trestle table questions

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My wife and I are getting old enough that carrying the extensions for our current dining table up and down the stairs to stow them has become a chore. I am considering building a butterfly extension trestle table.

She wants the top to be elliptical and a contrasting outward-curving base would look nice with it. With the foot of the base curving outward, how would one mill/carve the vertical portion that is 24" or so high to match the curvature of the foot?

[Jamie Buxton]

I’ve done that sort of thing by coopering boards together. The boards run vertically, and the edges are beveled, so that when you glue them together you get a curved panel.

[George Yetka]

I dont know what your table looks like but could you make a bracket that holds them and store them under the table?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I dont know what your table looks like but could you make a bracket that holds them and store them under the table?

There isn't a really good way of doing it without making them visible.

A couple years ago when I was ordering hardware for an end table form Lee Valley, I found a hinge for a butterfly extension table so I ordered it as it was relatively inexpensive. As we age both my wife and I are getting weaker so the butterfly extension table with its counterbalanced wings easily remedies the situation.

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's a pic of a dining table I built. The trestle base ends are coopered, so that they're concave outwards. The top is boat-shaped. The wood is bigleaf maple.

diningtablesmall.jpg

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jamie,

That is very similar to what I want to do on the base. It looks like coopering would achieve my goal.