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“I'm a pipefitter by trade. I enjoy spending time in my shop working on my 1929 Essex and 1966 GMC as well as doing powder coating as a hobby/side jobs for friends. My father spends most weekends in my shop with me during the summer (they winter in Arizona) helping with the hot rods and various projects, such as the air bagged fab table, we built a tailgate bench and last summer we built an oven for doing larger powder coating projects.”
There’s nothing like having a solid table or workbench to work on. You can put heavy stuff on it, build on it, store items, teardown things, maybe eat your lunch on it (it’s your table, do what you want). While most of these are meant to stay put in one location, some tables - like the one Dave built here - are meant to be moved around the shop wherever needed. Dave’s table is also equipped with airbags. Why airbags? Read and find out!
See it in action: https://youtu.be/YUj7rIsfDik
Q: What is it?
A: I wanted a fab table for working on new projects, but my shop space is limited (24 x 30 ft). I needed it to be movable, yet also very stable when stationary. I didn't feel that just using locking castors on the legs would give me the stability I wanted, especially if I couldn't adjust the legs to adapt to floor imperfections. I had looked at other designs that used jacking bolts in various ways but they weren't user friendly or packaged well (compact). I have a 1966 GMC that is air bagged, so the idea of using air bags to accomplish what I wanted with the table seemed logical.
Q: What’s the main power source for your project? (e.g. electric motor, gas engine etc.)
A: Air
Q: How do you control your project? (e.g. hydraulic control valve(s), electric switches etc.)
A: Manual valves.
Q: What components are used to perform the work for your project? (e.g. hydraulic cylinder(s), hydraulic motor(s), sprockets, pulleys etc.)
A: The air bags actually came off my 1966 GMC. I had bought new bags for the front of the truck so had the two spare bags sitting on the shelf.
Q: What design/build challenges did you face?
A: Getting it as compact as possible to leave room under the table for storage. The biggest challenge in the design was getting past my original plan of doing a cantilever bag setup. My original plan had the bags in the middle of the table pushing out, but I didn't like how much space it took up so that ultimately led to the current design. I was pretty dead-set on the cantilever for a long time.
A: The second challenge that I had was I had originally designed and built the table to hold compressed air inside all the tubes. All the connections between the square HSS tubes have holes cut to create one big "tank". I planned to be able to fill the table with compressed air from my compressor, and then have it self-contained to be able to lift and move the table anytime I wanted without having to hook the air up to it. However, I quickly discovered that I'm not a pressure welder, LOL. It was rather humbling to find that it had a TON of leaks. I tried chasing them for a while with the welder but eventually gave up and just use an air hose whenever I need to lift the table.
Q: If you had to build it again, what would you do differently?
A: Larger castors maybe, but that would have taken up more space so it was a compromise. There's nothing that I don't like about it other than it not holding air. Perhaps having an actual welder do my pressure welds but the functionality is still the same, so I can't complain.
Q: Which Princess Auto location do you visit most?
A: Red Deer, Alberta