How Convert dining table to Drop Leaf???

[sandy]

My tiny 650 square foot cabin needs a small dining table. I think that a round drop leaf table (with the leaf dropped and pushed up against the wall) would be perfect but I've been unable to find one. I'm toying with the idea of buying a (used) round 42" diameter pedestal oak table that has a leaf and converting it to a drop leaf table. Would this be difficult for someone with only a smattering of woodworking ability to do??? Where could I purchase the dropleaf hardware??

Thanks! Be nice to have a real table to eat at and be able to have company for dinner!

Sandy

[dpb]

First, what do you have to work with? If you have a router, the dropleaf cutter sets are available from several vendors. It basically is cut a straight edge and shape the two matching joints. You will have to also add the support--how depends at least in part on the construction of the table you start with. Probably the easiest is to cut out a notch in the rail and add a swiveling support made from the removed piece--I believe it was not very long ago there was a Fine Woodworking article (couple of years or so???) that one of their editors did on his technique.

Hinges are also available mail order from several places -- Woodworkers Supply is one I recall. Never remember the exact name, but there's a woodworkers hardware supply in MN that a google search will find that has everything you could ever dream of (and more) in hardware...I use them quite a lot but have to look them up every time...

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[J T]

Mon, Jan 28, 2008, 7:57am (EST-3) [e-mail] (sandy) doth sayeth: My tiny 650 square foot cabin needs a small dining table. Thanks! Be nice to have a real table to eat at and be able to have company for dinner!

If you want to make something, I'd say one of those tilt top table chairs - there's free plans on the web, and they're not rocket science to make.. Then you'd have a place to sit after you et. OR, you could just use a folding leg table, like a card table. If you wanted extra room, you could uuse folding chairs too. OR, you could make a medieval type trestle table, that knocks down, so you could have mor company, and still get the table out of the way leter. Lots of simple possibilities, just gotta think about it a bit. You could even use a couple of sawhorses, folding type optional, and a old door, or chunk of plywood. Or, a knock-down buy scout style picknick table - several sources for free plans for that on the web too - they're all the same, so no use in comparing plans. You could even hinge an old door or something on the wall and prop it u p when you wanted to use it. Imagination, a terrible thing to waste.

JOAT

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