Expandable table

Version 2

Introduction

As I was building another project my brother showed me a video of an expandable table and he thought that i should build one for him. Obviously he wasn't serious about this since it would be a very complex and time consuming build.

At the time i had no intension to even try but these kind of things has a tendensy to get stuck in my head.

And it did.

So for about 1-2 month i had been thinging about the table, how it works and how to build it.

When i finally had figured out a plausible way to do it I started with making some prototypes of hard paper to get the geometry right so that i could experiment with the movements. I soon realised that just testing with paper would not going to be good enough and would require alot of triel and error.

I had a couple of month earlier though myself a proper 3D Cad software to create models for my 3D printer and i knew this would be the best tool to create and test my idea. However i did not know how to simulate movement in the CAD software yet which was a must. But with some googling and youtube videos I could figure out the basics of it.

I then spent three full days at my computer creating my first model of the table. (video below)

Version 1

The next weekend i decided to test the most vital part of the table, the cam wheel that create all movements.

So i cut it out with my CNC machine and began testing.

It didn't take long before i had to face the fact that just because it works on the computer doesn't mean that it will work in the real world. The wheel got stuck and did not want to move properly becouse my cam grooves had too tight curves.

So it was back to the drawing board...

There was no way to improve the cam curves because of the size of the wheel so my only option was to make the wheel bigger which ment making the table bigger. Which ment starting all over, creating a complete new model...

Well i'm a creator, a builder, so i'm used to failure. And maybe most of all i'm stubborn. So I got back at it.

Didn't take long before i had made new drawing, atleast for the bottom parts. So that i could do my second test.

This time it was a succes.