Worked a little on figuring out the method of fastening the frame together tonight. I'm trying to do as little welding as possible. I'd like to use stainless steel tubing for the frame. Second material choice would be aluminum tubing.

Here is one of my ideas for connecting the cross supports to the upright legs. I thought about drilling a clearance hole just slightly bigger than the OD of the crossmember in one wall of the upright tube. The other end of the upright tube would be countersunk. Each end of the crossmemeber would be drilled and tapped. I would then bolt the crossmember to the upright.

I would think it would be a pretty solid connection. It does look a little odd. I've attached a couple of pictures of the design.

Personally I don't like how that looks. I'd also be fearful of the connection coming loose as the flathead screw is really only connecting on two points. Countersinks on a curved surface never come out looking good. Why are you trying to avoid welding? I think it would look nice with a good weld bead.

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
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Yeah, I agree with you and that is what I thought when I first tried it.


I'm trying to avoid welding because I can't do it and I'm cheap The one thing I was looking to do with this is to have the frame become very small after it is taken apart. The way I was originally planning on doing this (and I will probably go back to that method) is to weld little sleeves with thru holes onto the upright tubes. Then the cross supports would slide over these sleeves and make the connection that way. It would be a lot easier to just weld the cross supports directly to the uprights I guess, it just wouldn't break down to as small of a space for transport.

Put your screws all the way though 90deg from how you show it. Through hole on both the Legs and the cross member - use a long screw with nut on the far side (screw goes all the way through). A lot simpler fabrication and fixes Sean's concern. Also this way the length of the cross member isn't critical, only the hole to hole distance.

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Ron
http://www.arken.net Engineering and Design
http://www.arkenstudios.com Professional Photography

The legs in the images from Ikea are purchased individually - you could by their legs and put your own top on.

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Cory
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Mechanix Design Solutions
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@mcadguy

I was going to suggest that, but it sounds like you're trying to do it for cheaper than the $30/leg IKEA gets. Also, those legs are meant to be mounted (via a big @ss bolt) to the rectangular steel frame under their tabletops. To make it work for a glass top would mean adding a cross member (although it could be pretty simple), and that adds to the cost as well.

If it were me doing it, I would spring for the $60 for two legs and swallow the cost for the horizontal supports on top. I'm just not that into "making it myself", but that's just me.

BTW, the legs are height adjustable, too, and they have leveling feet.

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Tony

The only real problem I see with the IKEA legs is that unless you somehow restrain them, they could kick out and if they are bolted to the glass, it will break. If the glass is just sitting on top of the legs/frame, it won't be a problem.

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Tony

Get some angle brackets from McMaster - mount them to the wall and mount the glass top to the brackets. No legs, nice and clean.

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Ron
http://www.arken.net Engineering and Design
http://www.arkenstudios.com Professional Photography

That is a great idea. That would be very clean.

Where do you guys go to look at commonly used materials like tubing? I tried to look at one of the local metal vendors in the area, but they only way I could see what they carry was to have an e-commerce account with them. I've only purchased material while being part of a large company that bought a lot of other products from the supplier. I've never really bought stuff in small quantities like this. I assume suppliers aren't really thrilled to deal in very small quantities?

McMasterCarr sells raw materials like tubing and plate as well.

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Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
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Or visit a local machine shop and make friends.

_________________
Ron
http://www.arken.net Engineering and Design
http://www.arkenstudios.com Professional Photography

I've heard of a place called Metal Supermarket (?) that sells metal by the piece or in small lots. They cater to hobbyists, etc. that can't meet the minimum purchase quantities from a wholesalers.

A lot of vendors have remnants and damaged goods they sell at a discount. They have a lot of turnover so it is hit and miss. I have stopped by the local aluminum vendor a few times for billet and sheet, and lately they have offered to give me a call when they get something I'm looking for. Since I am getting stuff for miscellaneous projects, I also pick up material that looks interesting. I bought a couple of 4" x .19 x 5' 6061 tubes last year because you never when something like that will come in handy.

Thanks for the help on where I can find metal guys. I found a local guy that will sell it by the stick, or I can buy it from a few different online vendors.

I haven't been doing much with this lately, so I decided to work on it a little this weekend. I've attached a weldment for one of the legs that will support the glass. I did the legs the way I did them for a couple of different reasons. One of the ideas for this desk would be to be able to run all the cables and cords through the tubing so it wouldn't be seen. The other reason I have done it the way I did is so it doesn't require a jig or all the skilled of a welder.

These files are Inventor 2011 format. I have access to get these parts made on a tube cutting laser for not too bad of a price, so that is how I decided to have them fabricated. The laser cut holes will fit a piece of .75" OD tubing that can be used as a jig to locate where the stub connection.ipt should be welded onto the leg. There is about .060" of slop betweed the OD of the jig piece and the ID of the stub piece. I think that should locate it well enough. What do you guys think?

The other thing I did on this was to have an insert piece welded into the top and bottom of the tube. It is threaded to allow the glass to be bolted to the legs and the leveler feet to be connected to the bottom. I think these pieces will be the most expensive to make (besides the glass) but I don't think it should be that expensive. They are pretty simple and should be pretty quick to machine.

What do you guys think? Got any better ideas?

Kevin

Does anyone know exactly what these are called and a good source to buy them? We had a version at a company I worked for and we called the panel nuts.

Is it not a Rivet Style nut?

http://www.mcmaster.com/#rivet-nuts/=e164pz