Hi folks. A friend is looking to build a layout for his young children in their playroom. He'd like to make it hinged or fold down using a plywood tabletop(maybe 4x8). I was searching the article indexes and forum posts, but can't seem to find any good guidelines on how to build a fold down table top with an edge attached to the wall.
Any suggestions, pointers, urls, or other would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Don K
John Armstrong's book, Creative Layout Design, has one you might want to look at. Called the Murphy Bed and Credenza, it featured a 4 x (3 inches less than floor to ceiling) section that folded into a comparatively thin vertical box, along with a fixed (non-folding) yard on top of a book shelf unit. the yard could be covered by a fold-down lid that was part of the backdrop when raised, and sloped when lowered to encourage people NOT to put things on top of it.
Building it to spec would require a little creative woodworking, but it is one way of cramming about 35 square feet of layout into nine square feet of floor space.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
donk Hi folks. A friend is looking to build a layout for his young children in their playroom. He'd like to make it hinged or fold down using a plywood tabletop(maybe 4x8). I was searching the article indexes and forum posts, but can't seem to find any good guidelines on how to build a fold down table top with an edge attached to the wall. Any suggestions, pointers, urls, or other would be much appreciated. Thanks Don K
The ages of the kids were not mentioned - but are certainly important. Some thoughts of mine:
- a sheet of plywood by itself is not rigid enough for a layout - even at 3/4" thick and heavy. A frame to support the plywood is needed. Hinges will have to be carefully thought out.
- hinge points and lines are obvious place for fingers to get caught, especially for younger kids. The weight of a 4x8 layout can do some serious damage to fingers and hands. Again, great care in designing the hinging motion is called for.
- even if all weight is suspended from the hinges and/or cables, legs are likely going to be needed for stabilization and prevention of damage when the layout is leaned on (accidentally or not). Legs will have to fold up or be hinged.
- in light of all the above, I would probably lean toward lightweight construction - extruded foam instead of plywood if he insists on a hinged installation.
- all rolling stock must be retrieved, put on the track, and then stored after use - every time the layout is put away or deployed. Structures must be removed, or the layout and hinging adjusted to give adequate stand-off space from the wall.
- actually, IMHO, a hinged installation for kids less than 10 is not a good idea. It's easy enough that unwatched (even momentarily) young kids are going to try deploying the layout themselves, but difficult enough that something will not be done right. An installation that requires adult help to deploy - suspended from ceiling - or can be done by kids themselves - pull out from under furniture - is probably a better answer.
- A rolling cart with layout suspended from A frames at either end would probably be more practical for the kids than hinging directly from the wall. And with the layout rotating to a vertical position between the A frames, wiring becomes a sit-down job rather than crawl-under. The A frames would give enough standoff distance from the wall to allow some structures and scenery to stay in place.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
Forget the plywood, use 2-inch thick extruded foam. The last thing he wants is for a plywood table top to flop down on one of his kid's heads. 2-inch foam should be sufficiently rigid.
Trust me - I have three kids and if there was a way for them to hurt themselves, they found it...
When I was a child my father built a bookcase against the wall that had a 4x8 sheet hinged on the bottom. In addition to a pair of sawhorses he had 2 chains attached between the extreme ends of the pywood and the studs in the walls. The whole contraption was pretty stable and I can remember myself and my brother at 8 & 9 years old both sitting on the table. Of course we were forbidden to raise & lower it ourselves. It was installed in our basement one one house and subsequently moved to my bedroom when we moved to another city. Considering that most of my equipment was Tyco and Hornby, the trains rapidly became unusable, but the table was pressed into service to do homework projects and later as a large battleground for 1:76 armour games.