If you don't make it then I'll show you, I won't buy it!

[Arm]

Also, ignoring the problem of how brittle stone is, you can figure the approximate weight quite simply by dividing. 4" is 2200 pounds, 2" is 1100 pounds, 1" is 550 pounds... You'd have to mill it down to the thickness of paper to get it under a hundred pounds, what with the legs and all.

A stone table that size is never going to be what normal people would consider 'portable'. Even a *normal* folding table that size, made out of wood, is best handled as a two-man lift.

[portia911]

Bob, can you make me a portable foldaway office that fits into a breifcase and can also double as a luxury vacation cottage? That would be so neat. I woud love one.

[XCashier]

Bob, can you make me a portable foldaway office that fits into a breifcase and can also double as a luxury vacation cottage? That would be so neat. I woud love one.

I think you'd have to ask The Doctor about that kind of technology...

[portia911]

I think you'd have to ask The Doctor about that kind of technology...

No! I demand he make me one! And I want a weeks turn around on it as I want to take it to Thailand!

[Ironclad Alibi]

A customer comes to me with their idea. They want a 4" thick stone table, and they want it held up with these spindly little metal folding stick legs. Just as an FYI, IF you can find someone that will make 4" thick stone, it weighs about 61.5 lbs per square foot. With a 4' x 9' table that they wanted that means that the table top alone weights 2214 lbs. The table legs that they wanted to use have a manufactures rated weight limit of 50 lbs per leg. So, they would need 45 of those legs under a 4x9 table.

Here is the kicker. They wanted the tables to FOLD. So, think about taking down a folding table. You pick up your ONE TON stone table, sit it on its edge, then fold up the 45 legs.

Physical impossibility aside, how much would that monstrosity cost? And would they be willing to pay it?

[jerkface11]

A 4 inch thick slab of stone 4x9 feet would cost WAY too much for a table.

[JustADude]

Me: Ok, I'll make you a deal. You send two guys here that are CAPABLE of picking up a ONE TON table and gently sitting it down on its side to fold it, and I will not only make them, I'll make them for free.

How about Mariusz Pudzianowski and Zydrunas Savickas? You'd have to carve hand-grips in for the 'set down gently' part, but I'm pretty damn sure they could pull it off.

[earl colby pottinger]

I didn't even get any further than the above quote without going Anybody with an ounce of common sense knows that stone is freaking heavy. Maybe -- just maybe -- you could make a lightweight plastic replica that looks like stone without the weight, but as xaenon pointed out, it would still look ridiculous on spindly folding legs. Big, thick solid legs, maybe, but not skinny folding legs.

You need to cut outs that leave a web pattern behind, at best you could cut the weight down to a third (700+ pounds) or may be even a quarter (500+ pounds). That is still not a portable table as implied by the folding legs.

Now if you use some high tech high strength metal to support this slab on one or two legs it would look really neat, but in no way could it be considered portable.

[machinest]

I work in a machine shop, we have a 4'X4'X4"graiite table (flat stable surface to measure from) it sits on a frame made from welded 4X4 steel tube and the only time it was moved we had to hire riggers as it exceded the safe working load of our forklift!I can not see any one puting folding legs under it.

[bigpedaler]

Wal-Fart used to sell this 'stone finish' in a spray can; resin & fiberglass over a styrofoam block the right size, then spray it with the stone-in-a-can, then sell it to dumbass for twice the quoted price...serve 'em right.

[Samaliel]

45 legs, on a 9' long table... That's about a leg every half-foot ! And why would any one want a one ton folding table ?

Augh. My brain hurts. Please, make the hurt stop...

[bob the goat]

Sorry, I forgot to check back on this post.

1) Yes, it is technically possible to create a hollow tabletop using 3/4" thick stone panels. They did not want that becuase on the edges you could see where the side panels were attached to the top panel, they really wanted a 4" thick stone.

Even IF you hollowed it out, stone is exceptionally fragile. It is WAY more fragile than glass. It would break.

2) The stone alone would be over $20K, so no, no one would want to buy it.

3) Yes, I was talking to a "middle man", that is not the actual end user. However, it was an interior designer. They are the ones responsible for coming up with this bad idea.

4) The "lighter man made stone" is called "Solid Surface". It is just as expensive. However, it would not have worked because the stone they wanted was Quartz. The glass like look of quartz is not something that they have made well in Solid Surface.

[Chromatix]

I hear you on stone's fragility. The important fact is: stone has IMMENSE compressive strength, but NO tension strength (and not much in shear either). Which is why you can use stone to build cathedrals and arch bridges, but you use steel for a suspension bridge.

A slab supported at it's ends is in compression at the top, but tension at the bottom. To make it hold up, it needs to be immensely thick to minimise the tensile forces, and the span needs to be as small as possible. So there do exist stone bridges in a trestle form, but they are *foot* bridges across shallow streams, where it wasn't worth building a proper arch bridge.

Concrete has the same problem. That's why most large and all upright pieces of concrete are in fact *reinforced* concrete, with steel bars down the middle - the steel provides some tensile strength.

[Comechatcha]

Makes me wonder if they'll eventually do us a service and convince someone to make them a 4" stone canopy for their bed.

[jerkface11]

I don't think you could get a 4'x9'x4" slab of quartz for ANY price.