Working on heavy mechanical machines at awkward heights can be a real back breaker. [Workshop From Scratch] knows this all to well, so he built himself a very clean hydraulic lifting workbench to use around the workshop.
As we’ve come to expect from this aptly named channel, everything on the device has been built from scratch. Though he did use an off-the-shelf manually operated hydraulic piston. The lifting mechanism consists of a parallel bar linkage which allows the benchtop to stay parallel through its entire range of motion. The hand lever of the hydraulic piston was converted to a foot pedal for comfort, and the base has some sturdy trolley wheels to move it around the workshop. Raising the table is admittedly quite slow due to the manual pumping required, but it gets the job done eventually.
Making your own tools and equipment provides a lot of satisfaction, especially if you end up using it a lot. [Workshop From Scratch] builds some excellent tools, like this magnetic drill press, magnetic vice and a workshop crane. We hope to see many more.
That looks quite useful!
One improvement I would implement if it were mine would be a ratcheting safety to prevent the table from dropping suddenly if there’s a failure in the hydraulic system.
We have these installed on the hydraulic lift carts at my work, but only because they leak and slowly drop. Because everything hydraulic leaks.
Not sure how they did it, but we used jack carts that lifted 800 lbs to hold dies at work, kind of like the Harbor Frieght ones but bigger and better built, and went 2x as high- there were 2 handle settings, depending on where you turned the handle to position before pushing straight down, it would jack up very slowly or quickly.
Assuming it was some kind of double throw cylinder.
Couldn’t this be electrically actuated at the cylinder somehow? Also- ditto on the safety drop mechanism- folding bars that wedged into the frame are what these used.
This is something I’ve wanted to make for a long time, great build.
You can buy these at many places (e.g. Amazon, Harbor Freight, etc.) Search for “lift table”, “lift cart”, “table cart”, or even “motorcycle lift”. Some of these are pricey, so shop around. I see 500 lb lift carts going for as little as $160-$180. 1000 lb models are around $100 more.
You can buy motorcycle jack stands and save yourself a bunch of work building the sissor part. Overall I do like the concept.