Official Luthiers Forum!

Any tips on quick adjustments to height and quick collapse for storage?

For one that can be stored, here is what I do (until I move and set up a fixed station for it):

My workbench has holes in it. I have a piece of plywood for the roof of the deck, and it has four holes, one in each corner, that match up with four of the holes in my workbench. I have four pieces of one inch PVC that are all the same length; these establish the height of the deck. I slide four pieces of all thread rod (all the same length, all longer than the PVC plus the thickness of the roof and workbench) through the roof, PVC, and workbench, and put washers and wing nuts at the top and bottom of the whole thing.

If you wanted to use this setup and also be able to adjust the height, you could lose the PVC and just use more washers and wing nuts to establish height.

I used the sliding half of a good old Pony clamp, get any height you want quickly. I have never dismantled mine but it would take less than five minutes. Looks like a bomb went of down here

For adjustability I have seen some people use pipe clamms on 1/2" or 3/4" iron pipe. You attach flanges and pipes to the base, whether it be a fixed bench or a plywood plate, with one at each corner. Then put up the pipe. You will need 8 sets of pipe clamps since you will only ouse the movable portion of each set with two on each pipe, the bottom sets hold the top board up, and then you slide the other set down from the top to lock the plate in place. Obviously the top plate has holes drilled in it so it can have the pipes pass through.

I've never done this, but don't see why it wouldn't work though unless you go to harbor freight the pipe clamps might get a little pricey.