the slow drill press and clamped parts, they cut like butter and a decently round hole.
 
Random picture of struggle bus cutting.

All of the side skirts are included in the dimension and drilled before parting-off. This way the drill has a surface to adhere to.
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I’ll try forcing the carbide harder but spindle speed may also be working against me.

Coming right and saying this. Steel patinas. What works? I’d like to chemically treat the surface for rust protection. Which OTC acids would give me a deep gray or black finish? Do I buy a blueing product? “Branded” patina products which most likely are otc acids? Wax? Your moms body wash?

On smaller scales I’ve heated bare steel to dull red and quenched with boiled linseed oil and never a spot of rust.
 
Using a Skilsaw for this job can go to hell. Started fine but 3” in to the cut it wandered off again. Using a precision straight edge and full blade depth. New Diablo wheel. Abrasive cutting sucks but I can keep a straight line with only minor inaccuracies.
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Cut belongs LEFT of the scribe 🤬
 
I'm going to be this guy but,
you know there is a correct tool for the job right?
I know that a Skill saw wouldn't be the first tool I grabbed for the task you are working on
 
No, no I don’t. Please share.

It’s not a wood saw and if I was going to employ CNC cutting, I’d just continue to save pennies until I could buy a manufactured table.
 
Fixed with a plunge cut
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Carbide blade sure leaves a nice edge if the saw was more accurate.
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With these 5.5” corners dropped, I can drill 3 of the main table skirts. Rinse repeat.
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