DIYbanter - View Single Post

J. Clarke

On 3/19/2010 7:58 AM, wrote:
On Mar 18, 6:30 pm, wrote:
On Mar 18, 2:17 pm, u
wrote:

Several years ago I saw a magazine article on making a dining table.
The author suggested that instead of leaves, make the main table fixed
and build a folding table that you add at the end. I recently tried
to track down the article without success.

Does anybody know where this article appeared?

Or any comments on making a wooden folding table?

How about a drop leaf table? About the same the same principle that
you are looking for. I have a really old cherry drop leaf that also
has leafs. Goes from 28" long to 8' long with both leafs up and the 2
additional leafs in. But you wouldn't have to build it with the 2
center leafs just the drops.

Drop leaf means the leafs are at the ends and fold up and down,
right? That makes the ends of the table unusable with the leaves
down...unless the drop leaves are really short so they don't interfere
with the legs of the person at the end.

My mother had a very pretty drop leaf table in her breakfast nook for a
long time. She found it very inconvenient and finally gave it away.

I've seen one with a take-apart hinge on the drop leaves similar to
http://www.hardwaresource.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=314

There's a design called a "draw-leaf table" in which the leaves pull
out. She had one of those in her kitchen--it worked fine. Here's a
discussion with some pictures of the mechanism
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=24617. I believe that
there's discussion of it in "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" but I'm too
lazy to dig out my copy and check for sure. Grizzly has plans for one
for 5 bucks http://grizzly.com/outlet/Draw-Leaf-Table-Plans/H6559 if
you need more detail on the mechanism.