Now what do I do?

[Rob Wong]

So I've been reading up on torsion box tables and how good they are for doing projects with a dead flat top, so I made one this weekend. I copied the design and steps from David Marks and built one with 1/2" mdf top and bottom. Size is 42" x 72". It is now done, nice and flat ready to use, but..... It is fricken heavy, without even legs. It's got to be over a hundred lbs. I built it without legs on purpose as to store it against the wall of my garage as this is how I work. I move everything to the sides to park the 2 cars in when I'm not woodworking. When I do projects, I take the cars out and set up all my machines and put them back when I'm done for the weekend.

So I built this table with the intentions of leaving it on the side wall and setting it up maybe with folding legs or something when I want to use it, but it is so heavy that I can't carry it onto legs or horses by myself!

So does anyone out there have an idea how I can make something so I can move (roll) it on the side vertically against or on a wall when not in use and be able to set it up when I want to by myself?

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob

[Todd Burch]

You can hinge the long side to the wall and flip it to horizontal when you want to use it. If you want to be able to move it around, you could make a cradle for it to roll around on (think a custom dolly), or, there's probably no reason you couldn't screw some casters straight to the edge of the top. You could also attach some handles to the bottom of the top for easier handling too.

If you wanted to get really fancy, and had the room, your custom dolly could be designed in such a away as to help you roll the top from being on edge up into the horizontal plane, and be just the right height to set it on your leg assembly. To visualize this, if you have a bandsaw, look at its trunnion that allows the table to pivot.

If it were me, I would just tell the Mrs. she just lost garage privileges. :eek.

Todd

(I have a 6 car garage - and neither of us park in the garage.)

[Todd Burch]

By the way - what did you use for the guts of the torsion box? I hope you didn't use 1/2" MDF for it also.

[Peter J Lee]

You could use 2 rectangles of plywood as legs on one side. Cut a large quarter circle in them. I don't know how you planned to affix your legs, but say a slot that the plywood slid into. You could wrestle it to where you wanted it. Insert the 2 legs on that side with some sort of cross bracing - you could use bed hardware or even just slots with another long piece of plywood - and then roll it up into position. Have another section of plywood to be a 3rd leg on the other side. Does my explanation work?

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

As Todd suggested, either a dolly to make it mobile, or attach locking casters to the legs. Make the legs foldable, or removable, for when you store the top.

As for storing the top, I suggst some sort of cleat or cradle attached to the wall so that when you push the table up against it, you can just flip the top up against the wall - the cradle will hold it up (and hold the bottom against the wall), and then some sort of securing mechanism at the top to keep it up. When you need it next - deploy the legs (attach them or fold them out), and then rotate the table down from the wall.

[Rick Moyer]

Just park the car on top of it:D

[Rob Wong]

You could use 2 rectangles of plywood as legs on one side. Cut a large quarter circle in them. I don't know how you planned to affix your legs, but say a slot that the plywood slid into. You could wrestle it to where you wanted it. Insert the 2 legs on that side with some sort of cross bracing - you could use bed hardware or even just slots with another long piece of plywood - and then roll it up into position. Have another section of plywood to be a 3rd leg on the other side. Does my explanation work?

Sorry but I don't get it.

Rob

[Rob Wong]

By the way - what did you use for the guts of the torsion box? I hope you didn't use 1/2" MDF for it also.

I did use 1/2" mdf. That's what David Marks and Marc Spagnuolo used.

[Jerome Hanby]

I did use 1/2" mdf. That's what David Marks and Marc Spagnuolo used.

When Mark built his newer one, he used some stuff called ultra light weight MDF and changed up a few other things citing how heavy the first one was...

[Greg Bender]

How about a rope and pulley setup like the bike storage units and keep it against the ceiling and lower down onto some lighter weight leg sets when your ready to use it.
Lay some 2 by material across the top of your rafters to spread the load and drop some long threaded eyebolts down through the ceiling.
Greg

[Victor Robinson]

Wood magazine Oct 2011 has plans for a rolling, flip down work table. Basically, it's a skinny base with wheels with a hinged top, and fold down leveling legs support the top when it is in working position. In order to adapt your torsion box to be the top, you'd need to attach a frame to the bottom of the TB that could be hinged.

[Ben Hatcher]

I keep my assembly table against a wall 99% of the time so my solution would be to mount it to the wall with some heavy duty door hinges and use folding legs on the unhinged side. It seems to me that any flip top rolling cart would need such a large footprint to remain stable that you wouldn't gain all that much in floor space savings in the up position anyway.

[Rob Wong]

I keep my assembly table against a wall 99% of the time so my solution would be to mount it to the wall with some heavy duty door hinges and use folding legs on the unhinged side. It seems to me that any flip top rolling cart would need such a large footprint to remain stable that you wouldn't gain all that much in floor space savings in the up position anyway.

Thanks Ben, but like I mention in the original post, I cannot mount it on the only open wall I have. It needs to be able to store against the wall, but when in use, more in the middle of the garage. There's a clothes line there. Not movable.

Thanks,
Rob

[Rob Wong]

Thanks Ben, but like I mention in the original post, I cannot mount it on the only open wall I have. It needs to be able to store against the wall, but when in use, more in the middle of the garage. There's a clothes line there. Not movable.

Thanks,
Rob

Sorry Ben, but I didn't mention it in my original post. I had it on a reply on another woodworking site. My bad. There is a clothes line there where I can still store the table but I wouldn't be able to hinge it form that wall and use it as that's where our laundry would be hanging. And BTW, that is the only open wall as my other machinery takes up the other 2.

thanks,
Rob