I have seen square tables in lots of restaurants that can quickly be converted to a round table by raising curved drop leaves on four sides. The leaf must fold under the table, because they would hang down far enough to interfere with seating – I figure about 7-8 inches. The leaves are apparently self supporting – when a larger party arrives and the table needs to be expanded, the waiters seem to reach under and pull the leaf up, without searching for a support arm or anything.
Somebody has asked me to build one of these tables, but I have a few questions…
- What are the hinges or supports called – I have tried to search the web and get lots of regular table hinges, but none that magically hold the leaf under the table and make it appear on demand
- Is a special apron required? A leaf that drops 7-8 inches, that might be folded back under the table, implies that the apron must be back at least that far – sounds unusual to me.
- Can the edge of the table be made attractive with this design? The tables I have seen have always been covered by a tablecloth – which may be to hide an ugly edge, or just to hide the cheap plywood tabletop.
Please don’t make me lie on a restaurant floor, under a table!
________________________
Charlie Plesums Austin, Texas
www.plesums.com/wood
Replies
Charlie,
I'm shooting from memory here but it seems to me I've looked at one of these in the past. The leaves were on simple hinges and there is some kind of slider, a captured batten (?) that holds the leaf up to when unfolded make a round table. When dropped in the square position, the table I saw had a catch that grabbed the edge of the leaf; like a small rubber wheel that was under tension. This allowed the wait staff to simply reach under and grab the leaf, pull down to release and then slide the batten into place while holding the leaf up.
The table I saw was fairly nice, oak, without a table cloth. (O'Charley's restaurant, maybe?)
Hope this helps.
Kell
If anyone is interested, I did find the hinges...
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/squaredrive/kdf-6512.html
Saw a picture of a table using the technique - square edges (and not that attractive). The potential client put other work ahead of this, so it may be a while before I get to try building one.
I would still welcome suggestions about the edge of the table and relation between the apron and leaves.
________________________
Charlie Plesums Austin, Texas
http://www.plesums.com/wood
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled