Need advice for sheet-goods support

Charles, I have had similar in past locations. I had built a video editing studio and wanted as few spans underneath as possible...clients liked to come and "work": alongside. I used double 3/4" a/d ply for top and glued and stapled together. Legs were of the same material and spaced 48" apart and only came out 36" or so...leaving overhang of 14 about. Then I added racks on top of this. Is what built like battleship and on a number of occasions I had to stand on top of it to wire track lighting...no problem. In the corner when I did the right angle return, span was larger so I added 1 1/4 steel angle let into the sides and the top sat on it. You cant really over engineer this...too much equipment and time is riding on it. Just make it modular...the 4' sections and run clamps in back to hold together. On top the heavy base unit, I had 3' high racks angled down towards opeator. All that I used up there was single thickness of 33/4 ply. Black formica on every surface...oak edge banding and a lot of small lights. it looked great and usually worked.

I'm very happy with how the Borg Birch looks. I'm a little ashamed to have covered it with hardboard for my shop table.

I just got a look at a commercial unit that has boxes beneath the shelves for structure. Almost exactly what I'd like to build, give or take wheels. IMO their method wastes a lot of material and sucks up a lot of legroom in the name of dubious "style."

You made your legs out of doubled ply?

I thought about making a pair of to EIA dimensions, but the resulting rack spaces aren't large enough to be that useful.

Is there any apron on the front (sit here!) edge or is that just supported by the sides?

The Borg Birch is Pretty Good. If you pick through the pile, you can find some GORGEOUS bookmatched veneers.

Thanks Bruce.