Torsion box application - suggestions welcome

Prometheus · 2006-09-23T01:01:16+00:00

Hello all,We recently moved around the house a bit, and found that we haveenough room in what used to be the living room to install a smallishpool table (it's a big room- too big to be comfortable when watchingtv) I checked around, and those suckers are expensive! So, I looked atjust getting the slate- but it seems that's where all the cost is...and it is still outside my price range right now.My wife suggested one of those cheap little ones they sell at variousretailers from time to time, but I hate to throw away money on junkmade from termite puke and plastic veneer. They're too small, and asan added bonus, ugly.So here's my plan- and I'd welcome any advice or experiences you mayhave had with parts or all of this.I'm thinking a torsion box may be the thing for the table. My budgetwill accomodate a top made of MDF and formica, but not stone. I'vegot a working idea that I could make the torsion box with two or three4' x 8' sheets of 3/4" MDF by cutting two 3' x 6' sheets for the topand bottom, and making the internal ribs from the leftovers. It'dmake a small table, but I want to be able to use it, not look at it!:)Because MDF is a little on the soft side, I'm thinking it couldn'thurt to screw the top and bottom to the ribs, fill the screw headswith bondo, sand flat, and then laminate the top to make it a littleless prone to dents and dings.Here are the main points of consideration as I see them:1. Will 3/4" MDF that has been laminated be tough enough to withstandthe odd billiard ball dropped on it, or is it going to look like thesurface of the moon in a few months?2. With the torsion box design, is it necessary to laminate both sidesto equalize moisture content changes, or does the lattice insideeliminate that as a concern?3. Would it add structural strength (beyond simple ballast) to fillthe cavities between the ribs with some material (foam board, sand,concrete, whatever you fancy for something like this...) or is that anunnecessary step? To make the table...

Sep 23, 2006 22 Replies

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J T 19 years ago

Sun, Sep 24, 2006, 12:07am (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@business.org (Prometheus) doth stateth: A lot of bars open and close in these parts, and used tables can be gotten if a guy looks around enough.

Nah, I wasn't referring to bar pool tables, I meant "real" pool tables, out of real pool halls. Better than nuthin' tho.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.

- Granny Weatherwax

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Robatoy 19 years ago

When I was a kid, my uncles played a game called carambole.

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would play that for entire Saturdays and get solidly shitfaced doing so. They also played a game with a wooden stick, like a wicket standing upright at a certain spot on the pool table... looked like a white dowel 5/8" x 4"?

Oh.. and green... definitely green cloth. *shuddering at the thought of other colours*

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Lew Hodgett 19 years ago

My dad was a tough task master.

He taught me how to play 3 cushion billiards, then proceeded to whip my ass until I got good enough to at least be competitive.

Took a couple of years.

Lew

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