Adjustable angle table top

[Jeff]

Just playing around with a conceptual idea for a friend of mine. The top should be adjustable from 0-90 degrees at any angle.

This is kinda like a trammel with a fixed pivot point at the top. As the top is raised a bolt slides along the two channels and gets locked in place somehow. I haven't figured out the "somehow" yet :dontknow:

What do you all think? Have you ever made a similar design? Pros/cons or simply won't work? :help:

 

[ehpoole]

Just add some bolts (either carriage bolts or closet bolts embedded in a T-slot), fender washers, and some star knobs to tighten those bolts for your trammel mechanism. Actually, if you simplify by going with a single tramel as below, you could secure a short bolt stud in a threaded insert (permanently secure with super glue) and a fender washer and star knob to secure the trammel in a given position. I assume your table has only a single pivot point, so use a piano hinge there.

Properly placed I believe you can get by with just a single T-Slot or slotted trammel (rather than a floating one and a second in the fixed desk as in your photo -- eliminate one or the other as they are redundant). Depending on the degree of rigidity you require you could get away with a single support on one side or place them on both sides for an extremely rigid desktop. You might even find that a single threaded rod run the full-length between the two sides may allow you to tighten both trammels from one knob.

HTH

 

[AmishWarlord]

Looks good but "industrial" Jeff.

I'm going after a simple but eloquent look.

 

[CDPeters]

I'm with Ethan - go with a fixed point in the frame rail instead of another slot. Put a toothed T-Nut in the backside of the hole in the frame rail, and run a knobbed stud through the brace slot into the T-nut.