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Portable table mechanism
Slimy38 - 5/6/19 at 08:11 AM

Hi, I'm after some ideas for a mechanism that's not strictly car related but I think there's enough clever engineers on here to have a solution.

We're having a new suite soon, and one of the requirements from SWMBO is that I don't use my laptop on the arm rest. We're fairly sure the heat has damaged and cracked our current leather suite, and we don't want it to happen again. So I'm after a small table that will sit just over the arm but not touch it.

What I'm thinking about is similar to one of those armrest trays in airlines, where the tray comes out of the arm and then lays flat. I want the table top to come up from the side of the chair vertically, then when it gets to a height where it would clear the chair, fold down to horizontal.

It did occur to me that just a vertical runner would do the job, but here's the extra requirement. When the table is down, I don't want the runner to be sticking up alongside the chair. I want to make the runner 'telescopic' to a certain extent. Just two parts would be sufficient so it disappears down the side of the chair. A bit like those telescopic handles you can get on laptop bags, so the owner can look utterly ridiculous wheeling around a tiny little bag on the end of an extended handle.

I've been thinking about some weird and wonderful things involving small motors, gas rams and the like, but just something manual that I can reach down and pull up would suffice.

So, any ideas?

40inches - 5/6/19 at 08:20 AM

We used a couple of the se
Not exactly what you asked for. Do a Google for Sofa side tables or Laptop side tables?

[Edited on 5-6-19 by 40inches]

mcerd1 - 5/6/19 at 09:50 AM

try googling swivel table or folding swivel table

02GF74 - 5/6/19 at 12:51 PM

Put a cushion on the settees arm and laptop on it, or place the laptop on your lap, the clue is in the name.

Have you considered one of those fan trays for cooling laptops?

coyoteboy - 5/6/19 at 01:09 PM

https://tinyurl.com/yxwy6q62

Slimy38 - 5/6/19 at 02:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
Put a cushion on the settees arm and laptop on it, or place the laptop on your lap, the clue is in the name.

Have you considered one of those fan trays for cooling laptops?


A laptop on a lap? What witchcraft is this you speak of?

I tend to have it on the arm rest at the moment, so I can still watch TV while the laptop is chugging away at whatever task I've given it. The original plan was for a laptop tray with a 'beanbag' type cushion underneath it, a bit like what coyoteboy has linked to. But there's too much of a slope on the new armchair for one of those to work.

A more rigid fitting that clipped on to the arm would work, but then I'm back to preserving the leather as much as possible. That's the thought behind a table that sits just above the arm rather than actually on it.

This is getting close to what I'm after, although it probably doesn't fold as fluidly as I'd imagined.

SteveWalker - 5/6/19 at 09:14 PM

Heat and airflow will dry out the leather, making it easy to damage. You can buy various moisturising and protecting products, just Google leather balm, leather feed or similar terms.