Another fine evening making wood shavings...or recycled plastic squiggles, well, both actually. Got the center board on...11 1/8" wide by 77 1/8" long. Grooved the edges 1/4" wide by 1/8" deep for the outer edges of the associated skid strips and cut in two more similarly sized grooves on center for the central skid strip of the bed. Drilled the holes down the center and bolted it up into the bed.
This single wide board replaces the two narrow boards that were originally fitted in the bed. Again, one wide composite board and it'll be stiffer with less movement and warpage than the original set up. We'll end up with 5 boards in this bed instead of eight. And, in the process will have eliminated 3 joints and the four narrowest boards, the 3+ inchers along the bed wall and the 5+ inchers in the center section.
Lookin pretty good. My total run out over the length of the central board is 1/8" and its at the center. I suspect the three main cross ties for the center of the bed are actually skewed a bit. I'll fit the last two boards tomorrow and as necessary loosen up some bolts, slide some crossbucks left and right. But, I don't think the 1/8" of misalignment is going to be a problem.
