Another idea would be to make a short but full width table using a hollow cor door Just rip about a foot off the end and plug with a strip of wood.
It would give you a flat square surface to bootstrap your build and also a nice platform for a smaller project when you don’t want to use the whole garage.
Spoil board attachment would be interesting though.
My garage workbench top is actually a solid core door. Found one at a lumber yard years ago with a little damage for a steep discount, and it’s been through 3 different homes/garages now. I never even got around to putting a finish on it. Takes a beating, and doesn’t need the end filled where it was cut.
Wouldn’t call it “lightweight” or “portable” though.
Anyone using hollow core doors, reinforced with MDF/particle spoilboard? Hollow core doors look like torsion boxes to me. 2nd hand flat panel hollow/solid core doors are easy and cheap to find. Still have 36" wide hollow panel doors left over from recent remodel, going to try that out…
I know this is months old, but it triggered a response in my brain that I can’t control, and since you’re “Aye-Aye-Ron”, and not “Erin”, I’m going to give in to the less savory urges of my sleep-deprived brain (not that they’re sweet, or salty, or spicy, or sour, or even umami, just not good)…
The problem with many (but admittedly not all) hollow-core doors is that the internal ribbing is not always attached to the faces all that well. I mean, it’s basically a mass of corrugated cardboard that may or may not have had sufficient adhesive applied to adhere to the veneer faces. And that’s where the strength of a torsion box is, in the connection of the internal ribs to the faces, and how that connection prevents the layers from slipping and flexing. (At least, that’s how it was all explained to me, and that’s how it makes the most sense to me.)
Working in construction I see a steady flow of composite wood hollow core doors headed for the dump. I have used them for various work benches in a pinch many times… mostly for saw outfeed tables etc, but also occasionally as router table extensions. As long as you keep 'em dry and don’t subject them to long term creep forces, they work quite well. If the shop sees humidity and you store it horizontally, it’ll creep into a bowl shape before long.
K Cummins, that is partly true. The ribs in a monocoque structure serve mostly to prevent buckling modes. Stresses in monocoque shapes mostly flow on the skin layer. So those shear web glue joints really don’t see a ton of stress (generally you don’t put large point loads across the middle of a door though). That’s why door manufacturers put so little glue on those parts.
I’ve been pleased with mine overall. My only issue seems related to the fact that I had no large flat surface on which to build the two halves, so getting them totally flat was not really doable, so I just got them as good as I could and then trusted surfacing of the MDF to make up the gap.
Ideally, I’d be able to update first post to reference this related topic. Am pasting here because Discourse search results don’t always show what I’m wanting.
Should I share my sketches or wait a few years til I get around to building?
Ahh to heck with it - you could of course do this in bent PVC - no noise protection if it’s covered in 6ml plastic, but that’s my intention (stretched taut - but you can make it sloppy if you like) - that dust that settles on your car? Your breathing it deep into your lungs where it can do no good.