Hi everyone,
The XXL is on the way so I figured I’d put together a quick design based on 2x4’s since it’s the cheapest thing I can find in my area with the insane lumber prices these days. The plan is to put everything together with pocket holes (two screws on each side). Do you think this will be strong enough? And would not having a flat table top have any negative impacts on the rigidity of the XXL? The little leg blocks at the bottom of the design are a place holder for the 5" locking caster wheels that I’m planning to get.
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Hi @eyecon,
Welcome to the community!
Strong enough, probably so, but you also want it as rigid as possible, so I think it may help to install a bottom “shelf” that covers the whole inner area, and this would also be useful to fit your shopvac/dust separator for example.
You should search the forum for “torsion box”, that’s probably the best thing you can add to the top of your bench to ensure proper rigidity, to then install the XXL on top of it (possibly with a rubber mat in between)
Enjoy the unboxing and assembly of the XXL !
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Thanks @Julien, excellent suggestions! Yes the plan is to “upgrade” this table with a shelf and possibly add cross beams to essentially create a torsion box for the top surface. In the mean time I think I’ll had some 45 degree corner supports to support rigidity. This is bigger than anything I’ve ever had to build for a heavy load-bearing application but the same design works perfectly for my tablesaw, I just wasn’t sure how it would behave when scaled up.
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A torsion box is what you’re looking for. I built mine as an outfeed/assembly table for my table saw, with the torsion box below. The top flips up for access. I needed the Shapeoko out of the way, but still easily accessible,so this worked well.
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I guess if I had a 3/4” layer of mdf my current design will act as a half torsion box especially with the beefy 2x4s that make up the frame.
I love the idea of having another work surface on top of the machine so I’ll definitely adopt that! Thanks for sharing!
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I used two of these on a 2x4 frame similar to yours. 6’ Particleboard Benchtop at Menards https://www.menards.com/main/p-1444428177071.htm
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This is what my XXL sits on, it needs some adjustment and tweaking but I built it in about 2 hours with stuff I had in my shop already. It’s worked great haven’t had any issues. Gonna add some drawers and stuff to easily access the stuff underneath on the shelf since I’m lazy and don’t like bending over
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