Craft Table

[Lee Schierer]

This was a paid job for me. It still took lots of time and figuring to get everything done with a nominal amount of space. The man wanted a crafting table with a drop leaf that would fold out of the way when not in use. The top had to be 30 X 72 so with the leaf open it would be 60 X 72. The top of the cabinet needed to be 37" above the floor for a comfortable working height for him. He wanted drawers and vertical storage for full sheets of mat board and his portfolio. It also had to be mounted on casters so one person could move it around and capable of holding lots of weight. Here's what I came up with:


The above photo shows the storage side. The compartment on the left has 5 removeable vertical dividers and is 29" deep. The center has three drawers on full extension slides, the right compartment has adjustable shelves. There is a 12" wide by 48" long compartment that runs behind the right hand compartment and the drawers that is accessible from the end. This long compartment also has two removeable partitions.



Here is the leaf in the down position.



This is the drafting position, note the pencil ledge at the bottom.



Here the leaf is fully extended. The two supports under the table nest inside each other and can be pulled out using a finger hole. They are held against the side of the cabinet with magnets. One person can raise or lower the leaf.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This is in a basement studio, so it had to come in the house disassembled. It took about 2 hours to put all the pieces together and adjust everything. The assembly was done using pocket hole screws. My cordless drill got a real workout tightening all the screws. It required 6 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood, 3 sheets of 1/4 inch ply and one strip of 1 X 3 maple. It took 2 gallons of finish to cover everything.

I had asked before making this what it should cost. If any of you would care to venture a figure now that you've seen the completed piece, I would appreciate the input. It has been completely paid for.

The customer is very pleased and has been showing it to all his friends.

[Keith Christopher]

I would have charged (based upon the lumber and figuring costs for slides and sand paper...) about 1100 for that cabinet.




Keith

[Ted Shrader]

Lee -

Nice design! I like the nested swing out supports. Does the pencil ledge retract?

Ted

[Dan Stuewe]

Very nice looking. I really like the two position table extension.

As for price. We bought my wife a roll around sewing cabinet that is along the same lines as this. It probably isn't built as well as yours, but it has some additional features (roll out surger table and sewing machine lift). We bought the floor model and paid around $1000 5-1/2 years ago. So I can easily see yours being on the order of $1100-$1300.

[Jon Olson]

Nice simple design, fully functional and a great drop down work station. Would blend right into the surrounding room as a credenza.

Goot job!!!

I need a pocket screw system!!!!

Jon

[Jeff Sudmeier]

That is a great design! I especially like the two position drop leaf. That is a great idea.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee -

Nice design! I like the nested swing out supports. Does the pencil ledge retract?

Ted

I thought of having the pencil ledge retract and had worked out how to do it, but I decided that since the top was only 3/4" thick that the edge might need some stiffening so the pencil ledge does double duty as a stiffener. Over all it is 2-1/8 tall so it holds the edge of the plywood flat.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Well thought out design and execution! Great job Lee!

[Jamie Buxton]

Among design, construction, varnishing, and installation, I'm guessing you have four man-weeks in that piece. In eight sheets of plywood, drawer slides, hinges, casters, and finishes, you have something like $500 in materials. If the buyer got it for the $1100 others have suggested, you were making a little over $3 per hour. I'd say $2500 is a better price. Full custom work is always more expensive than stuff from a production line.

[walter conell]

I know someone who could use something like that. I have a question though - how much wieght can the flip up top hold before the unit becomes unstable?
Very nice, and a lot of time in that. I would say- $1,400.00 ,though it's worth more.

[Lee Schierer]

I know someone who could use something like that. I have a question though - how much wieght can the flip up top hold before the unit becomes unstable?
Very nice, and a lot of time in that. I would say- $1,400.00 ,though it's worth more.

Funny you should ask, my customer had the same concern. With the cabinet empty, you had to put over 45 pounds on the edge of the leaf to tip it. I weighed each component and did a calculation first and then checked the result when it was fully assembled. With weight in teh cabinet, The tipping gets to be much less.

For information, I charged $1050 for the cabinet, yeah I agree it should have been a bit more. There was about $500 in material. I figure that worst case, I have about 60 hours in the job. I started the job right after Thanksgiving and delivered it last weekend. I worked two six hour days on saturdays, the rest was 1-2 hours per evening and 2-4 days per week including weekends, thogh there was at least one week where it didn't get touched.