Rocker Table in small workshop

General Discussion
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1

Hi there,
I am buildings HWS boards from a (very) small work shop, since rent and space is quite expensive in Germany.
That in mind I built my rocker table and shaper stand as a foldable design, but still space is tough.

Currently I am using a quite simple design.
Wooden beam 3m long with a aluminum C profile and threaded rods for height adjustment, so I can position the cross beams and pressure points depending on the frame spacings.

PXL_20230730_111330227
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Whole thing is mounted on (very quickly built) feed on wheels so I can move it around if necessary.

During the first board built with it, a lot of flaws on the design came up so I want to rebuild it for the second board.

  1. its bulky in storage and bulky when its set up
  2. 3m long is too long for normal boards but length is required for longboards
  3. the threaded rods are to thin (M5 currently) and bend if you hit them accidentally (was limited with the C - Profile set into the beam)
  4. threaded rods are often in the way and you scratch yourself
  5. the legs are just flimsy and bad
  6. it takes a while to set up

Since you basically only use the rocker table for internal frame glue up and deck and bottom glue up to the frame. All the time in between you dont really need it, you use the shaper stand.
So a modular design, that is set up quickly when needed is the goal.

Then I can set it up once for the initial use, then disasemble it for interim storage, but safe the rocker settings, and re-assemble it quickly for the final deck glue up.

My current idea is to make it from 30x30 cm square aluminum profiles and split it up in 3 sections (adressing issue 1).
Each section 100cm x 80 cm that can be joint together so it is either 2m long in total (for shorter boards) or 3m long for longboards (adressing issue 1+2).
The actual joint is just a simple screw so its easy to put toghether (adressing point 6)

The aluminum pofiles allow for thicker rods (M6) and will be shortended depending on the position they are used in. Longer rods for nose & tail and shorter for middle of board (adressing issue 3+4)

The idea was to mount the frames on saw horses so you can take one Module, set it on the saw horses and then connect the second module.

I threw a quick sketch together to illustrate 2 modules unjointed. The mini stubs pointing up illustrate the new thicker threaded rods (only 2 shown each side because the tool was a pain).

grafik
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Has someone experience with a small workshop and modular rocker table?
Is the 80 cm width enough? or should I go to 1m width
Feel free to chip in any suggestions or ideas

2

I made something similar years ago using 10’ long steel struts. I used large 3/8" bolts attached to something I found at work that fit the bolts and allowed me to screw 2" x 2" wood pieces as the cross pieces. The 2" x 2" pieces could rotate, so the wood was always at the same angle as the rocker. In this photo, I didn’t have all the cross braces in place, but I could make as many as I wanted. I usually ended up with a brace every foot, then I had a thin piece of plywood over that with the board’s outline drawn. The cross pieces were 24" long. The whole thing could come apart and the long 10’ struts stored with the bolts left in place. I also ended up adding 2 cross pieces to keep the 10’ struts evenly aligned. Later, I started making individual rocker beds for the boards I made. Make a rocker and a matching rocker bed at the same time. They always have a thin plywood layer with the outline.

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