What size of angle iron?

[knight_toolworks]

I am making my wooden table and want to use the angle iron on the top edges to mount the regular rails too. but what size should I get? I was thinking 2x2 but I want to make sure.

[fleinbach]

I built a wooden table for my first Shopbot and used LVL's for my side rails and cross members. LVL's are far more stable than standard framing lumber, and they have a superior fastener holding capacity. I fastened the ex-rails with lag bolts, and they held very securely.

I'm not sure what method you intend to use to attach the 2 x 2 angle to your framing lumber but the method of attachment could be the weak link. If you explain how you intend to make your attachment it would be easier to answer your question.

[knight_toolworks]

the rails will be 3 3/4" thick baltic bitch beams laminated together.
well I am, open how to attach them I was thinking of bolting them with 1/2" bolts along the sides.

[bill.young]

What kind of ShopBot are you building the table for?

[Brady Watson]

Here's what I did on my wooden table so that I wouldn't have to lag bolt it. I used SB 4' rails & 1" & 1.375" MDO. You definately need lots of gussets on a wooden table...it is not nearly as stiff as my steel SB table, but it's just a 'toy' per se to mess around with new ideas.


6761

These are preliminary pics before I totally screwed everything together, sealed and added more gussets. 2pcs of 1" MDO were cut, mirror images of each other, dadoed from top to bottom to allow for a little bit of rail adjustment, glued, clamped and pneumatically nailed together. This allowed me to bolt the rails on with 4" long 1/2" bolts. Some call this method 'keel bolting', since this is how they mount sailboat keels with big bolts. Cross members & legs were made from 1.375" MDO. The entire table, once leveled, was within 1/64 (or however good the tape was) on 3-4-5. Everything fit together perfectly...It was great validation that the Alpha was cutting square...It's nice to have an 'extra' bot laying around for doing special applications and R&D stuff.

-B

[terryd]

Hey Brady,
Does all that tin foil on the walls stop the aliens from reading your mind...HEHEHEHE ....Sorry couldn't help myself. I haven't been the same since The X Files revealed all the worlds truths to me..

TerryD

[Brady Watson]

That room has been called everything from the grow room, skunk works, and everything in between by those who have seen it...It's Reflectix insulation in front of R30...a single quartz heater keeps the room like the tropics even on a cold damp winter's day.


As far as faraday properties...the cordless & cell phones work just fine...so it is not impervious to EMR...

-B

[knight_toolworks]

this will be a alpha 96.

[bill.young]

If you're planning on getting one of the new PRS Alphas you might want to give ShopBot a call about the table...it's a whole different setup.

[wooddr]

Steve,

I used 3x2 angle iron to attach my rails, so I didn't have to use lag bolts. Pat Fulgham took some pictures and put a link on his web site here http://www.users.qwest.net/~pfulghum/DirkWoodTable.zip

There is also a picture of it on the Shopbot camp site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/campshopbot. Go to the Boise pictures and you will find it there.

I am very happy with my table and the way I mounted my rails.

Dirk Dunham