07-23-2016, 06:22 AM
Callum if you leave off the bottom board then the shelf will NOT be a Torsion Box design.
A torsion box design relies upon the two boards and the spacer timbers to achieve its strength, the most common torsion box you would be familiar with is a household hollow core door. A hollow core door is made up of the two outer panels, the edge timbers and a lock block where the door furniture is to be mounted, the rest of the inside of the door is filled with a cardboard webbing of the desired internal thickness which has been glued to the sides and the two outer skin boards. This is what creates the beam design to give the torsion box its strength in multiple directions.
You could build the above design, but modify it to include wiring holes through the spacing battens and also cut windows in the bottom board to facilitate running and mounting your wiring and other sub grade requirements.
I have made several torsion boxes at work, one being a work bench and the others being for a model train layout. The train layout was very flexible until I installed the bottom panel with its cut outs and then it began to stiffen up.
Hope this helps.
Mark
A torsion box design relies upon the two boards and the spacer timbers to achieve its strength, the most common torsion box you would be familiar with is a household hollow core door. A hollow core door is made up of the two outer panels, the edge timbers and a lock block where the door furniture is to be mounted, the rest of the inside of the door is filled with a cardboard webbing of the desired internal thickness which has been glued to the sides and the two outer skin boards. This is what creates the beam design to give the torsion box its strength in multiple directions.
You could build the above design, but modify it to include wiring holes through the spacing battens and also cut windows in the bottom board to facilitate running and mounting your wiring and other sub grade requirements.
I have made several torsion boxes at work, one being a work bench and the others being for a model train layout. The train layout was very flexible until I installed the bottom panel with its cut outs and then it began to stiffen up.
Hope this helps.
Mark
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