advice needed - tips on building a square level structure on unlevel ground

[dedfish]

I am thinking about building an aquarium stand. The stand would be about 36" long, 18" wide, and maybe 36" tall. I'm looking for tips on making a structure that is square and level when the floor that I'm working on in anything but. My welder (HH187) is located in my basement and the floor there is a bit uneven and certainly not level. I'm figuring building a simple frame out of 1" square tube. I'll then skin it with wood. The weight of a the tank will be about 850lbs. Any advice would be appreciated.

[monte55]

heavy duty levelers in the legs...

[dabar39]

You may want to consider making a table or some horses with adjustable foot pads on them. I use a set of 8' long horses that I made for my trailer frames and mounted a tab on each leg with a 1/2" nut welded to it and simply use a bolt as my height adjustment. This way no matter where I'm working I can level out the legs and have a good level surface to work from.

As for the stand, I would go with 1 1/2"x 14ga. sq. tubing, easy to work with and will handle the weight, or you could also go with some angle iron. either way would be fine. Dave

[dedfish]

monte55:
I will probably use some sort of adjustable legs like the kind on a washer or other appliance.

dabar39:
Thank you for the material recommendation. I plan on making a nice welding table soon. I have a nice computer rack at work that I plan to cut down to size a bit and mount a top to. The rack is fairly wide and has nice heavy duty casters on it. I'll probably add some sort of legs like you pictured to keep it in place when I don't want it going any where.

In the meantime I think I may try an idea I had of using a piece of plywood to create a flat square surface to secure the 4 pieces that will make up the top and bottom parts of the frame. I could screw down the pieces and then weld them up. Maybe cut the corners of the plywood off so I don't burn anything. Then using another 'form' attach the uprights to the top and bottom parts of the frame. Think that will work? Would plywood be the best wood? or would MDF or something else be better? I'd probably use 3/4".

[SkidSteerSteve]

As far as the plywood vs MDF decision, I would go with plywood, hands down. I personally don't know why MDF is still a viable product. It's virtually newpaper print pressed together and glued. If you ever get it even slightly damp it will swell to about twice it's size. Oh, and the stuff is unbearably heavy on top of all that. I rate it right up there with partical board....TRASH!

Sorry, grew up in an old school cabinet shop.

SSS

[calweld]

When I'm doing a one-time job on an unlevel surface, which is often, since I work mostly portable, I simply lay my framework out square, then shim up the corners, using a level on the framemembers, then double-check the squareness. Before you weld, get down and sight across each side over to the opposite side, everything should be perfectly parallel.

[Sberry]

I got to go with Cal, I would make do for a one time job.