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On Jul 26, 9:07 pm, "Eigenvector" wrote:
A long while back I posted a question about repairing a treadmill deck.
Most of the responses were helpful pointing me in the direction of oak as
the decking material of choice.

The deck is 27"x48"x11/16th

I would try Baltic Birch plywood. This is not the junk plywood you
get from Home depot, it is all birch plys throughout the thickness.
You can get it in 5/8" (actually a metric size close to 5/8") and shim
it at the 6 support points.

Well maybe I should clarify.

Mind you I'm not critisizing your response at all.
I could get whatever I needed to be sure - but that's not really the point
of the post. The point is how to create a stable running deck from multiple
wood sections. The answers I got a while back pointed me in the direction
of oak and this post isn't really about what the BEST material is, but how
to make it work with multiple sections. I heard some very helpful responses
pointing me to oak flooring material - seems like a decent way to do it.
But again the question - how to mount it so that the running platform is
stable and still maintain its dimensions. At this point it's an exercise
(forgive the pun) in how to make it work, rather than practical woodworking.
I haven't seen the deck of very good treadmills, so I don't know how they do
it. I've been told that they use oak decks -but potentially they use a much
better support system which allows them to do that. And that may just be
the answer - "can't do it on your model, sorry buddy". I've got 3 more MDF
decks just waiting for that inevitability.