Show Us Your Go-bar deck.

[Kbore]

I'm building a go-bar deck.
All I have so far is four 30x 24 birch plywood 3/4" for deck and top.
So far the best "upright" options I have found are 1/2" black iron gas pipe with floor flanges to mount on the bottom deck, or a $27 set of 30" round 1" diameter stainless " legs" used to extend one of those adjustable metal racks, like they sell at the box box and Walmart. Thinking fiberglass kite poles at about $1.50 each.

I would love to hear/ see other ideas. Also, what dimensions and wood species of wooden bars are working for you.

It's cheaper to build a deck than it is to buy four long throated cam clamps and 4 short cam clamps to glue maybe two braces at a time.

[yellowesty]

I built a go-bar deck in preparation for my first guitar build. I'm now on build #4 and am happy to have my go-bar deck available. I use it for several operations in the build, not just for glue clamping. A few thoughts from having built my own deck:

-- the use of fiberglass poles worked for me. My local K-Mart was selling out of fiberglass poles intended for lining snowy driveways. I bought all 30 that they had. That's enough, but just barely. 40 would have been better.

-- I used ½" allthread for the uprights. Black pipe will certainly work, but having the flexibility to move the top up and down is useful. And the screw-on bases for attaching threaded pipe will take up a lot of valuable real estate on the base (see below).

-- Based on posts from others, I made the top -- and particularly the base -- VERY stout. It's worth while. Each of my fiberglass poles exerts around 10 lbs. of force. (Once the pole is bent, the force is fairly constant, independent of deflection.) 30 poles means 300 lbs. of force and any flexibility in the base will distort your radius dish.

-- Also based on posts from others, I stapled a piece of carpeting to the bottom side of the top. That keeps the top end of the fiberglass poles from skittering around. (I, nonetheless, had a chain reaction at one point when the lower end of one of the poles slipped and took out several others, which then knocked out their neighbors, and so on.)

-- Because of the way my base is constructed, I only have 20" between the uprights. I find that that's marginal. 22" would be better, but will be difficult with your 24" x 30" plywood.

-- At one point I mounted my deck on a lazy-suzan turntable. It was a nice idea, but the deck really needs very solid mounting, and the turntable is now history.

-- I installed 4 T-nuts near the corners of the base and use long ¼" machine screws (through countersunk holes in my radius dishes) to clamp the radius dishes to the base. The dishes probably don't need to be clamped when the go-bars are in place, but I also use the dishes on the deck for sanding braces and the assembled sides, and the dishes don't sit flat without the machine screws. If I didn't have the base of the go-bar deck to clamp the dishes, I'd have to build something else to hold them flat.

I encourage you to build your own deck -- but I find that I still need lots of clamps.

[Kbore]

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[MaineGeezer]

I use the fiberglass rod path/driveway markers, also called snow stakes. For example, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Driveway-Marker ... 2488148442

although I bought mine locally. They just fit, with some amount of spring, between the top of my bench and the ceiling, so that is my "go-bar deck."

[tippie53]

lots you can do. I like the all thread myself. I found 18 by 24 is a good size .

[JLT]

I used some fiberglass dome tent poles that I picked up at a garage sale. There were two sizes in the bag: 3/8" and 7/16" but I found the latter too stiff for me. Since they were all designed for breakdowns, with the little sleeves already in place, it was easy to make up varying lengths to suit the job at hand. To finish them off, I went down to my local hardware store and bought a bunch of 3/8" end caps, the kind that protect the ends of bolts and such.

[Kbore]

- Because of the way my base is constructed, I only have 20" between the uprights. I find that that's marginal. 22" would be better, but will be difficult with your 24" x 30" plywood.

Could you explain the difficulty I might have with 24x30?
Love the carpet tip and edge markers.
Black pipe frame, used with Harbor Freight pipe clamp hardware would allow for adjusting, but you're right about the space the flanges require.

[yellowesty]

The base of my go-bar deck is 24" square. It's two pieces of ¾" MDF, supported underneath by 2x4's on edge, both around the perimeter and crossing as diagonals, notched like the X-brace of a guitar top with a steel strap closing the notch. The 2x4's required that the holes that I drilled for the allthread uprights (and their nuts and washers) be inset significantly. That reduced the spacing between them and compromised my workspace. Your 30" dimension won't be a problem, but you may want to do something to maximize the spacing in the 24" dimension. If I were to rebuild my go-bar deck (unlikely), I would build it with more than 20" clear between uprights. I don't want to make a big deal about this; the 20" clear that I have is quite serviceable. But a bit more would be better. I find that particularly true when "driving the bus."

[rcnewcomb]

Kathy Matsushita made a 6 minute video about some of her go-bar desk modifications: YouTube Go-bar Deck Mods

[Kevin Sjostrand]

This is my go-bar deck. It is mdf top and bottom, mounted onto a rolling cabinet. It is waist high for me so very easy to use without having to bend over, etc. I can move it out into the middle of my shop and work all the way around it. I like that aspect alot.

All thread with conduit over that on the corners, with large washers and wing nuts. I is adjustable but I haven't found the need to do that, I just use shorter rods and put blocks under a working surface on the base of the deck to accommodate various distances. I can use it for gluing braces on tops and back, and clamping tops and backs to rims too.

I think the deck is 24" square if I remember.