I thought I'd post here to document a table I want to build. Nothing fancy, just a little custom and functional. I figure I'll bounce ideas off everyone and take suggestions. We have several folding tables but the smallest is 6 feet so it means seats down. The folding table is also about 4" thick and a little heavy.
Requirements are simple:
-Has to fit in the back of the 4runner, between the wheel wells and with the seats in the up position. With my Husky cargo mat that's about 3' by 3'4".
-Can't break the bank. After all it's a homemade table. For all intensive purposes I'd use a milk crate, the wife thinks differently.
-Has to be lightweight. Not featherlite, it's for car camping. Just can't be heavier than it need to be.
-Has to be durable. I don't want to have to maintain this thing, just use it.
So for the table top I'm thinking plywood. It's cheap, comes in different thicknesses, can be painted, sanded, drilled, replaced; all pretty easily. I'd probably buy a 4x8 sheet and cut to my size. Finish it up with the sander and probably coat with paint. Other ideas were plastic (good plastic that's stiff enough would be too expensive). My wife mentioned laminate board but it's heavy and I don't think it'll be as durable.
Next is legs. Ideally the legs would fold in and be adjustable for uneven surfaces. After looking around these legs are 1)expensive, 2) require a table top larger than I want, 3)heavy, and 4)will probably we loud clanging around in the back on the vehicle.
I took a trip to home depot and cruised all the isles. One choice is EMT conduit. I'm thinking around 1" diameter, ~$4 (10'). It's stiff and because of the thin wall, light. The problem is the ends. I'm having difficulty thinking of how to attach 4 legs to the bottom of plywood. I was thinking maybe copper caps. Drill the cap, insert nut and bolt, glue cap to leg end, then thread the bolt end into the table some how.
Another choice is PVC. It comes in different diameters and you can add all kinds of things to the ends. I'm wanting the legs to be about 30" long. PVC in a small diameter or too long is not very stiff longitudinally. 1" at about 28-30" looks to be stiff enough. I took a trip to the couplers and such and started thinking.