Torsion Box Workbench--Ikea Honeycomb Cardboard?

[tjpavlov]

So I bought some Ikea furniture this weekend for my kid's room. The pieces were partially packed with this really nice honeycomb cardboard. The sheets are about 1 1/4 inches thick. Pieces are of various sizes, from about 12 inches by 3 inches to about 12 inch squares. They look exactly like this stuff:

http://www.cartonpallet.com/honeycomb-panels/#.VdymgPlVhBc

Would this be a good substrate for a torsion box workbench? I have been interested in this type of design since seeing it used here for several projects. To me, it would keep things lightweight and strong. I was thinking about a wall mounted, knock down design.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It will probably work. If you were to cut open a hollow core door, they use basically the same material inside to stiffen the structure.

 

[John Bender]

I've build a number of torsion boxes over the years...with a number of different core materials and configurations (including cardboard honeycomb) with success.

From purely an empirical standpoint, a good core seems to require rigidity, be able to handle some compression in the perpendicular without deflecting much, and be essentially 'continuous' in all directions. The other element of the design that is critical is a good glue joint to the skins, since this glue joint will see, and transfer, some powerful stresses.....

An old pool table I took apart last year actually had a very large cell cardboard honeycomb inside...