I have a large stack of lumber behind the shed that's going to be useful for projects not too far in the future. Most of the material (probably 600+ bd ft of it) is far wider than my jointer/thicknesser can handle and I somewhat despise ripping nice wide boards just to be able to machine them flat. They can be processed at a local lumber supplier who has both a large router base flattening rig as well as a wide sander...but at a cost. I actually used that service a couple years ago for a client project as the two slabs I was presented with to do a dining table top as well as a welded base design were way too large to deal with in my shop. (I did the design, but an actual welder made it) So cost nearly $200 just to get them surfaced flat and thicknessed. That's for two pieces of wood and at a "nice guy discount", too. So adding the ability to surface wide stock and slabs to my shop would be a nice thing. Additionally, my new slider is a short stroke machine. It's perfect for the majority of the work I do, but occasionally I do need to rip a full sheet of something and prefer to use the track saw for that. And then there is the "embiggened-assembly" opportunity for things like a big table top. I don't ever want to have to jury rig things like I did a number of years ago with the "kitchen continent" project which required multiple benches for length (and lots of shimming to get them to the same heights) as well as lumber sticks to be able to support something much wider than those benches.
Hmm...so I "did a thing" and "made a thing" to deal with all three processing opportunities. Solving the first problem of surfacing very large pieces of wood was the crux of the matter since the other two applications could be accommodated easily from the same work surface setup other than planning for easy conversion. A bunch of flattening "systems" are available out there and of course, one can roll their own if they are so inclined, with or without a kit of parts. I had no interest in rolling my own, wasn't impressed with several "lightweight" solutions that also didn't scale well and was somewhat interested in supporting a US based small business. In the end, I chose the system build in Ohio by a small company with a brand named TrueTrac. The setup wasn't chump-change, but the quality is pretty darn good. I had sold a personal item recently that I have not used for several decades and that pretty much funding this shop addition. The support interaction I've had with the company has been very positive. I chose the 48x96 setup with the small handwheel to index laterally for each pass and also added the dust collection hood to that kit. TrueTrac provides a plan for a cutting table that provides the required support and it's easy to make it fully modular so everything can be stored away. This size answered my desire to be able to deal with slabs up to 8' long, table surfaces of the same length and up to 4 feet wide for both assembly and surfacing and, of course, a full sheet of "whatever" that needs to be ripped with the tracksaw.
Let's start with the support table plan...it's two sections that are 57.5" square for the 4x8 setup.
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To make them, buying 10' lumber was the most efficient in both cost and waste. While the plan only calls for 2x4 based structure, the decision was made to make the outside frames with 2x6 material that would be edge jointed reasonably straight and then thicknessed to 5.25". A little time making shavings would improve the work surface flatness just a bit...it's not perfect, but better than "off the rack" construction lumber! The cross rails would be made from 2x4 material (again, starting with 10' lumber cut in half) and surfaced in the same way to 3.25". I did not bother with the faces as they do not come in contact with the "stuff" that will be processed on the table, but I did carefully choose the two pieces that would be bolted together in the middle to make one table out of two modules.
At the start...
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After processing...
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Trimming to lengths....
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Sets ready to build two identical frames...
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And now the little bit of fun working those two center cross rails that will bolt together. I actually joined them physically with screws to insure they stayed identical while drilling and cutting.
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