T-Box Legs: Some Steel Work, and Final Pre-Fit of the Castors.

This post covers the fitting of the castors, and the final metal working. First up is the drilling of the mounting holes for the castors...

Castors are fitted, ready for steel work.

Did not take too many pictures of the drilling and filing of the steel plate. The end result is shown below however.

Final castor pre-fit.

The finished steel plate, removed so the leg structure can be finished.

The last T-Box post will cover the mounting of the small frame to the T-box proper, final assembly, and show the T-Box leg structure in service.

T-Box Legs: Castor Pad Work

Now that the castor pads have been glued on, the need to be reinforced in order to withstand the stress they will experience. The first reinforcement is to add a number of dowels, which greatly increases resistance to shear (sideways) forces.

Dowels glued in place.

The second method of reinforcement is steel plates positioned between the castor and the castor pad. This prevents the wood in the pad from getting damaged if the castor is to hit something while the T-Box is getting moved. (A stress-spreader)

Initial cuts on the steel plates are complete - 8 total.

Now the steel is complete, time to flip the leg structure over, and add some further reinforcements to the castor pads - to resist bending forces.

Before the reinforcements have been installed.

With these reinforcements... will be very difficult to break this castor pad off.

The T-Box leg structure is almost complete... just needs final work on the steel, final fitting of the castors, and finish on main leg structure. Next post will cover the final fitting of the castors, and the application of finish.

T-Box Legs: Castor Pads and More Reinforcement

Now the castor pads will be attached, and the reinforcment block for the bottom shelf will be fabricated and installed.

Castor Pads - with glue drying.

Once the glue is dry, a number of reinforcements will be installed. This is a high-stress part, so just gluing the pads on will not provide the needed strength.

Reinforcement Blocks - milled to size.

Corners rounded over - ready for installation.

Tools used to install the reinforcement blocks.

First Batch drying.

The rest of the block were glued in place later. The next post will cover the reinforcement of the castor pads, and the drilling of the same for the bolts. The project is almost complete - there are metal doublers to fabricate, and the whole project needs a coat of linseed oil.

T-Box Legs: Small Frame and Castor Pads

First order of business is to get the retaining block mounted, and reinforced with dowels. Then I will glue and mill the castor pads.

Retaining block are glued in place...

...and the glue bond is reinforced with dowels.

Set up to cut the rabbits for the castor pads...

Rabbits cut, ready for gluing.

I am gluing the two pieces of wood together, because for a high stress point, a butt joint does not have the required strength. The castor pads will be milled from this combined piece of wood.

Wood is drying....

...and milled to size, will all edges rounded over.

Now that the retaining blocks are dry, time to apply linseed oil. The finish is used to preserve the wood, and discourage insects.

Small frame is done, with the finish drying.

Now we need to mount the castor pads, and add more reinforcing blocks to the bottom side...

T-Box Legs: Dowels and Reinforcing Blocks

Now, gussets are in... time to put in some reinforcing blocks to strengthen the structure. The plywood was originally attached only by a shallow rabbit, and the blocks increase the amount of glue area holding the plywood in place.

Reinforcing block for the gusset corner.

Blocks used for the gusset sides.

Now since the gussets are drying... time to focus on the small frame... which means installing some reinforcing dowels in the corners. The locations were marked using the Incra rule (the bit of red and silver metal) and a mechanical pencil. Once the hole centers were located, they were center puched with an awl. The hole were drilled using and ancient Porta-line.

Tools used for marking and drilling the corner holes.

Corner drilled for dowels.

Dowels, ready for installation.

Installed.

Next up is the installation of the retaining blocks, and the mounting platforms for the castors.

T-Box Legs: A shelf and some gussets.

This post covers the installation of the bottom shelf, and the upper gussets.

The first part of the process, where the shelf is trimmed to size is not shown. The trimming was done with a router fitted with a spiral cutting bit. The end result looks quite neat.

Bottom shelf, fitted and ready for final installation.

Clamped in place, and drying.

Future gussets.

Used a sled to cut at a 45 degree angle...

...and routed out the corners.

Rounded over the edge as the last fabrication step.

Drying in place, bottom view.

Drying in place, top view.

The T-Box legs are almost complete... just need a few bits here and there to strengthen the table in critical spots, especially around the caster mounting points.

T-Box Legs: Some Assembly Required.....

Not many pictures on this one. When glue is involved, the camera does not get picked up until the assembly and alignment is complete. This post covers the assembly of both frames.....

Smaller frame drying.

Small frame, and end pieces for the large frame, ready for the next step.

This went together in a hurry.

A corner reinforcment block...

....along with its opposite on the other side.

Mostly waiting for glue to do its thing here. Next up is the main shelf, and upper gussets.

T-Box Legs: Final Milling on the Large Pieces

The two main operations left are: Cutting the rabbits for the shelves, and milling the mortises in the long run horizontals. There are still some minor things left, however the main task after this step is assembly.

Upper horizontals get a 1/2" rabbit.

Lower horizontals are milled with a 3/4" rabbit.

Lower long horizontals are ready for installation.

Upper long horizontals ready for installation.

While the long horizontals were getting worked on, the other pieces were drying...

Second set of legs is setting up nicely.

Assembly is started, the project should be done fairly rapidly at this point.

Cutting the T-Box Tenons - Part 2

Continuing the work on the Tenons... and some mortises for good measure.

First set of cuts.

Large tenons - Finished!

Mortises Marked for milling.

Small Mortises are done.

Shoulders for the small mortises.

All Mortises and Tenons are complete.

There is still some more milling to do... Some rabbits, and rounding over.