Lessons learned building my own workbench - part 3
Background
This is 3-part blog post:
Final fixes
After the last post I was almost finished with my table but knew that I needed a brace (which I will now refer to as a cross member) that kept the 2 pairs of legs from folding in toward each other. The hinges do lock in place but they are not perfect and not strong enough to keep an entire table nice and square.
BTW, I learned from my youngest brother that this action of the legs falling toward eachother is called racking.
Anyway, I cut some notches (I am sure there is a more technical term) in the 2x braces that currently connect each of the legs in a pair. And I cut 2 matching notches in a piece of 2x4. You can see the notches that I cut in this picture.
And you can see the cross member that I cut in this picture.
This cross member now fits in after the legs unfold. It prevents the racking (legs folding slightly toward each other) and it also greatly reduces the wobble in the table when pushed along its long end.
I could put a 2nd cross member in, but frankly this is now stable and strong enough. Also, with only 1 cross member as seen in the picture below, I could potentially slide or roll things under the table, or sit at the table if I wanted. So I will leave it as is for now.
Thanks for reading!
