Someone wrote in asking about tables, because thay had a 1/8 inch sag in
the middle of theirs??? This is how I did mine to overcome that very problem, I
went to the local tiimber mechant and bought two lengths of pine about 8 inches
deep by 1/2 inch wide, and about 10 feet long, stood them up side by side on
the shed floor, spaced them apart with about five lengths of the same material
about 2 1/2 feet long, so you end up with a box, 10 feet long, 2 1/2 feet wide,
and ten inches deep, screwed and glued it all together, and when dry,
depending on the quality of the timber, which is pretty crappy in this part of
the world, you may have to sand the top so that everything is flush, and then
fitted a sheet of this compressed chip board stuff which they use for flooring,
which is available in slightly less than 12 foot lengths, to the top as a bench
top, and then screwed and glued again. The 8 inch deep pine acts as a beam over
the length of the bench to prevent any sagging. The cross peices do nothing
other than to hold the side bits vertical so they can do there anti sagging
job. You need a reasonable amount of depth in the beams, other wise they will
do exactly that, sag. When dry, fit some legs with screwable feet to make minor
adjustments to the table, and stand up, fit a steel rule on its edge across one
end, wirth a second rule just behind, and sight to check both rules are
parallel, move the second in successive steps along the table and continue
checking for true, and adjust the screwable feet to keep out any warps or
twists. Something the manual does not tell you, is KEEP THE BENCH
PERPENDICLULAR TO YOUR PLUMB BOB. Works liks a charm. The 12 foot length is a
bit short for side frames, a bit hangs over the back but is no problem, as when
you fit the tailpost, the overhang makes it easy to tip it all up side down, I
made my bench three feet high, which is great for the side frames, but when you
get the boat section done, you are always having to reach up and over the side,
so two and a half feet is about a good height, you may have to bend over a bit
more for the side frames, but it is much easier to do this than to have to keep
reaching up all the time, or else take Mohammud to the mountain and build a
small six inch catwalk on the floor around you boat, this works great too,
just dont forget when you go to step off you are working on elevation.
Chris Johnston
North Richmond
Australia.
