Thank you from a lurker

[Jeff Dege]

Just a reminder of how valuable the accumulated knowledge in these fora can be - and a thank you to all of you who have contributed.

I'm not a woodworker. But a wonder through Google led me here.

I'm planning out a workshop in a corner of the basement, and have been musing over the designs of workbenches and worktables. After reading this site, it's become clear that what I need is more along the lines of an assembly table than a woodworker's workbench. Particularly given my need to have tables that can be relocated.

I started by looking at Norm Abram's assembly table. That got me looking at torsion boxes, and reading about them got me looking at hollow core doors, and I became less and less certain of what I needed the more I learned.

There are a number of people who've posted descriptions of building torsion box benches and tables. But some seemed to me to be massively over-engineered. (I don't know about you, but I see no advantage in a table that can support ten times the weight of the floor it's standing on.)

Which is where I was when my websearching led me here. And here I found a reference to a book, Ken Horner's "MORE Woodworkers' Essential Facts, Formulas & Short-Cuts", which gave me the information I needed.

Not just how to build a torsion box, but how to determine how heavy it will be, how much it will support, how much it will deflect under different loads.

And with that, I can stop guessing. I can determine how much a table made out of 3/4" MDF will support, or a hollow core door, or doubled hollow core doors, or a torsion box built according to David Marks' design, or the simple sorta-torsion box that Norm Abram built on his show. And then I will know whether the simpler, easier, or cheaper designs will meet my needs.

And I can do all of the primarily because the folks on this board have been helping each other, and teaching each other, and accumulating a collection of knowledge that wanderers-in-from-the-net like me can take advantage of.

Thanks.

[Lee Koepke]

You have just scratched the surface here.

I am pretty new to the woodworking arena. I have always built something or another, but felt the desire to do more.

Spending the last few months here, randomly searching old posts with whatever pops in my head, or just reading the daily posts, I have learned more things here than I could have imagined.

One of the things I have learned is this community is quite supportive of all levels of experience. It gives me a sense of confidence that I CAN do some of the things I want to.

Stick around and you will be amazed at what else you can garner.

[Todd Bin]

just in case you come back and read this.

You need an assembly table and you need it portable. Have you considered the Festool MFT 1080. They are coming out with a new model soon -- The MFT3. These are great little tables with all kinds of uses.

Note: I am not a Festool dealer, just a Festool junkie.

[Jeff Dege]

just in case you come back and read this.

You need an assembly table and you need it portable.

I need it movable - I need to be able to move it out into the center of the room, and I need to be able to carry it up the stairs to the moving van, five years from now. Which isn't quite the same thing. I don't need something I can carry to a job site, so folding legs are unnecessary.

I do electronics, small robotics, wood and light-metal work on the model-building scale. My POSSLQ does crafts, jewelry, and furniture refinishing.

The Festool looks like it'd be a great cutting station, were I cutting pieces on that scale with any regularity, but after I've finished the workbench (which I can't start until I finish the back bedroom - I'm doing the third coat of joint compound this weekend, then painting, then sanding the floor, then, and then, and then...) I won't be doing much of that.

Unless, of course, I decide it'd be fun. In which case I'd have to buy more tools (oh, the horror!)