Spent a bunch of time this weekend welding up the bench frame. Its nearly done except for one lower support between the 4th and 5th legs. I picked up the small side HF box this am to mount under the right section. Which is the reason for the extra metal rails at the top. More on that to come.
I TIG welded the whole thing as my MIG wasnt getting it done. The one weld pictured below I did sitting on the floor operating the pedal with my knee. Not my best work but pretty decent considering.
Took forever to get it clamped up and level. The leveling feet wont be that tall, I was just keeping it tall for doing the welding.
Nearly done with the rolling tool box for the right section of the bench. The space is fairly wide at just shy of 7’ so I thought it might be nice to be able to move the box to access it depending on what I was working on, and where I wanted to sit etc. Im sure Ill end up just parking it at one end or the other, but its something I thought would be fun to do and completely unnecessary, right up my alley.
I still need to do some final tweaks like replacing the 4 bolts for the bearings with some threaded rod, and making guides to be sure the box stays centered on the track. Otherwise just a little weld clean up and paint
Used an old super long bolt I salvaged from an old table, welded a nut to the end, and a quick mod to the clamp for the actuator rod assembly (removed the pressed in pin for a 10-32 bolt).
Primed and painted (found a color pretty close to the metal) behind the bench area, slid the bench frame nearly into place, and painted the boiler (404:not found yet) / compressor room.
I also cleared out most of the north wall in preparation to insulate and started capping the wall with 1" foam like I did the south side.
The plan is to pick up some laminate today for the bench tops and with any luck get the tops laminated and installed tomorrow.
Saturday I finished up the roller assy for the box. Welded in the bolts to hang the box from, cleaned up the welds, painted it and riveted on some 1/8" abs strips to serve as guides and got it mounted.
Then I ripped two of the bench tops down to 32" depth. Ran out of time to get the last section ready. Hopefully get back to that tomorrow night and get the tops laminated.
Last night I got the bench tops all bolted down to the frame and ready to laminate. Unfortunately it was too cold for the glue to work properly so I need to wait. Likely Ill do it friday during the day as Im off.
I did manage to get half of the north wall taped, foamed, and caulked so I can start putting up insulation anytime. Perhaps tomorrow night. Its not much to look at…
Thursday night I cranked out a bunch of insulation. I was off friday and did more insulation, finished capping the rest of the north wall with the 1" rigid foam and installed most of the insulation baffles. Pretty good progress for 8 hours of work.
Thursday nights progress
Friday (also insulated two sections behind the stairs (not pictured)
Im down to ~200sqft of insulation left to put up as shown here.
Saturday I FINALLY had time to laminate the bench top and install the edge T molding.
Bench laminated and groove cut for the T molding, laminating the backsplash
Nearly finished product. The other end is getting a steel or stainless top that I still dont have yet. But at least I have a nice work surface.
Yesterday I spent a bunch of time cleaning up and organizing between closing the pool and doing other yard / house nonsense.
