Brian...this is really great!! I also have been looking for plans for quite awhile. I can't believe no one has detailed plans for this that I can find. Do you happen to have any measurements on the pieces...that would be extremely helpful as a start to designing one up for our table.
Brian, thank you so much for having gotten this far on the stow-away leaf mechanism. I am starting to build out a woodworking shop and want to have a 12 inch stow-away leaf run the length of a 5 ft. bench. We had a small table with these leaves where we lived when our daughters were growing up. The mechanism was all wood and I too never examined it. I'd like to build this out using all wood and, thanks to your footwork, I think I may be ready to prototype a scale model. I'm also going to do some hardcore antiqueing to see if I can find an old table to copy. Thanks for posting this.
Hey, you're welcome! I'm really glad it'll be helpful to someone (well, other than myself - I'm still working on the kitchen island with the pull-out leaf I did this research for.) For the longest time I couldn't really understand why this was so hard to find online, and then I remembered it's an Amish design and the Amish aren't exactly known for their big online presence, hah... If you have any other questions I have some photos of my parents' table that works like this and could send them along directly; comment here and I'll see it and we can coordinate.
Hey! I don't have access to their table, it's across the country. I can post pictures of the kitchen island I made with a stow leaf - the measurements actually are pretty flexible. This mechanism with the long arm underneath I think is for counterbalance, but I did a shorter arm on mine because I my leaf pulls out the long side so there wasn't enough depth for this big counterweight. It works fine except that the leaf kind of falls into your hands when you pull it out, but that's fine. I'll find a place to post some photos of it.
Brian...this is really great!! I also have been looking for plans for quite awhile. I can't believe no one has detailed plans for this that I can find. Do you happen to have any measurements on the pieces...that would be extremely helpful as a start to designing one up for our table.
Brian, thank you so much for having gotten this far on the stow-away leaf mechanism. I am starting to build out a woodworking shop and want to have a 12 inch stow-away leaf run the length of a 5 ft. bench. We had a small table with these leaves where we lived when our daughters were growing up. The mechanism was all wood and I too never examined it. I'd like to build this out using all wood and, thanks to your footwork, I think I may be ready to prototype a scale model. I'm also going to do some hardcore antiqueing to see if I can find an old table to copy. Thanks for posting this.
Hey, you're welcome! I'm really glad it'll be helpful to someone (well, other than myself - I'm still working on the kitchen island with the pull-out leaf I did this research for.) For the longest time I couldn't really understand why this was so hard to find online, and then I remembered it's an Amish design and the Amish aren't exactly known for their big online presence, hah...
If you have any other questions I have some photos of my parents' table that works like this and could send them along directly; comment here and I'll see it and we can coordinate.
Brian....would you be able to post pics of your parents table along with the measurements on the pieces? It would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Hey! I don't have access to their table, it's across the country. I can post pictures of the kitchen island I made with a stow leaf - the measurements actually are pretty flexible. This mechanism with the long arm underneath I think is for counterbalance, but I did a shorter arm on mine because I my leaf pulls out the long side so there wasn't enough depth for this big counterweight. It works fine except that the leaf kind of falls into your hands when you pull it out, but that's fine.
I'll find a place to post some photos of it.
@@mrpathos If you can post pics that would be awesome. Just let me know where I can find them after you post....thanks!!!