Table top joiners?

[skipdiver]

Been asked to supply some cheap lightweight tableltops to sit on Ikea trestles and am thinking the cheapest way is to just buy some flush doors and cut them to length to suit. They range in size from 4ft up to 11ft, so the longer ones will have to be done in sections. I aim to sit the joins directly onto a trestle so it won't be a weak point but i'm looking for some ideas how to attach them end to end so they don't come apart and the tops stay flush with each other. I thought of just a simple hook and eye like you get on pasting tables but i'd like something a bit more elegant if poss and preferably end attached so hidden when they come together. Any ideas folks?

 

[MattRoberts]

How structural do the joins need to be? If it's just for alignment, you could tongue and groove the ends very slightly. If it's more structural, you could do anything from sliding dovetails through to latches that flip up from the underside, similar to the hook and eye you mention

 

[skipdiver]

How structural do the joins need to be? If it's just for alignment, you could tongue and groove the ends very slightly. If it's more structural, you could do anything from sliding dovetails through to latches that flip up from the underside, similar to the hook and eye you mention

The trestle will support the weight at the join. Well it will in theory but that's supposing the people assembling them put the join directly on top of a trestle. It's more for alignment and to stop them coming apart once joined together, so something something like sliding dovetails would do, although i would prefer something i could just buy rather than make.

 

[RobinBHM]

Toggle clips?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/toggle-cabine ... pack/15443

 

[CHJ]

Hinge the sections together with piano hinges, with hook catches to keep closed whilst transporting.

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps but already ruled out toggle clips as they would get in the way and not allow the top to sit flat on the trestle. Considered hinging together but then that would be too heavy all joined together permanently.

I'll give some more info on the problem. I know someone who does sewing classes and she wants something light and transportable in a car. She carries a set of 4 Ikea trestles and wants various size tops to drop onto them for demonstration purposes. Anything from a single sewing machine right up to a long arm quilting machine that has a carriage for a sewing machine that runs on a track, which is 11ft long. She also has various size tracks of 4ft, 6ft and 8ft. The 4ft and 6ft are easily achieved with 2 trestles and one top. The 8ft will need two 4ft tops joined together and three trestles. The big one will be three pieces and four trestles, so two joins. The vibration of the machines will make the tops come apart so although something as simple as dowels in the end would work, it doesn't lock them together. Perhaps i'm overthinking it and dowels would do. I suppose toggles would do attached to the sides but they would have to be no wider than top is thick, which is 35mm.

 

[MattRoberts]

I'd recommend these then: http://www.cshardware.com/15-74-5.html

 

[CHJ]

Can you have dowels set so they locate in the top of the trestles, they will ensure trestles are in correct support location and prevent the tops from moving apart, weight of machines will naturally hold things in place.

 

[skipdiver]

Funnily enough Matt, 'tother half suggested bed fasteners and i was thinking more along the lines of the flip over type where a slot drops onto a bolt and attached to the sides, which i dismissed, but those you have linked to look just the job and will be nice and neat. Cheers.

Your suggestion is also a winner CHJ, thanks. She is coming to see me on monday and i will show her both ideas and see what she thinks.

I was overthinking it and getting bogged down. It's been a long week.

Thanks everyone.

 

[oakfield]

If you chop the bottom off the 2 doors to be joined, you will be left with hollow ends, you could slide a bit of approximately 100 X 30 halfway into the bottom of one of the doors and fix it in, leaving a 50mm X full width tongue to slot into the other door. A dowel or similar could easily be used to lock it in place. It would need the trestle under the join to give it some strength but would locate it securely and easily.

 

[BearTricks]

I'm using a couple of the same trestles (the beech ones) at the moment to hold up a makeshift bench. Could you route a slot for the trestles to sit in?

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[skipdiver]

More good ideas. Thanks.

 

[Benchwayze]

I used those bed plates to do a temporary repair on a neighbour's fence. That was 20 years ago, and they are still holding up the panels.

What about 5mm OSB or shuttering, on 50 x 25 mm frames. Maybe extra softwood cross-bearers for the larger tables.
Size the the tops to fit over the trestles. Round over the tops.

Put set-screws, penny-washers, and wing nuts through the end frames. For speed in assembly, open up the holes in the one end, so the adjoining top drops over the bolt, and is held together with the wing-nuts. I don't think it would take much longer though to just thread the screws through plain holes time. If you tighten the wing nuts properly, and have a trestle near the joints, that should be fine.


HTH

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks for the suggestion Benchwayze. I'd already thought about making the tops myself as some kind of torsion box and building in a connection somehow but having looked at the materials cost and time involved, it isn't worth it. I can buy primed flush hardboard doors for £20 each and re-purpose them.

 

[dickm]

Just one word of caution - weight. Even modern doors are not THAT light, and full size can be a bit of a pain to wave around. Without wanting to be sexist, will this be OK for your seamstress friend? (Though if her sewing machines are anything like the weight of SWMBO's Bernina, she probably can probably lift elephants!)

Just had another thoight. Look up "table forks" on mr Google and you should find examples of the brass plug/socket device used to hold together leaves in extending tables.

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks Dick and yes, weight is very much an issue and the main reason the tops will be split into 2 or 3 sections depending on the length required. A full size door is 6 kilos and that will be cut down by a fair amount, so 4 to 5 kilos, which is manageable for the fairer sex.

 

[rdesign]

I would recommend these very strong once tightened and with a use of dowels or a tongue and groove will keep alignment as well.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003Z7VR34/ref ... B000GFOXNY

Richard.

 

[skipdiver]

Another excellent suggestion Richard. Fitted a fair few of those in my kitchen fitting days and never even considered that they come in smaller sizes. I have a load of them but they are quite long and were bought as worktop connectors. The smaller size ones would do the job.