Jitter
Established Member
Hi everyone.
I am making table tops from live edge timber which require me to use a router on a sled jig which wheels back and forth along the work surface and the router slides back and forth along the jig. This allows me to flatten the kiln dried wood planks on both sides which are then used for perfectly flat table tops.
After purchasing the aluminium jig, I had to make a workbench to use the jig on, as it was a large area 3.6m long by 1.2m wide, i could only afford to use wood structure to hold up a wooden frame with MDF surface. This was fine for a while but as you can probably guess, the mdf sags and the timbers move, not allot but enough to cause untold problems with rectifying the work pieces. even a few mm out and it causes untold wastage of material, thinner tops and a mountain of sawdust and epoxy shavings. It is driving me mad as I like things to run smoothly and create perfect products.
I was going to try and find a reputable precision metal worker to make up a rigid frame and wondered how it would work out. It would have to be perfectly flat and level, is this even possible to do welding by hand? I would like a rigid rectangular frame made out of steel that I can mount on top of my bench frame and then I could put mdf or ply on top of that for the surface.
I noticed that you can buy aluminium prefabricated sections that bolt together to make a frame but just not sure about it although would be lighter at least. Any help and advice on this would be great, it is really causing problems with production and I need to do something to sort it out. I am in Central Scotland just outside Edinburgh. Thanks for any advice in advance.
I am making table tops from live edge timber which require me to use a router on a sled jig which wheels back and forth along the work surface and the router slides back and forth along the jig. This allows me to flatten the kiln dried wood planks on both sides which are then used for perfectly flat table tops.
After purchasing the aluminium jig, I had to make a workbench to use the jig on, as it was a large area 3.6m long by 1.2m wide, i could only afford to use wood structure to hold up a wooden frame with MDF surface. This was fine for a while but as you can probably guess, the mdf sags and the timbers move, not allot but enough to cause untold problems with rectifying the work pieces. even a few mm out and it causes untold wastage of material, thinner tops and a mountain of sawdust and epoxy shavings. It is driving me mad as I like things to run smoothly and create perfect products.
I was going to try and find a reputable precision metal worker to make up a rigid frame and wondered how it would work out. It would have to be perfectly flat and level, is this even possible to do welding by hand? I would like a rigid rectangular frame made out of steel that I can mount on top of my bench frame and then I could put mdf or ply on top of that for the surface.
I noticed that you can buy aluminium prefabricated sections that bolt together to make a frame but just not sure about it although would be lighter at least. Any help and advice on this would be great, it is really causing problems with production and I need to do something to sort it out. I am in Central Scotland just outside Edinburgh. Thanks for any advice in advance.
