Hinges for foldable table legs

[radhak]

A friend wants me to build her a series of 4 or 5 benches to display her art/crafts (mostly earthenware). Problem is she wants this to be movable/foldable (display can be moved, put in storage, etc).

It will look like this : 5 benches, each 4 or 5 feet long, 10 inches deep. Height will be 2, 12, 22, 32 and 42 inches, giving a view of tiered display. (obviously the lowest bench does not need any hinges). The actual weight of the stuff will not be more than 25 lbs per bench.

I suggested each of these could be an individual bench with foldable sides/legs. (Maybe interlinked for stability?)

The material I suggested was simple pine boards for the bench (maybe even for the sides to make it more stable). Sides/legs attached by hinges to the bench top. But am still searching for the right hardware.

The http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/fo...ble-legs-3918/ gives a good option with no hinges but maybe strong legs. But will it hold up for the tallest bench?

Any suggestions?

[cabinetman]

I think the hinge you're looking for is a roto hinge. On thinking on the sizes you listed, as individual benches they may be tipsy, being long and narrow. If you made them separate and want to line them up like front to back, use a hook latch to tie them together.
.

[JR]

I don't like pine much, but to each his own.

Yes, plan on building a skirt around the table surface.

You could try card table legs, like these from Rockler. The challenge is that the length of the legs would exceed the length of the table on the tall ones, causing the ends of the legs to overlap. This makes transport and storage tricky. One way around it is to offset one leg on each end with a small mounting block glued behind the skirt.

Or, you could make h-brace sets of legs for each end. Run a hole through the skirt and through the top of the leg. Attach the legs with captive bolts. The trick is to make the legs stable when extended. You might want to use a this kind of table-leg support.




As cabinetman suggests, tying the tables together would create a more stable structure. You could use a hook and eye screw, or a hasp, something like that.

JR