Folding Table to Shelves

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 I was inspired to make this table by my woodworking hero, Izzy Swan!! I made it to take to Art and Craft shows for extra display space. The goal was to have it foldable and as light as possible yet be durable.
 
 The shelf surfaces are 5/8" x12" x30" maple plywood that has been hollowed out in back to reduce their weight by 11 #.
 The frame work is solid walnut. The moveable frame that the shelves are mounted to is made from aluminum angle and box elder rails- all painted satin black. All the fasteners are machine screws into threaded inserts in the wood ( with the exception of the screws that hold the shelves on). I used shoulder bolts for the shelf pivots so they can be fully tightened and yet swivel. There are headed Delrin pins for the pivots of the folding frame sections.
 
 I added a lock block on each side to hold the unit vertical or horizontal. I originally had only one block , but it twisted in the horizontal position so the other one fixed that. There was a lot of tweaking once it was assembled.
 
 It has 4 lockable casters that are screwed into inserts in the base.
 
 The shelves are finished with Satin Poly and all the walnut pieces are finished with boiled linseed oil and buffed and waxed.The top is 30" x 60" and the whole unit is 34" wide and 30" high and the base is 30" long and the whole unit came in at 39#. I oiled and buffed the walnut so it did not have any "build" on the surface that would have made it tighter to fold.
After I had it set up as a set of shelves, I found that by putting them at and angle they looked more pleasing as display at s show so I added another threaded hole in the aluminum plate to have the sit at about 30 degrees.

Cheers, Jim

















Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day

10 Comments

A very convenient item for shows, well done.

Main Street to the Mountains

Well done. I love this kind of thing.

The early bird gets the worm but its the second mouse that gets the cheese.

Thanks Eric and Paul. Nice to see you guys here, too. Too bad LJ's had to be changed. I see a lot of Lumberjocks coming to this site. I'm posting on both right now!

Cheers, Jim

Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day

I love this design/engineering as well as your execution of it.
  Horizontal surfaces in my life have a habit of collecting crap so this would soon be doomed to stay in whatever it's initial state was. 😂
Neat trick to reduce weight, looks like a very functional peice that will be a joy to use. Good Job Jim. 

-- Soli Deo gloria! ( To God alone be the Glory)

Love the weight loss engineering. Nicely done!

Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".

Great looking project, a lot of details were involved with this one. Great job !!!   Mike
My favorite type of project... both functional and beautiful.

Nice seeing you over here, Jim.
thats beautiful jim.and so glad your here buddy.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Thanks Swirt, Oldrivers, Ryan, Mike, Ron and Pottzy!!

I didn't show the dolly board, but it fits in the long slot in the side frame when it is collapsed and I can roll that whole unit into a show for additional display space! 

Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day