I would like to build the dead flat assembly table featured online. I was wondering what you thought about incorporating some of the top area to be used as a router table? I was thinking of using MDF for the top without the torsion box. Could you give me your thoughts on this? Thanks.
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The torsion box construction is what makes the table especially rigid, so you can't eliminate the torsion box framing without compensating with some other type of structure underneath the top to keep it flat. A single sheet of MDF needs to be very well supported to stay flat, any span greater than a foot or so will bow downward under its own weight in just a few days.
You can build the torsion box with a small rectangular section of the framing left out, and a hole in the bottom panel, to create an area to mount a router, but you should run two pieces of angle iron across the space to reinforce the top just to either side of the router to prevent the top from bowing downward from the weight of the router.
Something to think about: often an assembly table has the project being built on it from early on in the construction process, you may find that the project being on the table will interfere with using the router for later stages of the construction.
John White
Edited 1/29/2008 3:28 pm ET by JohnWW
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