false table apron

[mshel]

One of my clients has a butterfly table and wants to use it in an open position indefinitely; however, when the table is open, there is a gap in the table apron which takes away from the overall appearance. My task is to make two false aprons which can be placed in position and if necessary can be removed to "fold up the table" and make it shorter in length. I have given this some thought and my solution thus far is to make the false aprons and imbed rare earth magnets in the top of the apron. Matching disks will be attached to the underside of the table top for the mags to cling to. I am by no means a cad person so be kind on the attached pic showing my rough idea. Any other ideas / critiques are welcome.

Mike

 

[NCPete]

seems like a good solution to me!

 

[michaelgarner]

if you put two more maginets behind the origonal apron's you could save that piece behind it. Or mount magnets anywhere else really to hold it under the table. God bless friend

 

[Monty]

I'm not really sure what you mean by butterfly table. I assume you mean the two wings drop down, and the center piece does not have an apron?

You could attach the temporary apron to the tabletop using a hinge, and have it swing backward (held up by rare earth magnets under the tabletop) when folded. Would that work?

 

[FIVEBYFIVE]

Both of those are very good ideas. Dont forget that rare magnets have poles. Dont glue the magnet in upside down. I dont know how much magnet energy rare magnets produce, but watch out floppy disks, credit cards, laptop hard drive, be kinda funny see someone's belt buckel get stuckk to it. Sounds like the makings of a good scary story. Are rare earth magnets that strong?

 

[DaveO]

Here's a thread about that subject.

WoodNet Forums: Risks from Rare Earth Magnets=

HTH, Dave

 

[dave_the_woodworker]

I'm assuming that this is a table that people sit at rather than a display table. If so, is there a chance that someone sitting where the removable apron is knocking it loose? It might be embarrassing to 'break the host's table' at a party. Rare earth magnets, especially the 1" diameter ones, are very strong. But if the apron is tall and/or heavy you may need more than two.

I just put one of the 1" diameter magnets under a 3/4" piece if wood and the magnetic field was just noticeable on top of the wood. I stacked two magnets for more strength and the effect was definitely noticeable. I think that the comment about being careful with computer discs or credit cards on top of the apron is worth considering.

 

[frankson]

Dave,

Thanks for the rare earth mag info.

I tell my son, you should learn something new every day...that's how you'll get to be (almost) as smart as dad.

 

[McRabbet]

In order to avoid the potential problem of knocking out the magnet-held apron, how about adding a triangular gusst behind it to protect from tipping it back. A third magnet under the gusset would really make it solid, but still removable.

Rob