If you’ve got the right tools, ripping 2x12s is going to end up more stable. They have to cut th from the middle of the tree, so the grain is straight across and sometimes clearer.
Sounds like I don’t have to (and don’t have the experience) to lecture you about woodworking :).
So, I think I have a plan. A unistrut top frame with 3/4" mdf on top, and a second layer as a spoil board on top of that. This unistrut top will sit on a wood base. I started putting it together to ensure the concept in my head matches reality and functionality.
Jeffe, I appreciate the ideas and suggestions you have offered. We can always learn more from others.
Jason, just make sure the top is flat before attaching the mdf. Don’t assume the concrete floor is flat, it probably isn’t. I found this out the hard way on my first lowrider table.
Yeah, the garage floor in the pic has a French drain, so the floor has a 4" drop from back to front where the drain is at. Thanks for heads up Barry.
I bolted the top unistrut skeleton together today and all turned out well. My diagonal measurements were spot on the first try, 124 1/4". Talk about dumb luck. My top is 111"x 56" per the calculator on this site. The wood base and double layer mdf top is still the plan at this point.
I am excited to announce my new 304L stainless tubing is in, and they took special care to ship it with care and it is straight.
I mentioned in the advice on build costs thread that I scored two hardwood doors from my kids’ school today. They are the old gym doors and are 42" wide. I picked them both up today and plan on cutting one in half as table legs and using the other as the top. These will serve as my lowrider base with my unistrut/mdf top mounted on top of this base . Can’t beat free upcycling.
Nice find. How much do they weight?
My wife’s office conference table is built out of the doors from my parent’s high school. The old building got torn down and they auctioned all the interior stuff before. The lady that made the table bid on 4 doors, she won all of them! No one wanted any of them, so she has a crap ton of them in her barn now. They’re solid wood, but not as heavy as I thought they’d be.
The doors are pretty heavy, if I had to guess I would say about 80-90 lbs each. I also got my tubing all cut today and did a mock up. Starting to look like a lowrider. Which leads to a question, how tight should the joint where the horizontal and vertical tubing connect be? As in, should the two halves be touching?
No, they won’t touch. Tight enough to not be able to twist the pipes with your hand should be all you need.
Thanks! That’s about where they are at . Also how much resistance on the gantry. Feels like I am having to loosen the bearing bolts quite a bit. Kitchen floor mock up. Lol
The nuts on the bolts are just to keep the bolts from falling out. Basically just run the nuts up to just touching the plastic. In theory you should be able to spin the bolts with your fingers once the nuts are installed. The only nuts that need(maybe) tightened would be the center bearing on all the parts, which will tighten up the whole assembly. Only tighten them if they rattle when you put them on the pipes when you wiggle them.
Got the first skin of MDF secured to the unistrut frame. All and all going well. This layer will be the bottom of the platform. Tomorrow I will build the torsion crossmembers and attach the top MDF layer. Gotta get a dead flat spot to do the torsion setup and top.
Cool! How are you attaching it to the unistrut?
Where are you going to find a 5’x9’ “dead flat spot”? I ask mostly because I will need to find a 4’x8’ DFS myelf eventually and I don’t have one handy at the moment.
Wedges, winding sticks, and levels.
…luck, magic, patience.
Just make a 6’x10’ torsion table!
