James,

Ordinary wood screws don't work well in particle board; instead
use "Euro screws" like at http://cabinetmart.com/69-63xxx.html
to spread out the holding force and to avoid the wedging action
of a wood screw.

Thanks!


I don't understand your description of the tray or its
environment. Also, roughly how many mm or yards long will the
tray be, and how many grams or tons does it need to support?

I suppose if I could describe it well, I wouldn't need to ask the
question The tray is about 12x15 inches; the load is a small laser
printer. Steel slotted angle should do it. The question is how to join
it at the edges. Normally one simply overlaps and uses 5/16th (???)
bolts. I can do that because there will need to be some type of shaped
rails to "hook into" the printer, so I can hold the printer above the
bolt heads. I'm simply wondering if there is a better way.

Some time ago, I bought a copy of (don't laughg) The Robot Builder's
Bonanza, mostly for the electronics (originally for tilt sensors and the
parallel port interface was helpful too). I just hit me that it might
be of some value for metal construction, and sure enough the chapter on
a six legged walking robot includes a box frame: mitered extruded angle
with angle irons, overlapped (single shear), then bolted. He goes on to
square up with bolts and then one by one replace them with rivets
(probably overkill for me).

I guess I am looking for a survey of joint designs.

Bill