Literal folding table

Tags: #<Tag:0x00007fa49e085b48>
#1

I do a lot of tabletop wargaming – or, I’d like to, but I need a suitable table top for games at home.

My neat little oak kitchen table flips out from 85x85cm to 170x85 cm, but the standard board size for the games I play is 6’x4’, or roughly 122x183cm.

My little flat doesn’t really have space to store a 6’x4’ sheet of ply or MDF while it’s not in use, so I came up with a weird little idea for a hinged board that folds up into a roughly 61x61x6cm brick. I might even attach nylon straps so it can be carried sort of like a briefcase while folded up.

I’ve never worked with hinges before and have no idea what I’m looking for, how many, or how best to install them.

My design elements - in order of priority - are:

  1. The board should sit flat on my existing table – so hinges need to sit flush on the underside.
  2. The upper side should also be as smooth and flat as possible.
  3. It should strike a balance between sturdy, durable, and lightweight.

I’m not worried about stability of the board when unfolded, as it’ll never have anything heavy on top of it.

My questions for you experienced makers:

What sort of hinges would serve me best? How can I go about fitting them? What’s a good material to use (keeping in mind the gaming surface will probably be painted,) and finally – is this a silly idea?

#2

Making it out of compressed cardboard backed with fabric hinges would be a good bet

It would likely be too heavy for its own hinges otherwise and really hard too carry

#3

I don’t know much about compressed cardboard, but it sounds like it could be prone to warping…?

I’m not too worried about lifting the weight of perhaps a 10mm thick board made of ply or MDF – but if you think the hinges would have problems holding it all together…

#4

This reminds me of a Rubik’s Magic

#5

SL Hardwoods do a poplar ply which is strong and light.

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#6

I think you should consider other options as well as hinges, which are going to cause some major head scratching - for example, butt hinges are very difficult to get to sit flush. You can get specialist hinges as used in leaf tables, but they require quite a thick board to insert them. Also with the Z fold design you would normally have one hinge on top and one underneath, and with the requirement for a flat playing surface that’s going to prove tricky.

Fabric hinges as suggested above might work. Or polypropylene?

You’re also going to have an issue with the last fold, when the whole thing folds in half. Typically game boards have a cut instead of a fourth hinge to allow this. You’d need to have no hinge down two of the three middle joins.

The other way that occurs to me would be puzzle-type pieces. The poplar ply laser cuts beautifully, and you could just cut six puzzle pieces that were guaranteed to fit together quite quickly and easily. Just a thought!

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#7

jigsaw idea sounds good.
My initial thought could be to use separate boards connected using Ikea style fixings ‘cam lock and dowel’ this would require a certain board depth depending on size of cam.
A varient of this could be a small magnet set in the side of the boards to hold them all in place.

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#8

Yes, I like magnets.

first4magnets.com has lots of different shapes and sizes and I’m sure there’s a type there that could be glued into a small recess cut in the edge of a shallow frame topped with ply or MDF.

Solved!