Hi everyone - Recent member, and I have been reading/searching with abandon. Our kit Lowrider kit has arrived, but I’m having a bit of analysis paralysis about what needs to go into our lowrider torsion table.
Purpose:
Cutting out ski cores, p-tec base material, and forms for ski molds
Cutting out full sheets of plywood for boat building (we’ve built a mix of boats on shop bots & jig saws)
the usual sign making/CNC “stuff” that one can make when they have their own machine.
Since I’m looking for a 4’ x 8’, I’m curious what the prevailing wisdom of table design chose is. I plan on a MDF spoil board, and am really liking the idea of being able to tilt it up and out of the way.
Thoughts?
At one point I thought I stumbled across files with plans on them (for a table) but I haven’t been able to find them again.
I’m sure I’ll have other questions down the road, but right now getting the table built is job #1.
There are a lot of choices and you will certainly be able to put in as much effort as you’d like. I would tell you perfect is the enemy of good. But it sounds like you are good at finishing projects, so you should go for whatever makes sense to you. You could also just bang one out in a day from 2x material and then design what you want on your own schedule, with a CNC.
A torsion box table is far easier to build with a CNC than without.
On the cnczone forums, I saw many people build something that will do the job, even if it’s not perfectly flat, even down to just placing the machine on a single flat sheet of MDF, then using it to make its own torsion box. That’s pretty much the approach that I took for my Primo. (That single flat sheet is now sitting on top of a torsion box table, though I didn’t use the CNC to make it.)
The one thing that I would reiterate from the instructions, is not to make a 2x4 frame and put a skin on top and bottom. You get 4" thick in total to make your table, going over is trouble.
Generally, the instructions are pretty good. Put your solid stringers across the X axis, as the LowRider is more forgiving of warp in the Y axis.
For folding or storing the table… Your imagination is the limit. I’ve seen several plans for “fold-away” LowRider tables around on the forum.
I can only echo the voices above. Keep in mind that a 4x8 table is really closer to 10x5 in size which is very inconvenient to build as sheet goods tend to come in 4x8 sheets.
I found the superstrut rails in the electrical dept at Hd invaluable as they are straight, rigid and 10ft long.
Be sure to take some pictures… I’ve got it in my head to build a cocktail racer which is part of the reason I built my lowrider.
I build my box in two parts that bolt together on the long edge. It was only 8 feet long, but the unistrut was 10 feet and hung over a foot on either end. All you really need is a table saw to build it. And a flat place to assemble it. Basically used the Paulk work bench as an inspiration.
I’m in the middle of a 4’x8’ flip up torsion box as well. You can check it out over in the build’s category, I just started uploading the plans and build progress. It’s definitely big and heavy, but retractable casters, folding legs, and the flip up table make it manageable.
The torsion box build took a lot of material, and a LOT of cutting on the table saw, but wasn’t too bad overall. Definitely a decent way to get a large, flat surface.
