35 - Revolving Tool Station, страница 20

Turntable

A length of iron pipe threaded into a pipe flange works as a simple pivot for the turntable.

FEATURE PROJECT

The base of the tool carousel provides plenty of storage for portable power tools. To make it easy to remove a tool (or put one back) without having to reach deep inside the base, I added a turntable, see drawing at right.

The turntable is nothing more than a circular shelf that spins around on the roller bearings. An iron pipe acts as an axle that keeps the turntable centered in the base.

blank. The turntable starts out as a large, square blank of MDF, see Fig. 6. Using a square blank provides straight reference edges for laying out and cutting a notch that matches the shape of the opening in the base.

Once the notch is done, you're ready to cut the turntable (J) to its final shape. An easy way to do this is to mount a router with a straight bit to a simple circle cutting jig. (For more on making this jig, refer to Shop Solutions on page 27.)

To use the circle cutting jig, you'll need to drill a small (centered) hole in the turntable for a bolt that acts as a pivot pin. But this hole will need to be enlarged so the iron pipe can stick through. I drilled this final hole slightly larger than the outside diameter of the pipe to prevent wear on the turntable.

a. c*

IRON PIPE

1

CROSS SECTION

CATCH

CATCH

1" ROLLER BEARING

( \

1" ROLLER BEARING

V

JO_

\ \

PIPE FLANGE

BOTTOM

1==.

Another place that could wear a bit is along the edge of the notch in the turntable where it rides up on the roller bearings. To prevent this, I added a pair of metal strike plates to each edge of the notch.

NOTE: DRILL !4"-DIA. CENTERED HOLE FOR PIVOT PIN ON CIRCLE CUTTING JIG, THEN ENLARGE HOLE TO V/e"-D\A.

strike plates. These strike plates are quite simple — just short pieces of aluminum angle. They fit in shallow mortises in both the front edge and bottom of the turntable, see Fig. 7. After laying out the location of the

COLLAR -BLOCK

edging

"^COLLAR BLOCK

4" BARREL BOLT—

TURNTABLE

V PIPE FLANGE

STRIKE PLATE

%" IRON PIPE-(2&" LONG)

#6 x W Fh SHEET METAL SCREW

STRIKE PLATE (3/₄" x ^SA" x 2" ALUMINUM ANGLE)

THICKNESS OF • ALUMINUM ANGLE

STRIKE PLATE

20

ShopNotes

No. 35