# Adjustable tilt hardware for desk top



## SnapperTrx (Mar 10, 2016)

A friend of mine is trying to build himself a small drafting style table and, for the life of both of us, we cannot find an official name for the adjustable tilt hardware. You've seen it before, its a compression type with a bracket that has a curved channel it in with an accompanying bracket housing a screw hole for a knob with a threaded screw post on it. You loosen the knob or knobs, adjust, and tighten them back up to hold everything in place. They are practically everywhere!

Does anyone know the official name for these brackets and where we can find some? Thanks in advance!


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

You are probably looking for an adjustable trunion mount. I don't know if they still make them anymore. The drafting tables I have seen made in the last 5 or 6 years they hinged the top at the front and used a sliding rod or slotted arm for angle adjustment.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Look Here:
Herb


https://www.rockler.com/adjustable-drafting-table-hardware

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Drafting+table+hardware&t=ffnt&atb=v80-1&iax=images&ia=images

https://www.thehardwarehut.com/cabinet-lid-stays.php

https://www.hardwaresource.com/lid-support-hinge-up-opening.html


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Ask and ye shall receive.

Searches: 
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Heavy+Duty+Table+Tilt+Mechanism&FORM=IDINTS

Mechanism pix below: https://www.hardwaresource.com/hing...m=Th4580909039632560&utm_content=All Products

Websites will show up in the image search.

The second picture is a pre-made table. Crank adjustable. Cut the mechanism off and install it on the table? 

A few other pieces I found in searches for table tilt mechanism. Make something like the metal one (pix 3) with plywood, with a knob on the end to lock it in position. Attach the quarter circles to the bottom of the table top and affix the lock mechanism to the base or post. The one made of wood (pix 4) is part of a tilting router mount with a raising and lowering crank. Something using that tilt mechanism only would work well.

Pictures 5 and 6 are pretty much ratched devices from the search above. Use the image view to pick and choose one that works for you.

You could search for a used art or drafting table online and swipe the mechanism from it. Some of that hardware is around, but a search in your region would be necessary.

Geeze, I wish someone around this joint would fix it so the pictures line up in the order you dropped them in. Sorry, but you folks will figure it out.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Wow, all this modern stuff. Last time I saw a drafting table was probably 1979, and not near as fancy as all those. A whole lot simpler, but worked just as well. Actually, once the were angled, they were never moved again, so can't really see the need for all the fancy (expensive) hardware. If I were making one I'd just drill holes on each side, and bolt them in place. Then if I ever wanted to adjust it, drill new holes. move it, bolt it.


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## roxanne562001 (Feb 5, 2012)

Rockler is a great place for odd hardware I would check there.


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## roxanne562001 (Feb 5, 2012)

I think this is what you are looking for Drop Front Desk Supports


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## roxanne562001 (Feb 5, 2012)

Or this one https://www.wurthlac.com/storefront/functional-door-hardware/lifts-lid-stays/5-lid-support/prodSYS259P.html


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## thomas1389 (Jan 4, 2012)

JOAT said:


> Wow, all this modern stuff. Last time I saw a drafting table was probably 1979, and not near as fancy as all those. A whole lot simpler, but worked just as well. Actually, once the were angled, they were never moved again, so can't really see the need for all the fancy (expensive) hardware. If I were making one I'd just drill holes on each side, and bolt them in place. Then if I ever wanted to adjust it, drill new holes. move it, bolt it.


When my daughter started her university architecture programme I bought her a used drafting table. A big beast that was on an enormous pedestal and adjusted hydraulically. By her third year she decided to board out closer to school so I sold it. It took me ages to sell. No one wants them anymore. They've all moved on. I was lucky to get rid of it.


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## ger21 (Feb 10, 2019)

28 years ago I built a really nice drafting table.
3 months later I bought a PC and CAD program, and never used it again.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

roxanne562001 said:


> I think this is what you are looking for Drop Front Desk Supports


Thanks, Now I have a new source of hardware.
Herb


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

roxanne562001 said:


> Or this one https://www.wurthlac.com/storefront/functional-door-hardware/lifts-lid-stays/5-lid-support/prodSYS259P.html


Those were the ones I was looking for,that is what my drafting table has.
Thanks for posting.
Herb


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## sreilly (May 22, 2018)

JOAT said:


> Wow, all this modern stuff. Last time I saw a drafting table was probably 1979, and not near as fancy as all those. A whole lot simpler, but worked just as well. Actually, once the were angled, they were never moved again, so can't really see the need for all the fancy (expensive) hardware. If I were making one I'd just drill holes on each side, and bolt them in place. Then if I ever wanted to adjust it, drill new holes. move it, bolt it.


