The legless table needs to be repaired. It was knocked and the wires are no longer taut. It is also still standing wonky. I have an idea that I hope will completely fix the wonkiness. My thoughts are that the twist and the slightly angled top are due to length differences between the four wires on the outside and between the two inside wires. Tension differences may also play a role.
A jig has been designed to hold the sides at identical distances. This will allow setting the wires to identical lengths and similar loads. The jig is two stepped boards connected by two long threaded rods. Two of these will support opposite sides while setting and tensioning the wires. Nuts will be used to adjust the four corners to equal distances. The top and bottom will be clamped to these jigs. Once set in position the wires can be adjusted to more exacting lengths and tensions, than my previous setups.
I have an 1/2" X 3 1/2" X 8' foot board. This will suffice for the four stepped supports. I need to purchase enough threaded rod for four 2' lengths, along with 12 matching nuts and 12 large washers. Drilling close fitting through holes in the supports and using large washers should minimize any twist in the supports. The stepped supports will each be made from a 12" length of 3.5" board and a glued on 1.5" board of the same length. The supports are 12" long so they will fit inside the wires allowing access for adjustment.
The eight foot board was cut in half with a handsaw. One four foot length was cut into 12" pieces. The second had two 12" pieces cut off with the table saw. Two of the 12" lengths were ripped to 1 3/4". After slightly sanding the cut ends the narrower boards were glued to the wider and clamped. This is shown in the photo below.
A six foot length and a three foot length of allthread were purchased along with nuts and washers. The allthread was cut into four 2' lengths and the ends filed. 3/8" holes were drilled 1" in from the spreader ends and centered on the narrow part of the supports. The threaded rod was installed with nuts and washers. This can be seen in the photo below.
The first photo below shows the badly mangled table. The second shows the spreaders in place. With these in place the height from the bottom of one to the top of the other was set at 21" at all four threaded rods. The wire adjusters were all loosened. A few wires needed to be pulled tight. Then the adjusters took up the rest of the slack. All wires were tightened to sound similar. The table looks much better, but still has a twist as seen in the last photo.
