Heh. Im using 30 year old doors two inches thick and are awaiting the base work. One advantage to those doors is that they have long since adapted to the humidity and temperature changes the entire life of the home.
But I am considering these hollow core doors as a further improvement.
Im considering old style dowels and titebond as a initial joint. Still working on the fastening part of it in my head at the moment. I know the legs will have adjustable feet as there is not a single square angle anywhere in the state Im in.
Hi. I'm new here, so I hope I searched correctly. I searched under this topic but received no hits.
A few days ago I re-read Mark Olstyn's article about his Central Vermont layout published in MRP2005. Mark highly recommends using hollow-core doors for a benchwork base, and his comments caused me to pause and consider it. I inspected doors at my local building center and I'm now enthused about using doors for the shelf layout I'm planning.
The doors are rock-like rigid yet offer a narrow profile (only 1-3/8" thick) and come in varying widths (18", 24", 28", 30", 32", 36" IIRC). At 80 inches, their length is nearly ideal for easy handling (it seems to me). I've read elsewhere that the doors are easily cut to fit needs, and that a 2x2 fits perfectly into the opening made by a saw cut. It's an easy matter to glue extruded foam atop the doors for a scenery base.
Wiring is run quickly from topside to underneath the door by drilling a hole the diameter of a drinking straw, one of which is inserted into the hole to create a pathway for the wiring (nifty trick, glad I saw it posted online).
I'm concerned, though, about how to attach the doors to one another as successive sections of the layout is constructed. My thought right now is to glue 1x4 wood sections to the ends of the doors, and those portions of the 1x4s hanging below the door could be drilled to accept bolts and nuts or locating dowels.
But, I wonder if such a glue joint (made with wood glue) would be strong enough. (Maybe it would be a good idea to also fasten the 1x4 to the door using a drywall-type screw, one that opens "wings" once inserted through a hole; I don't know what they're called.) If anyone here has built hollow-core benchwork, please advise how you connected the sections. Would much appreciate it.