When our son and daughter in law in Oshkosh had their third child, I realized the the little IKEA table we had in our condo was too small to seat 7 and we needed a bigger one. One thing I liked about the IKEA table was it had a butterfly leaf that stored inside the table when it wasn't needed so I decided to include that feature in designing a new table. In addition, I made most of the furniture in our condo from reclaimed lumber so I thought I should stick with that choice. The table without a leaf is 42" x 42" and extended with the leaf is 42" x 67". The length was limited by the size of the butterfly leaf and the slides I used to support the table.
To extend the table, you pull the two halves of the table out exposing the butterfly leaf.
The leaf unfolds and pivots out and rests on the slides. The sides then slide in to lock in the leaf completing the full table.
This table project starts with reclaiming the lumber. Fortunately I have friends that own a farm that has old lumber from an outbuilding torn down many years ago that has been my go to source for reclaimed lumber. Having made 4 pieces of furniture from this lumber previously, I knew that a lot of dirty work was ahead. Here are some pictures of the lumber after I got it home.
In these photos you can see how rough the lumber is and that it contains nails. Nails have to be removed so that you can plane the boards flat and to the dimension you need for the project. I have found screw removal bits very helpful in getting nails out that you can't pull out of the boards. Basically they drill a pocket around the nail so that you can get a grip on the nail with needle nose pliers and pull it out. With enough effort, I have always been able to get the nails out.
With this bit, I drill around the nail and try to go down as deep as the nail goes.
Its difficult, but I put a pair of needle nose pliers around the nail and pull it out by rocking back and forth. Once the nail is out, it is a matter of flattening two surfaces on the jointer and then planning and cutting them to size.
After planning and cutting to size, I glued up the boards for each half and the middle butterfly leaf. In order create the butterfly leaf, I cut the leaf in half and inserted a Soss hinge in the sides of the cut. That required creating matching rounded mortises in each half for the two hinges.
I created these mortises by drilling with a forester bit and clearing out the waste with a chisel. The next time I use one of these hinges, I will buy a router template to simplify the process. As you can see, the mortise has to be very close to the edge and it is in end grain which makes it difficult to do by hand.
It is hard to see from the picture, but getting the Soss hinges to line up and flush with the ends of the boards was a difficult process and required a lot of fine tuning.
Before working on the butterfly leaf carriage, I laid out both sides and the leaf to make sure it would all fit as planned. This required me to trim the sides of the ends and the leaf with a track saw to get them all exactly the same size. You can see the butterfly leaf joint in the middle.
In order to find the correct pivot point for the butterfly leaf, I created a model that allowed me to test my calculations. The trick was to place the pivot so that the leaf would lay on top of the slides and fold completely inside of the slides.
In this model, the two sides of the leaf are joined with a simple hinge and the pivot point is a screw in a cleat attached to one leaf. The two vertical pieces represent the slides. As you can see, the two halves easily fit inside of the slides and rest on a support board which will be at the bottom of the leaf carriage.
At this pivot point, the leaves rotate out to rest on the rails.
Here is a video of the leaf mock up: https://youtube.com/shorts/T3-0AG5Njac?feature=share
Based on the successful model, I built the butterfly leaf carriage and attached it to the slides.
Here is the butterfly leaf installed with cleats on the bottom of one leaf and a steel rod as the pivot.
Its worth noting that finishing reclaimed lumber takes extra preparation and time. On all of my pieces I have filled holes with black epoxy and in a few cases have had to glue in thin strips of wood to fill large defects. On this table, I had some large defects on the bottom of the boards that I filled with Bondo. It drys quickly and is easy to sand. I sealed the boards with shellac sanding sealer and then sprayed the table with water based polyureathane.
We have enjoyed using the table now that our grandson is big enough to sit at the table with the rest of us. By the way, the legs are reclaimed lumber stained with ebony stain.
You can watch me unfold the leaf on this video: https://youtu.be/oLjpmqpc07Q
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