Expanding table

[dc_ni]

This is an interesting idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JFJSIJIe9A

 

[blackrodd]

Someone posted a similar "engineered" table some time ago.
A wonderful thing to see working, but you would need you're thinking head on whilst marking that lot out!
Thanks for showing, Rodders

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thiswas what came up a while back, the Fletcher Capstan Table. An absolutely ingenious blend of engineering and furniture design. These things get bought by the serious yachting fraternity so they can be modest when the family are sailing but big enough to accommodate guests when the posh are entertaining. They are really quite stunning but the budget isn't for the faint hearted!

 

[Racers]

I wouldn't like to spill something sticky in the the works!

Pete

 

[blackrodd]

Thiswas what came up a while back, the Fletcher Capstan Table. An absolutely ingenious blend of engineering and furniture design. These things get bought by the serious yachting fraternity so they can be modest when the family are sailing but big enough to accommodate guests when the posh are entertaining. They are really quite stunning but the budget isn't for the faint hearted!

That was it R.O.B. Thank you, As you say ingenious!
Rodders

 

[RobinBHM]

Wow, thats impressive!

I have a feeling itll cost as much as a small car

 

[Jonzjob]

The first time I saw a capstan table was at Cragside, way up in the NE, Lord Armstrongs shed. It was late in the day and we were about the only people still wandering around. That table is in the dining room and if I remember correctly it expands from 8 to 18 people.

SWMBO and our friend wandered out of the room and I asked the guide if I could have a closer look as I work with wood and love it. He looked at both doors and said to quick, as nobody else was around, step over the rope and have a look. It was a wonderful thing to see and as I stepped back over the rope I asked him if it would be possible to see it in operation? He told me that they weren't allowed to operate it and I just said a big thank you for letting me have a closer than normal look and started to leave. As I got to the door he called to me and, looking to both of the doors to make sure that nobody else was there he called me back and gave me a show as to how it operated!

It was so very smooth and for something so very old it was as new! I just wonder how the modern versions will hold up after all that time???

I would love to build one. Way beyond my abilities me-thinks..

Edit : - I forgot to say that there aren't any of the flash pop-up-pop-down bits in it, just a beautiful, smooth operating capstan table where you open it, put the sections in and close it onto the extending sections and defy anyone to realise that it isn't a solid table..

 

[dzj]

The nicer ones go for as much as $70k.
I think that people who can afford them will sooner buy a bigger house than an expanding table.

 

[RogerM]

Thanks for the original post Dave. I love it, but as the table expands from a diameter of 52 ins to 63 ins, that only increases the circumference by 21%, although the area increases by 47%, I sometimes wonder whether the effort is worth it.

There is a simpler, although mechanically less elegant, version here.

There's a more detailed version here which possibly provides sufficient clues to duplicate.