What would you do with this?

[amcardon]

One of my buddies works for a medical equipment manufacturer as an engineer and the other day he brought this by... I'm currently in the process of building a new grinder and he didn't know if this would potentially work as a stand for a grinder or other machinery in the shop or if I could even cut it up and use the tubing. They were going to send it off in the next load of scrap and he snagged it for me. It was a very nice offer but I really don't know what to do with it. It's about 6 ft tall and built like a tank.

Anyway, can you guys give me some suggestions as to what to do with it, if anything? Or should I scrap it?

Hopefully these pics show what I'm talking about:

 

[Mike157]

It looks fairly solid with some decent welding. If you have room, I would keep it. You could cut the top section off along with that blue/green thing hanging off the side and any other piece that does nothing and have a decent set up for a solid table for just about anything. It looks like it has adjustable feet. Might be nice to put a granite slab on it for when you need a nice flat surface. I have a similar frame that I mounted a big truck brake drum in for the start of a small coal fired forge. You could but a heavy metal top on it and use it for small welding or soldering jobs or just use it for jobs where a big hammer is appropriate. Mike

 

[tattooedfreak]

Grinder on one side of the tower and disk on the other but definitely cut off the shin cracker. Put some plywood on the shelf layers for storing stock steel, belts or flat paper. Or put a medium size forge on it, it looks sturdy enough for a lot of things.

 

[SBuzek]

I would cut the uprights off and have one heavy duty table.Looks about the right height to put a grinder or any thing on.
Stan

 

[tryppyr]

I'd leave the uprights on and mount some adjustable lighting on the overhanging area. The idea would be to mount lights that you can point where needed while working.

As for what kind of work, I think it would make a great grinding station, certainly. But it would also be usable as a saw station too. If you're using a portable bandsaw, the uprights would give you a ready made place to mount the saw.

 

[james terrio]

Don't cut it up. It looks pretty sturdy. All the ideas above are valid.

 

[Salem Straub]

Cut the top/uprights off, bring that part down, weld or bolt it to the side of the main body of the table, for a table extension. That might give you room for two machines side by side on it, and that foot/shelf sticking out of the right side looks like a great support for a 5 gallon water pail under the contact wheel to catch sparks.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

Keep it! Looks like a great grinder stand if the height is right. You could probably store tool arms below.

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

Well I expected to see a hot chick upon entering, but since I am here...

I'd keep it, if you have room for it. Many good ideas here. I really like the table extension idea. With a bit of welding experience, and all the extra tubes tack welded in, you have many options as far as configurations go.

 

[healthvet]

It looks like an old anesthetic table. The vaporizer was bolted to the upright, and the small K bottles of oxygen were stood on that little blue lip. It probably had at least 2 drawers for storing endotracheal tubes, etc.

They were built to not fall over. It will be a solid base for any piece of equipment that you have. Too bad that it was stripped, I've seen them made into very nice liquor cabinets.

 

[tattooedfreak]

Cut the top/uprights off, bring that part down, weld or bolt it to the side of the main body of the table, for a table extension. That might give you room for two machines side by side on it, and that foot/shelf sticking out of the right side looks like a great support for a 5 gallon water pail under the contact wheel to catch sparks.

I didnt think about that, I just had visions of cracking my shins against it everytime I walked by.

 

[amcardon]

Wow, thanks for the responses guys! I'm going to be building a grinder off of the grinder in a box here shortly (motor is ordered, kit will hopefully be ordered today and the other goodies sometime this weekend) so I had thought about using this for my grinding station, especially since all my other workbenches are wood...

Welding the top section onto the side would be awesome, but alas, I don't have a welder... One of the many items on my "want" list. Since this is just a hobby for me I really can't justify too many big purchases (read: my wife won't let me).

In the meantime I think I'm going to hang on to it, at least until I get my grinder put together and see how well it would work as a grinding station.

Thanks for the input guys, I really love how helpful everybody is here!