That's fine for one person but others would likely find the angle not to their liking. and then yet that same person may have circumstances that require a different angle. If you're going to make something like this why not make it adjustable? It's planning for the unknowable upcoming uses. Makes perfect sense.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

sreilly said:


> That's fine for one person but others would likely find the angle not to their liking. and then yet that same person may have circumstances that require a different angle. If you're going to make something like this why not make it adjustable? It's planning for the unknowable upcoming uses. Makes perfect sense.


It would be adjustable, totally adjustable. Just reread the last two sentences, and that covers complete adjustability.
"If I were making one I'd just drill holes on each side, and bolt them in place. Then if I ever wanted to adjust it, drill new holes. move it, bolt it."

K.I.S.S. principle.


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## SnapperTrx (Mar 10, 2016)

The wooden ones seem to best fit what it was he was looking for, according to his description. Odd that they cannot be found as readily available metal hardware, since they seem to be used in so many applications. I have sent him a link to this post. Hopefully he can find what it is he is looking for, but I may have to make him some wooden ones if that's what he really wants!

Hrm, I guess I don't quite understand how this "reply" system works, but my response was to DesertRatTom's post with the images, and what looks like a custom router table.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

SnapperTrx said:


> The wooden ones seem to best fit what it was he was looking for, according to his description.


The American Woodworker, May or Jun 1991 issue, has a neat all wood drafting table plans. Adjustable, nothing the normal guy wouldn't have in his shop. Not been able to track down the plans, didn't try that hard either. LOL Do a search and you can likely find the plans. If I didn't design my own, those are the plans I would shoot for if I wanted a design table. Actually, I'm not sure it is made with any metal at all, just wood.


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## sreilly (May 22, 2018)

JOAT said:


> It would be adjustable, totally adjustable. Just reread the last two sentences, and that covers complete adjustability.
> "If I were making one I'd just drill holes on each side, and bolt them in place. Then if I ever wanted to adjust it, drill new holes. move it, bolt it."
> 
> K.I.S.S. principle.


Not to be disagreeable, but I am, it isn't what the poster was asking about. He wanted the hardware or a good source. And installing the hardware has to be easier than redrilling the table anytime you want a change);


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

I had drafting tables that had a rotating knob with a thumbscrew. The table itself had a rod that would pivot so it wouldn't bind in the rotating knob. This was in the days of pencils, T-squares triangles, etc.; 1964 to be exact.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

sreilly said:


> Not to be disagreeable, but I am, it isn't what the poster was asking about. He wanted the hardware or a good source. And installing the hardware has to be easier than redrilling the table anytime you want a change);


Yeah, that's why I prefer to design my own stuff. Work from plans and you're pretty much stuck with whatever the designer came up with.


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## sreilly (May 22, 2018)

JOAT said:


> Yeah, that's why I prefer to design my own stuff. Work from plans and you're pretty much stuck with whatever the designer came up with.


Of most all the plans I've ever used, including the house we now live in, I have made it my own. In the case of the house I used the basic design, flipped rooms, put the garage on the opposite end, and changed dimensions of some rooms also changing window styles and sizes. For me a plan is a basic design but a guideline that can be customized to what you want. I've taken several plans and used parts of each to come up with what I want or need. Never look at a plan as the only way but rather a guide and starting point. Just saying.....


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

sreilly said:


> Of most all the plans I've ever used, including the house we now live in, I have made it my own. In the case of the house I used the basic design, flipped rooms, put the garage on the opposite end, and changed dimensions of some rooms also changing window styles and sizes. For me a plan is a basic design but a guideline that can be customized to what you want. I've taken several plans and used parts of each to come up with what I want or need. Never look at a plan as the only way but rather a guide and starting point. Just saying.....


A few plans are to be followed exactly step by step. Such as a 100% accurate ship model. Any other plans are just for ideas on how I want to do something. For my own designs I normally just look at pictures, lots of pictures. For one of my designs recently I wound up discarding about 360 images. Take a bit from one, a bit from another, modify a bit from another, and so on. Finally wind up with something I like, and it is a totally original piece. I like plans, I love plans; for looking at for ideas, not for following. But mostly just like pictures. 

I think we're close to being on the same page as far as plans go.


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