Rob .. looks interesting .. details ..
I was basically trying to retain the "trestle" effect of the current BANTrak 1T legs, while making them fold as compactly as possible. The key ideas to making this happen were to (a) avoid horizontal bracing and (b) allow the cross-braces to disconnect at the top. The fact that I was able to make the leg unit self-standing, so you can just "drop" the module on top and bolt it down, was a bonus.
Here's an intermediate stage in the folding process, so you can see what's going where:
The cross-bracing at the ends is held in place at the top by the bolts that attach the module to the top. These can be slid partway in to allow the legs to stand, then slid the rest of the way in and tightened down once the module is in place. (For the demo pictures, I'm using bolts that are just barely long enough to hold the legs; the actual implementation would probably use eyebolts and T-nuts for tool-free assembly.)
The cross-bracing at the sides is held in place at the top by "keyhole" slots:
These allow the bracing to be slid over a screwhead, then the screw to be slipped into the smaller hole to trap it. When the module is placed on top, the bracing under the module holds the ends apart, locking the bracing in place.
For all this to work, the bracing under the module has to be properly spaced. But there's enough stability in the legs to hold them up until the module is dropped on and bolted in. Once the module's in place, these legs are going
nowhere until it's unbolted.
I've got threaded inserts in the bottom of the legs for adding levelers, but the levelers haven't been installed yet.
There are only three unique parts to the system: the legs, the end braces, and the side braces. You need four of each part for a full set. The legs are nominal 1x2 lumber. The braces are the same width, but only 1/4" thick.
