craft table project I am starting - HELP!

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CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
So it started with my wife seeing this:
craft-table1-670x368.jpg
and I said "Sure, I could do that" and I ordered the bookshelves from Ikea and picked up a melamine top from Phil and I think I am practically in the home stretch.

Well, not exactly...

Turns out that I don't know white from very light gray and it matters...
Turns out the table needs to be longer than I realized - 5' when closed. Closed? Huh?
Turns out expanding is part of the plan. We browsed expanding tables and found a design she likes:

http://www.rubylane.com/item/564331-1009A/English-Style-Mahogany-Ex78panding-Coffee

only one of the extension needs to be an extremely shallow drawer to hold a cutting mat. It might be okay to just run across a few cross members and have not bottom to it.

and then there need to be locking casters under it. Probably the ones from Ikea that fit the shelves:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60169977/

Oh yeah, she would really rather I use solid wood banding around the melamine top instead of the vinyl or melamine banding...

I can figure out the top and the banding. I have not done casework with slides before. I don't know the best source for hinges like that that will hold up well.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
OMG Andy you've got a real honey-do project on the horizon.

Your shelf boxes from Ikea define the bottom dimensions. They state 30 3/8" wide and high with a 15 3/8" depth. So I played with SketchUp to get a visual depiction.

Viewed from the front.

Andy_2.jpg



So now we go to the expandable/foldable top with sliding extensions for support per the Ruby Lane site. So the effective length of the melamine top is doubled when both sections are opened. You need 2 full size pieces of melamine for this design.

Andy.jpg


Is this kind of what SWMBO is envisioning?

The sliding support extensions are fairly easy to design and construct if we're on the right general track. I haven't explored the hinge mounting stuff yet.
 
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CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
The bookcases are sideways at the ends and there is open space under it in the middle.
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
Both Rockler and Lee Valley carry lots of different types of hinges. You should be able to find something appropriate at either of them.
 

CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
Back on the front burner again. It looks like the way you are sketching it, the wings go around the shelves and you make the table wider than the shelves to account for it. I will run that idea past the boss, but I was thinking I might have casework under the table (apron?) so that there wouldn't be overhang and it would be a little smaller. But that isn't that much different. What would hold the wings in place under the top?


Ok, gotcha. Is this better for starters?

Andy_rotated_90_degrees.jpg



Then we pull out the supporting wings and open the hinged top pieces for a full 10' length.

Andy_wings_out.jpg


The wings support most of the weight so I'm thinking something like a sewing machine hinge or card table hinge would work for the pivot points.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=40208&cat=3,41241,41261
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
Andy,

Deleted the Sketch Up files because of no interest or follow-up. Sorry. I'll have to start over but that's not a problem.

1. The basic top is fastened to the Ikea boxes. That's gonna be x" l x y" w x z" thick.

2. Folding over on that basic top are 2 pieces that are 1/2 x" l. So it's like a sewing machine case with appropriate hinges that opens both left and right as needed.

3. The "wings" slide in and out and they ride horizontally underneath the basic top in order to keep them from sagging and it takes a lot of stress off of the hinges.

Let me know. Glad to help.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
What kind of slide mechanism would the wings use?

Andy,

I'm working on it. If you use SketchUp I can load my files to NCWW and you can change them to fit your design.

The wings slide on metal Z-clips fastened to the sides of your Ikea boxes.

Z_bracket.jpg


The vertical support for the extended wings is the bottom of the overhanging table top on each side.

Craft_case_slider_supports.jpg



You'll need some overhang l x w on the primary 5' top to cover all of this.
 

CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
I like that. Even better, my wife likes that! :D

I was over complicating it with the idea of an apron and drawers slides since she originally asked if maybe the wing could be a really shallow drawer. I should have just said no from the start. It's just a big mat for the CriCut Explore and large pieces of paper. There is another shelf unit in the room that just needs a sliding shelf put in it or some kind of spacer on top that the mat and paper could go under.
 

CarvedTones

Board of Directors, Vice President
Andy
We can fine tune it with agreement from SWMBO. Glad to help.

Do you use Sketch Up to some extent?
Barely. But the file would be useful. I used your last picture to communicate a lot more clearly than I seem capable of when merely speaking... ;)
 
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