[Public-List] Cockpit table stand

[Stephen Gwyn]

Hi,

I made a cockpit table stand out of wood. I cut a bunch of 
squares out of scavenged 3/4" plywood. The squares were of 
different sizes, so that when you stacked them, they made a kind 
of pyramid. Then I drilled 2 1/2" inch holes in the middle of 
each square with a hole saw. I left the largest (ie, the bottom) 
square intact. Then I stacked the squares with the holes aligned 
(with the table leg down the middle as I recall) and drilled 1/4" 
holes through all the pieces of plywood at the corners. I bolted 
all the squares together using 4 lengths of threaded rod. 
Finally, I drilled a 5/16" hole in the middle of the bottom piece 
and a corresponding hole I drilled and tapped into the inspection 
plate. 3-4 hours work. 4$ for the threaded rod +10$ for the hole 
saw set. Less time, more money if I had bought a better hole saw.

The result easy to bolt to the inspection port and holds the 
table up solidly. Too solidly: wobbling the table hard causes the 
cockpit floor to flex. The downside is that it looks terrible 
(but it's under the table so you can't see it)  and since it is 
made of cheap plywood and isn't covered with anything, will 
eventually rot (but it never gets wet since it only comes out 
when it's sunny).

If you had 2 1/2" Forstner bit, you could do it out of nice piece 
of wood, but I think such a bit would cost more than having it
made out aluminum.


SG



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  Stephen Gwyn                 |  Tel: 1-250-363-3136
  Dept. of Physics & Astronomy |  Fax: 1-250-363-0045
  Univ. of Victoria            |  Cell: 1-250-885-6969
  PO Box 3055                  |  E-mail: gwyn at uvastro.phys.uvic.ca
  Victoria, BC  V8W 3P6        |  http://orca.phys.uvic.ca/~gwyn
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