Another long term project that I think is possibly at a conclusion. The hunt had been on for a table solution that doesn’t require taking part of the bed (I like to sleep in . . . .). It seemed a waste to have this table in the van that couldn’t be used outside of the van.
My Mk2 solution was to replace the old single leg with two off the shelf fold down table legs. These could be used either in the normal way in the van or in combination with some bolt on legs.
I am a fan of the 15mm rod system that gets used for video gear. I discovered it years ago when i used them to make a motorbike stand!
For Mk.2 I created a pair of legs using 2 x 400mm +300mm rods. I added bracing with two 200mm rods and the end caps from the 400mm rods. The legs have generic 15mm rubber stoppers/feet. To start with I used Smallrig tube clamps mounted to a carbon fibre interface plate and mounted to the table.
The end result wasn’t entirely stable, primarily due to the off the peg legs which had way too much side to side movement. I decided that there was mileage in the original idea and worked on MK3. The clamps I had used had a very small contact patch so had movement in them too, so I looked for a better clamp.
I found what looked like a more stable mount in the Smallrig dual clamp (1943), which is designed to take a dual rod but I didn’t let that small detail bother me. It seemed to offer a flat mount and 3 mounting points. When it arrived I found that one mounting point has a recess, so I found 2mm washers to space that out. Another washer to fit in the tube socket for another bolt and hacksaw the dual mount in half! Mounted to the table with bolts and structural adhesive and it seemed more stable but the other end was still wobbly so I ordered up another set of rods and another two dual mounts.
The end result, I put 3 leg mounts on one end, so I can use either a single or dual leg in the van or 4 legs out of the van. 700mm legs with 400/300mm rods joined. Sockets from 1943 clamps cut in half and fitted with stainless knurled m5 knob.
Two side bracing bars from 2 x 200mm rods and Smallrig 1104 90 degree brackets. The 1104 brackets have one of the two bolts replaced with an allen key bolt so that only the clamp for the upright is adjustable. Mounting clamps for all rods fitted to the underside of the table.
