Myles Moran
10-29-2020, 9:57 AM
I'm working on a butterfly leaf table, and I'm struggling a bit with hinge selections for the butterfly leaves and for the aprons on the leaves.
For the butterfly leaves, I was pretty well sold on the soss invisible hinges. Biggest drawback would be screwing them into endgrain, but that's fixable by drilling and gluing in a piece of dowel into some holes on the bottom of the leaves. Then I watched a series of videos on YouTube where barrel hinges were used for the butterfly leaves. They seem more economical to buy, easier to find, and no issues with screwing in endgrain. Otherwise I have zero experience with either style of hinge. The leaves are 17" wide (cross grain), fold out to 48" long, and are 1" thick.
Then, for the aprons on the leaves, I was hoping to use a piano hinge to fold them (and magnets to keep them from swinging one way or the other). The problem is I cannot find a 12" hinge with slotted holes. Because of the cross grain orientation between the apron and top, I had planned on using a center screw and 2 slotted holes to affix the hinge to the top so it had room to expand and contract. Is there a good source for hinges like this, or is there a better solution I haven't thought of?
For the butterfly leaves, I was pretty well sold on the soss invisible hinges. Biggest drawback would be screwing them into endgrain, but that's fixable by drilling and gluing in a piece of dowel into some holes on the bottom of the leaves. Then I watched a series of videos on YouTube where barrel hinges were used for the butterfly leaves. They seem more economical to buy, easier to find, and no issues with screwing in endgrain. Otherwise I have zero experience with either style of hinge. The leaves are 17" wide (cross grain), fold out to 48" long, and are 1" thick.
Then, for the aprons on the leaves, I was hoping to use a piano hinge to fold them (and magnets to keep them from swinging one way or the other). The problem is I cannot find a 12" hinge with slotted holes. Because of the cross grain orientation between the apron and top, I had planned on using a center screw and 2 slotted holes to affix the hinge to the top so it had room to expand and contract. Is there a good source for hinges like this, or is there a better solution I haven't thought of?