Lazy Susan

[Sean Troy]

A friend asked me to make a Lazy Susan for their dinner table. They would like it to be about 24" (Large Kitchen Table) How do I figure out what size swivel to use and any rec. on what brand to purchase and where? I see Woodcraft has some but I don't know the quality. Thanks for any help, Sean

[Kent A Bathurst]

Couple years ago I made a specialty workbench for a neighbor. One feature is a lazy susan on top, with tee-track in it, and various specialized strange-looking fixtures, jigs, etc.

I am almost dead-certain I used the Hafele 220# hardware on the Woodcraft site. I had a 25" top on it. Could not gamble on unknown quality hardware.

The first project on the lazy susan was rebuilding the engine from a 1964 Parilla motorcycle, as part of a ground-up restoration. In fact, that Parilla is in Estes Park CO as we speak - some kind of Parilla Fanatic semi-annual confab.

There are pull-out shelves below for other engines he "is gonna get to soon".

That's what the bench is - scooter engine rebuild stand. Drop-in/lift-out replaceable hardboard sections on the top - doesn't have to replace the entire top; spare sections included in the build. He has only about 14 cycles in the garage. Nearly all of them are road worthy. Nearly all of them have some power-bump schemes in their future, road-worthy or not.

Then - there is the other ground-up restored Parilla - it is in his den/study: A work of art.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Lee Valley has good quality aluminum lazy susan bearings.

[Edward Oleen]

Made my own: used my router in a trammel to cut the circular channels in the fixed and rotating parts: the center hole was later used for a dowel that kept the two pieces together. The width and depth of the track(s) was set by the available glass marbles: the depth was just less than half the diameter and the width was just over the diameter.

Cut the tracks, put in the marbles - enough that no portion of the track was empty, but they weren't jammed together.

Put a dowel in the center hole to keep the upper plate located: it was glued into the hole in the lower plate. This kept the two parts centered. When the kids found that they could lift the upper plate and play with the marbles, I cut a circular piece of wood slightly larger in diameter than the dowel and glued that to the end of the dowel, thus preventing the rotating part from being removed.

Cost? a couple of bags of approximately 3/8" marbles, some maple plywood left over from another project, and some time.

Problems? (a) the kids "stole" the marbles, but problem fixed. (b) they wanted another for the playroom after SWMBO refused to let them play with the "good" one.

I forgot: finish. I used spar varnish, as it was likely to get ketchup, salad dressing, etc. spilled on it

If I had it to do again? Make the two primary pieces separable for cleaning. Something that would need a special tool - six, seven, and eight year old kids can be very creative...

That was more years ago than I want to remember. The former eight year old wants one for his kitchen table now.

[Matt Day]

Kent, a simple "I've used Hafele before and liked it" would have sufficed. But what's the fun in that? ;-)

[Sean Troy]

Thanks all. As usual, great help here.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Kent, a simple "I've used Hafele before and liked it" would have sufficed. But what's the fun in that? ;-)

But you read it to the end, yes? Joke's on you, Matt.

You're right - Was a bit more than necessary - just wanted to make the point that the hardware I used was good for handling cycle engines, as a point of reference.

Plus - those Parillas are gorgeous.

[Steve Wurster]

I built a 34" Lazy Susan a few years back and used one of the big aluminum bearings from Lee Valley. Works great.