My neighbor sold me one of his scrap wood slabs, so I decided to make a bench out of it. Its a little narrow and could be made into a hallway table eventually, but I didn't have enough similar material lying around so went the bench route due to shorter lengths of tubing required.
The legs are 1.5 inch 120 wall tubes. Cut at some really odd angles due to the dimensions I was working with.
My question is, how should these be fastened to prevent too much movement in the Y axis, assuming these are attached in the X axis, so to speak. I was planning on welding on a flange of some sort out of that 14ga sheet metal to fasten to the wood. I've never really done a wood/metal project like this so tips would be great. I wasn't planning on having a horizontal length of steel going between the two legs for stiffening, but I do have some .5inch angle iron I could use for that if that is the best option. I also wasn't thinking that support was needed in the middle of the slab since its 2 inches thick. Still need to cap the bottoms and some general blending.
First time working with epoxy as well. Man what a mess.. I should have heated part A and part B before hand. It came out kinda thick so a lot more waste/sanding was needed.. Lesson learned. Make it runny and try to wipe of excess..
Thanks
You could either weld the legs to a plate, then screw the plate from below into the wood (they make threaded inserts on the wood side that are excellent) or merely make a plate per leg and do the same.
Flat feet on your legs and welded tops to a plate should eliminate most of the sideways racking. But in truth, if this will be constantly plopped down upon, and little care to sitting on it, you may require a stretcher between. I'd consider a solid rod or tube through the heart of the X, plug welded. That should keep it pretty rigid.
Epoxy is pretty sensitive to cold temps. If your raw components weren't warm, or the ambient temps were chilly, it will thicken up like syrup from a VT maple tree.
Flat feet on your legs and welded tops to a plate should eliminate most of the sideways racking. But in truth, if this will be constantly plopped down upon, and little care to sitting on it, you may require a stretcher between. I'd consider a solid rod or tube through the heart of the X, plug welded. That should keep it pretty rigid.
Epoxy is pretty sensitive to cold temps. If your raw components weren't warm, or the ambient temps were chilly, it will thicken up like syrup from a VT maple tree.
I built a large oak, live edge table with steel base and used a pre drilled flat across the top of the legs for mounting and blind drilled the top for short lead expansion anchor inserts and just 1/4" lag bolts. I Gorilla glued in the inserts before mounting the top. Glue in the the inserts with lag mostly screwed in so insert is expanded and mount top when cured. It is a static table though, not a bench which will be subject to much more live loading. 
I would bring a small square tube brace up from the intersection of your legs up to the underside of the slab on a 45. That would give you plenty of lateral strength. Maybe a piece of 3/4 or 1 in square tube would look appropriate with your existing legs.
Ya that's exactly what happened. Its been about 40/50s F so certainly not ideal for epoxy.cj737 wrote:Epoxy is pretty sensitive to cold temps. If your raw components weren't warm, or the ambient temps were chilly, it will thicken up like syrup from a VT maple tree.
To everyone who commented ideas. Thank you. I'm going to work on this today so I'll see what material on hand and what I think will look good. I'll have to pick up some threaded inserts too.
I went with a stretcher using 1/2 inch solid round through the intersection. It is certainly better than without, but I wouldn't call it rock solid though. I think hollow tube would have been better as mentioned.
I may dig around and see if I have some tubing long enough, I can always cut the bar out. IDK. I'm fairly happy with it though. I'm hoping once I weld on the flanges and screw it in it will be a bit more rigid too. I went with 8mm threaded inserts so that should be well overkill.
Definitely learned what not to do in this project, and at this point just enjoying the process. Can't ever learn without trying in the first place.
I'll update with pictures later on.
I may dig around and see if I have some tubing long enough, I can always cut the bar out. IDK. I'm fairly happy with it though. I'm hoping once I weld on the flanges and screw it in it will be a bit more rigid too. I went with 8mm threaded inserts so that should be well overkill.
Definitely learned what not to do in this project, and at this point just enjoying the process. Can't ever learn without trying in the first place.
I'll update with pictures later on.
Ya I went with CJs suggestion, but I ended up cutting it out since it wasn't offering the rigidity I was looking for.BugHunter wrote:Did you simply put a brace between the two legs? If so that's not going to offer nearly the strength you would get if you went on a 45 up to the Underside of the table.
I test fit everything after welding on the round bar and it was I ended up being good enough, but wanted it to be a bit more rigid. I think it probably was sufficient in the end, but tubing will be a bit more solid.
The 45s are a good idea too, I'm going decide tomorrow if I want to do a spanner with round tube or try the 45s. One thing I enjoy about the fabrication process of metal is that mistakes are totally cool because we can just grind them out or weld over them and try again. Of course we try not to make them but it that fact that I can, unlike wood for example.
The application of a "stretcher" is to prevent the legs from splaying. The 45* struts you recommend can work too, but normally are used when there is concern about the legs themselves not being sufficiently strong enough to bear the load (which in this case I don't foresee as a problem). 45* struts would not create as much lateral rigidity but would certainly help.BugHunter wrote:Did you simply put a brace between the two legs? If so that's not going to offer nearly the strength you would get if you went on a 45 up to the Underside of the table.
Here is a quick update, from last weekend. Been finishing it up this weekend with some final tweaks and the threaded inserts and stuff. It ain't perfect, but I made a thing and had some fun.
Any and all feedback welcome. Cheers folks.
Any and all feedback welcome. Cheers folks.
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Looks great