Andrew Pitonyak
10-23-2013, 5:22 AM
A friend will have knee surgery soon and he wanted to be able to use his walker as a table as well. So I fixed him up.
The walker is wider than normal so he could not just purchase a top that would form a table, so he wanted something simple.
The original idea was that a simple board would be set across the top that can also sit across the bottom supports.
273569
I placed two pieces underneath that prevent the board from sliding left or right. This is suitable for dropping a plate of food and eating (or similar). Unfortunately, it is only 9.5 inches deep, and I figured it was not deep enough for real work so I opted to go a step further and I created this version. You see the curve on the front? I had a very thin off cut from the edge of the rough board.... thin enough that it easily bends. The off-cut was thinner at one end than the other so it bent in more of an ellipse than a curve. I used that as a spline to mark a curve (my wife helped me mark it). I cut that with a jig saw since I don't own a band saw.
273570
In this configuration, the top is pretty solid and level. It sits primarily on the board below it for support, but, it is prone to leaning forward if you put weight there, so I added a bottom support that rests on a bar in front of the walker.
273571
I used a piece of cherry I had sitting around. This image has the large top shown bottom up.
273572
I made a template out of cardboard to fit around the handles. I cut the ends with a small hole saw. The black pads are thicker so I marked those ends and cut them with a slightly larger forstner bit. I then free hand cut out the slots using my jig saw. I cleaned it up with rasps and files.
Although it was not intentional, it turns out that if you remove the small top support piece under the larger top, that it is just about perfect for use as a writing table (or similar). The back end drops down at a slight angle. My friend has his own blog and he created a blog entry about this piece (with photos) showing the top at an angle.
www.coffeeatdaves.com/category/kneesurgery/
So, now you know what I did last weekend!
The walker is wider than normal so he could not just purchase a top that would form a table, so he wanted something simple.
The original idea was that a simple board would be set across the top that can also sit across the bottom supports.
273569
I placed two pieces underneath that prevent the board from sliding left or right. This is suitable for dropping a plate of food and eating (or similar). Unfortunately, it is only 9.5 inches deep, and I figured it was not deep enough for real work so I opted to go a step further and I created this version. You see the curve on the front? I had a very thin off cut from the edge of the rough board.... thin enough that it easily bends. The off-cut was thinner at one end than the other so it bent in more of an ellipse than a curve. I used that as a spline to mark a curve (my wife helped me mark it). I cut that with a jig saw since I don't own a band saw.
273570
In this configuration, the top is pretty solid and level. It sits primarily on the board below it for support, but, it is prone to leaning forward if you put weight there, so I added a bottom support that rests on a bar in front of the walker.
273571
I used a piece of cherry I had sitting around. This image has the large top shown bottom up.
273572
I made a template out of cardboard to fit around the handles. I cut the ends with a small hole saw. The black pads are thicker so I marked those ends and cut them with a slightly larger forstner bit. I then free hand cut out the slots using my jig saw. I cleaned it up with rasps and files.
Although it was not intentional, it turns out that if you remove the small top support piece under the larger top, that it is just about perfect for use as a writing table (or similar). The back end drops down at a slight angle. My friend has his own blog and he created a blog entry about this piece (with photos) showing the top at an angle.
www.coffeeatdaves.com/category/kneesurgery/
So, now you know what I did last weekend!