Dark Times, eh Albus?

"Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose what is easy and what is right." - Albus Dumbledore

So it was inevitable, we finally had some setbacks with the table. The plan was to mount the extensions onto their sliders and then attach the sliders to the frame. We screwed the sliders into one of the extensions and then lined it up on the table... big issue. The sliders we bought are heavy duty side mounting drawer slides, but we had planned on mounting them to the bottom of our extensions. With the extensions fully extended, a large torque is applied to the sliders and was deflecting the ends of the extensions down (imagine floppy extensions that will get worse as time goes on until they break). The sliders themselves are built to handle a large moment, but not in the direction we were attempting to use them (should be vertical, not sideways). So we were faced with choice, move ahead and deal with a droopy table, or redesign. I think we know what Dumbledore would choose.

We took the mounting surfaces off the frame(long pieces of 6" thick particle board), and will now side-mount the drawer slides. The width of the sliders is .5" and the width of the frame is 24", which means our extensions have to be 23" wide. We cut them to be ~23" before, just to give us some margin when doing the bottom mount. Perfect, right? Wrong. When cutting the extensions, we weren't being precise, because we didn't have to be. The extensions now measure 23.005" wide, which means they don't fit. Paul and I will be sanding the excess off tonight and hopefully resuming our quest.

Because we had designed the height of the frame to fit the extensions within 1/8" of the table top, we now have the issue of getting the extensions close to the table surface. We need the two to be as close as possible so that when in beerpong mode, the the cups aren't too far below the surface of the table. We'll probably fudge this as we mount the sliders, by either adding thickness to the extensions or removing thickness from the frame.

Couple more tidbits:
-We seem to have figured out our deadstop issue. We needed a way to keep the extensions all the way out while in beerpong mode. Should be tight.
-Got 4/5 of our ibuttons in the mail. Thanks, Dallas-Maxim Semiconductors, for not realizing that 5 different people ordered free samples on the same day to the same address.
-Going to attach several more cross supports to the frame to ensure everything is stable. NBD.

We should have things mounted tonight, maybe even the spring system in place.... ooooo. Pictures to follow.

She's Got Legs

Painted up the frame and legs. I took pictures of legs before and after painting so you can see how shitty they looked. After that, attached the legs and some legs supports to the outside of the frame. Pretty sturdy, but because the legs are designed to be canted out slightly, they don't sit flush up against the frame or supports (see close up picture). We'll be looking for someway to fill those gaps. Thought we might use shims to slide into that gap before screwing, but the shims would have split.
I had some trouble getting everything screwed in, so I went and bought a counter sink. Best purchase ever. Made things a million times easier. Boomslam.

Also, looks like my boy LB is going to be moving out to live with us. So pumped. Good thing we were ordering 5 power rings anyways.

First Picture Update

Here are a couple pictures for you guys to check out our progress:

This first one shows the two different levels of the main surface. The top layer you see is 1/4" oak. Paul and I both really liked the patterns in the wood we picked out. Once it gets stained we think it will look great. The bottom layer is 3/4" particle board.


One of the biggest issues we've had to deal with so far is the layout of the under-table support system. It needed to fit table supporters, slider supporters, sliders, and the extensions themselves in 3 1/2". Tricky, but we got it. You're looking at this from the "bottom." The two parallel strips running along the length of the frame are there to secure the sliders. The 2x6 in the middle of the table is intentionally offset to that it can be used to mount the release motor. You'll see more of this later.



Without legs, this is the general idea of the table. Now you see it....


Now you don't.


The next step in the process is to attach legs to the frame. This will be accomplished by fitting legs we salvaged off an old table onto our own. I just finished sanding them tonight.

Enjoy,

Chris

The One True Table

Hello All!

This blog has been created to keep everyone up to date on the design and construction of 10 Harrison Way's The One True Table. You might be skeptical, asking yourself: Why should I care about a table? What's the big deal? Who cares? Well, this isn't just any table. Stay along for the ride, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The One True Table is designed to have the sophisticated elegance and beauty of a classic dining room table. Round, to ensure that all who at its edge feel as though they are equal. Painted and stained to give off an aura of eloquent grace. With a stately crest at its core, sitting at The One True Table will be a heavenly experience.

Ok now, all BS aside, this table is going to be sick. Yes, everything said above about the table is true. The true sweetness, however, is what the table turns into. With a zip and a zap (we'll get into that more later) the table will turn from a 5 foot diameter round table into an eight foot long beer pong playing surface.

Since this is a dumb blog about a table, and I'm writing this at work without access to our pictures to give you a visual idea of our progress, I'll continue on with a brief history of the table design.

The story of The One True Table began months ago, when it became apparent that Paul Kreiner, Andrew Ardinger, Alan Schoen, and Chris Hart (The Four) would all be living in the house at 10 Harrison Way beginning in June 2007 (Technically Andrew and Alan don't move in for another month). An outside chance still exists that a mystery 5th roommate might be brewing in secrecy, but who knows... Their mutual love for beer pong and construction projects led them to deside that a beerpong table must be built. The brainstorming process was long and went something like this: table, table needs to be stored so as not to take up space, table can fold down off the wall, table can roll in like a chalk board, table can be half chalk board/half table. In the end, building a dining room table that deployed into a beerpong table was deemed to be the best choice (mostly due to it's flat out dominance, but also because permanent damage could not be inflicted on the house). One day, while talking about how cool it is when submarine captains turn nuke keys at the same time they got to talking about how cool that would be to use in the design. Well, with a little help from modern technology, it is possible -- google ibuttons if you want.

Originally, the table was meant to be rectangular, with deployable slats to extend the length. After discussion, the idea of a round table proved to be very popular.

The next discussion involved painting/design of the table. This was again very iterative, but eventually a radially striped surface with a large crest in the middle was deemed worthy. Paul set to work, and produced a rough sketch of the crest. All details within the crest hold hidden meaning to The Four.

Next up, how to deploy the table extensions? Placing the extension onto drawer sliders mounted under the table was chosen over several other possibilities. Using gas springs or a motor mount were options for actually moving the extensions into position, but in the end having simple springs acting on the two extensions was chosen.

Ok, I've gotten tired of describing all these details. I'll describe more as we post pictures. At this point, we've designed most of everything. We've cut out the table (an inch thick, made of 3/4" particle board and 1/4" Oak) and we've built the frame the supports all our electronics and extensions.

To Summarize this long, boring, but necessary post: We're building a dining room table that uses electric buttons to deploy extensions that morphs the table into beerpong dimensions. This blog will be used to post pictures and updates of the progress.

Thanks.

-Chris