I have seen every method imaginable on the internet.
One thing I would be careful of is the horizontal support/stability, as @Aiph5u suggested. Otherwise, adding mass to the top may help the two panels ‘fuse’, but it may at the same time bow their surface in places if not supported adequately from below.
Hey Auntjemimma,
clamps for such an application are usually strong beams that go over and under the sheets and that surpass the entire width and are clamped together at the ends. You would need a number of them.
But instead of using clamps at all, you could use one or two hundred short chipboard screws. I would pre-drill and pre-countersink holes. I have already glued plywood boards this way.
As Tom @TMToronto mentioned, a thin and even layer of glue is important.
Alternatively you could also use the screws and omit the glueing step.
For ensuring that the sheets are not in a twisted position you could use some long aluminium profiles as winding sticks. They would have to be longer than the sheet’s width and regarding the length of the sheet, I would check twisting at multiple positions in intervals.
But first of all you would need a support. Do you have two, better three very long, reliably straight beams? Maybe steel profiles? If yes, the next step would be to put them in parallel positions and level them so that they are coplanar. And to fix them somehow.
Then you would have a support for the glueing step.
Or you ask around among friends whether someone has something like this and can lend it to you:
PeFi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Could I not apply pressure and use finishing nails?
Seems like a real good opportunity to add a wood lattice and make this a torsion box. If the lattice is cut accurately and a few inches thick, it will force the plywood to be flat and resist warping later when attached to the base.
I made a 4x4’ one for my Woodworker and the worst bow I could find after was 10 thou./quarter mm
I actually just ordered the QCW frame and leveling feet to keep everything nice and squared up.
Hey Auntjemimma,
your table top looks nice now. Will you flip it so screws heads are on underside?
I don’t know how even your workshop’s floor is but in most cases when using a table with feet directly connected to the table top, the table top will twist according to floor irregularities, and change if you move it around. The QCW frame itself is not really stiffy enough to prevent such twisting by itself, but with the leveling feet you can always make sure all feet of the Onefinity machine are coplanar before starting a program. See fishing line method for ensuring this.
My garage is pretty planar but it was built with about a 3 degree slope so ill definitely have to level the feet just because of that.
Hey Auntjemimma,
do you intend to use these leveling feet for leveling the table top, or the table’s feet?
Did you order a QCW Frame without ordering the Any Surface Leveling System with it? I would in any case use it, not forcibly because of the leveling feet themselves, but because it’s only with the Leveling System that you get the inserts with the threads that fit into QCW frame tubes and you need them to be able to attach the QCW frame to a table:
The tables feet, I did purchase the Onefinity leveling feet for the QCW as well. Do you guys recommend not attaching the table top to the legs?
Hey Auntjemimma,
then you do without the retractable workbench caster kit? Or with both together?
They seem to be ubiquitary since a few years, have bought a kit too but not used it yet. They are rated with 80 kg per piece here. Your table is already heavy, with the double plywood table top, I assume?
that’s good.
I agree to what Paul said, that I would not screw the table top down to the base but use a way to make it free floating. One possibility would be to add a wooden lattice as Atroz suggested here on the underside of table top with a lower ending that fits into a frame on the base that that serves as border for it. Difficult to imagine I know, will try to show a picture later. (got to do a few other things before replying again)
I will leave the casters, there’s enough room for the leveling feet to be adjusted flush with the bottom of the legs so they won’t drag in case I need to move the table. Each leveling foot supports 330lbs so with all 6 they can support up to 1980 lbs.
I can 3d print some attachments that would keep it square without screwing it into the legs.
Do you have any pictures of your wood lattice?
It looks to me that this would be a great alternative to a torsion box if you could find it in smaller quantities.
Package Warehouse 48" x 96" x 2" Honeycomb Sheets Package Warehouse
Not sure I took any. It’s nothing special. It’s just 1/2" plywood, 3" wide with half-lap joints. I think they made squares of about 8".
Interesting idea, basically the same as what’s in a hollow core door. The catch here is the clamping. With real wood you can screw to it to hold it while the glue dries.
Would cardboard even need to be glued? I’m thinking I could just encase it with the wood.
Then you’d have nothing preventing the skins from lifting/warping. The whole thing would be much more prone to sag. The strength of a torsion box comes from the connection of the two skins through the lattice that prevents twisting/warping, etc.
