Building a yardage screen printing table – part 3

This week has seen the most intensive week in building this table, mostly due the massive amount of measuring, levelling, checking and re-checking and then of course, welding. Aris has made 588 welds to get the table to this point and the surprisingly tedious aspect is that you can’t just stay in the same spot and weld all of the joins at that spot. You have to spread it around, one weld on the 1st corner, one on the second, one in the third, one on the fourth and back to the first again. This is done in an effort to reduce overheating and warping of the metal. It is imperative that the table stays as flat and as level as possible so that when we lay the wooden surface on top, it doesn’t roll and warp. Aris is trying his best to get the best possible printing surface which means being extremely conscientious in monitoring the metal and working it properly.

The good news is that the welding is now complete and I’m so proud and overwhelmed with how hard Aris has worked to get it to this point. He’s done a beautiful job and it is extremely well made. We pulled out the measuring tape, held our breath and measured the length of each side of the table. We were both extremely pleased to see that both sides of the table are exactly the same length and only 1 mm short of the intended length. That’s extraordinary considering that this is his first welding project!

So what’s left to do? We now have to prepare the registration bars, attach them and then we will get painting.

I hope that everyone has a fabulous week. See you next week with an update.

Half of the legs installed:

All of the legs installed:

Verifying spacing between each leg segment:

The long process of levelling each leg using a water-level. We discovered that there is nearly a 10 cm gradient in the floor … thank goodness Aris made the adjustable legs long enough to compensate for such a discovery. Good thinking!

This is one of Aris’s ‘learn to weld’ blocks:

And look how far he’s come, beautiful weld:

More welding, a huge amount of welding:

You can see here between the first and second leg segments, we have welded in six horizontal beams, one on each corner and two in the centre, top and bottom. The third leg has been clamped and braced to the complete unit on the left and it is ready for welding:

Top view of the clamping:

Post welding, grinding the welds on the joins that sit under the table surface, they must be absolutely flat to ensure that the surface sits as flat and level as possible:

Making the final welds on the underside of the table, an awkward position:

And finally, after many hours and a great deal of work, the welding has finished. Isn’t it fabulous?

Building a yardage screen printing table – part 2

It’s been a busy week and we’ve had an exhilarating development in the building of our new fabric printing table, it has started to take shape in it’s final position. I’m sure some of you can appreciate how thrilling it is to see it come to fruition, slowly but surely. It is big and is quickly swallowing up the moving (read dancing) space we had in the workshop but it will give us some much needed storage that will enable us to remove all of the shelving and stock taking up more valuable space.

This project has been an epic journey thus far, Aris taught himself to weld so that he could build this table for me so it’s really been a process of discovery, plenty of reading and much practice. Developing new skills is always wonderful and it’s been fun watching him work his way through the problems. We’re excited about the possibility of experimenting with some metal framed furniture once he’s finished.

The bottom of the legs with their cut threads, the feet screw in here:

With the feet ready, we thought it practical to paint them along with the bottom of the legs before they go down on the floor. The grey paint is one coat of primer and then two coats of black metal paint:

The leg segments, upside down, there are nine of them that will be evenly spaced over the length of the table:

The feet finally installed on the legs:

Touchdown, feet finally firmly on the floor:

Capturing the moment when we finally see all of Aris’s hard work come together. We have stabilised the table using wood. With horizontal steel pieces we will now start welding the legs together, segment by segment:

Building a yardage screen printing table.

We’re building a yardage screen printing table! Well in truth my husband Ari is building the new print table, and I’m his gofer. It’s a massive undertaking and I imagine that most people when looking at that pile of square metal section would quickly become overwhelmed and somewhat discouraged, but not Ari. So two weeks ago the steel along with the wooden panels for the printing surface and the spacious, very much needed, ‘super shelf’ arrived. Since then we’ve scrubbed and cleaned the steel stock and he’s cut and welded it, this has gone on for days. But after some true grit, the legs are now complete and we are ready to assemble the rest of the table. They have wonderful adjustable feet to ensure that we can level the table easily on our original French ceramic tile floors and in the process he’s also readied the metal for painting. Here are a few pictures from the construction thus far. Next week: assembling the table and welding it into its new permanent spot in the workshop.

I’ve just started using Instagram: http://instagram.com/kathrynsanderson . And if you don’t use Instagram, I’ve put the feed on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KATHRYNSANDERSON.HELLO

A surprisingly small pile of steel. Each piece is 6 metres long and with a very well thought out design and cutting list, very little wastage. Those right angles on top are the registration bars and I’m so pleased to find that they are perfectly straight:

You can see by the red gloves that there is a great deal of oil and fine metal particles on the surface. You can weld with this on the surface but it was easier to clean and do the first stages in painting prep now rather than as a table. A few hours and we had them to a point where you could handle them with bare hands and not get covered in oil:

Fine steel particles in the bottom of the bucket after cleaning make lovely patterns textures:

Cutting:

For welding, Aris made a jig that holds the leg sections in place and at correct angles. He would then spot weld to secure them and finish off the welding out of the jig. There are nine of these sections:

Cut and brushed steel in the jig ready for welding:

Welding, so much fun to photograph. I had to take these shots with my eyes closed to protect them from UV overexposure:

Making the female component for the adjustable feet using the drill press:

The female component on the bottom of the legs ready for welding:

Making the feet. Aris welded various washers and nuts onto the bottom of threaded rod to make the adjustable feet:

After the weld and ready for cleaning and polishing:

Polished and unpolished feet:

The finished foot, these screw into the bottom of the legs and can be adjusted where need be:

I’ll be back next week with an update on our progress! I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend!

printing glory.

I’ve been busy printing, which I love. It really is wonderful, the repetition. Fresh ink. Tthere are few things more satisfying than lifting the screen to reveal the first print of a new design.