one big box or 4 smaller boxes

[HowardH]

I recently made an assembly table which is about 600mm deep and 2400mm long.  I made an MFT top with 2x4 stand offs. It was very unwieldy to build given the size of the panels. I'm not happy with it as it's not as square as I would like it and I'm going to do it over.  I was wondering if it would be better to make 4 individual boxes and screw them together like a base kitchen cabinet run.  I could then use a 12mm panel running the entire length on top and bottom to really tie them together and then mount the MFT top again. I used dominos to fix the vertical panels and I wouldn't have to do that if I made individual boxes. I just seems to me my level of accuracy would be much improved as far as keeping everything perfectly square for the sys-az's I used. What do you guys think?  Here's the original. Happy New Year everyone!

[attachimg=1]

 

[ChuckM]

Snip. I'm not happy with it as it's not as square as I would like it and I'm going to do it over.  Snip.

What isn't square? The overall carcase? How does it affect the use of the assembly table or the results of whatever the table is used for?

I'd prefer not to re-build anything if the defects can be fixed with minimal effort.

 

[HowardH]

What led to me to think about it was a number of things... One, the dividers for the Sys-AZ's are not perfectly vertical and the drawers aren't working as I want.  Second, I have a couple of extra Sys-AZ drawers and I was going to mount them where the CT-22 is located. However, it is really out of square for some reason, maybe 3-4 mm difference between the top and the bottom. so there is no way to mount them.  I also had decided to cheap out and not get a LR-32 to drill the mounting holes for the drawers so there is no flexibility to move things around when I need to. I can reuse all the drawers and the top so I'm looking at maybe $150 total for some new 18mm ply. Like many other things, I consider this a learning experience and it will also allow me to put my soon to arrive Dash-board bench system to the test.  So does it work? Sure but the next one would be what I actually am looking to build. 

 

[MikkelF]

I had similar experience building a large wall cabinet with 4 doors. Everything about the size of that beast made it more complicated to build and work with. I also ended up a bit out of square. Not a lot but enough that wasn't satisfied with the result. I redid the whole thing as 4 separate pieces like you mention and it was soo much faster, more accurate and also more fun to work on. I have since noted that in my "work experience" book. Keep projects as small and as simple as possible.

 

[Packard]

I made three smaller MFT-type tables all the same size; all the same height; and all on identical casters with a locking mechanism.

I can roll them around into any configuration I need.  Mostly one sits as an outfeed table for my table saw and two are kept butt up to each other.  But they get moved around as required.

I’m not home not to measure them, but I believe they are 48” x 30”.

The down side is that parallelism and squareness are not really possible from one table to the next.  I can get them close to being parallel, but all my clamping that requires squareness, has to be done on one table (any of the three). 

The other advantages were that the table tops were of a manageable size for me to carry to my basement shop by myself. 

I suppose there is some way that would allow accurate linking of the tables, but so fare (3 years), I have always managed to get the pieces square on single tables.

Note:  I am a devotee of picture framer’s corner clamps.  I use 8 of them to square up a cabinet box.  So I rarely depend on the MFT holes for squareness.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Howard,

I built one as 4  base cabinets with the top built as a quasi-torsion box. When I set it up, I leveled one box at a time, leveling them to each other. When they were really close, I set the top on and bolted it down. I've moved it twice since its initial set up and in all three locations I've dealt with significant variations in the floor. It's proven to be a pretty solid design. If I were doing it over I would use MDO plywood instead of MDF for the top, but other than that I'm pretty happy with it.
https://www.woodpeck.com/blog/all-in-one-outfeed--assembly-table.html

 

[jeffinsgf]

I'm going to go just a little further than Mino on the subject of casters. Unless you absolutely, positively have to be mobile...as in moving it every time you want to use your table saw...I would avoid casters altogether. I would put leveling feet on it and leave it at that. Obviously, that can't work if you have to store your outfeed table and saw out of the way, but if you have a permanent home for them, I would ditch the wheels.

 

[HowardH]

I'm going to go just a little further than Mino on the subject of casters. Unless you absolutely, positively have to be mobile...as in moving it every time you want to use your table saw...I would avoid casters altogether. I would put leveling feet on it and leave it at that. Obviously, that can't work if you have to store your outfeed table and saw out of the way, but if you have a permanent home for them, I would ditch the wheels.

It was designed to compliment the full sized Dash-Board bench, which should be arriving shortly, as strictly as assembly table. As built, the top seems pretty flat but I don't have an 2400mm straight edge.  I don't anticipate moving it very often but there may be times where I need to and it's extremely heavy so on those rare occasions, having the casters would be essential.  That being said, I can get some of those adjustable feet that would allow me to raise the bench slightly off the casters so it would be resting on the feet. What you said makes a lot of sense for stabilities sake. 

 

[jeffinsgf]

It was designed to compliment the full sized Dash-Board bench, which should be arriving shortly, as strictly as assembly table. As built, the top seems pretty flat but I don't have an 2400mm straight edge.  I don't anticipate moving it very often but there may be times where I need to and it's extremely heavy so on those rare occasions, having the casters would be essential.  That being said, I can get some of those adjustable feet that would allow me to raise the bench slightly off the casters so it would be resting on the feet. What you said makes a lot of sense for stabilities sake.

With the cabinets on feet you can use a regular 2-wheeled dolly to slip under the cabinet, lean it back and roll it whereve you need.

 

[squall_line]

With my "cheap and dirty melamine Sys-Cart" cabinets, I built one as a three-wide, and two as two-wide.  All three pieces were square, but the two double-wides were still ungainly to move around, clamp up, etc. (One double was built with Lamello Clamex, which made it almost too easy to assemble)

The triple was an example of God taking mercy on me and not letting my back give out or breaking any limbs trying to move it around.  My wife helped me lift the triple into place, and that was probably also a bad idea inasmuch as we're trying not to orphan our son and all.

Individual units use more material, but the benefits of mobility and just overall ease of build and assembly usually outweigh that.