My hangar is small at 25'x30', so I needed ways to conserve floor space. The cutting table is a required piece of equipment when building a composite aircraft but I needed to minimize its footprint in my hangar.
The solution was to bolt a heavy piece of angle iron across two of the hangar beams and attach a large steel piano hinge to the top of it. After building the cutting table (with a 45 degree edge), the rear of the table was bolted to the top half of the piano hinge which allowed it to be swung up against the hangar wall and out of the way when not in use.
The legs were also attached to the bottom of the table with hinges so that they too would collapse against the table when it was in the stowed position against the wall. When lowered for use, the legs fall down into position to support the table.
There is an aluminum channel attached to the long edge of the table and a smaller channel attahed to the straight edge cutting guide. This allows a 45 degree angle to be maintained as the cutting guide is repositioned up and down the table.
Cutting table in the stowed position.
The cutting guide rides in a track along the table.
