Please help me find out what this weird table hardware is called or a picture?
October 31, 2007 7:06 PM Subscribe
Strange Hardware question (not that kind of hardware): I cannot for the life of me find any information on a particular fastener used in mating the two halves of a large wooden table.
A little detail, it's not actually for me, but for a former colleague of mine who's inherited a large table my company used to have. It was put into storage a couple of years back by me and a few others, and wouldn't you know, all the fastening hardware to go with it was put into storage somewhere else, and can no longer be found. The hardware that fastens the legs to the tabletop are just screws, so that's easy to figure out, I just told him to buy a bag of 1 1/2" wood screws and that will sort that out. The difficult part is this: The tabletop goes together with these weird dumbbell-looking connectors and my colleague has never seen these things in his life (wasn't around when the table was taken apart), and I cannot adequately describe them to him, and we are no longer in the same geographic area, so he's going to have to go buy some himself. I was trying to find either a picture, or a proper name for these fasteners, but cannot find anything online. Can anyone help?
As complete a description of the fastener as I can offer is as follows. I call it a dumbbell because it consists of two small (7/8" or so) spheres, which are on a threaded rod. The spheres each have several small holes around their "equators", and the threaded rod goes through their poles. The idea for use is that a depression is routed out between the two halves of the tabletop, and there are deeper routings where these two spheres socket into on either side, with the threaded rod crossing from one side to the other. You use the holes around the spheres' equators to turn the spheres on the threaded rod and tighten the whole thing like a turnbuckle. As the spheres go on the thread, they pull the halves of the table together. Does anyone know what these things are called or know of an image of same?
A little detail, it's not actually for me, but for a former colleague of mine who's inherited a large table my company used to have. It was put into storage a couple of years back by me and a few others, and wouldn't you know, all the fastening hardware to go with it was put into storage somewhere else, and can no longer be found. The hardware that fastens the legs to the tabletop are just screws, so that's easy to figure out, I just told him to buy a bag of 1 1/2" wood screws and that will sort that out. The difficult part is this: The tabletop goes together with these weird dumbbell-looking connectors and my colleague has never seen these things in his life (wasn't around when the table was taken apart), and I cannot adequately describe them to him, and we are no longer in the same geographic area, so he's going to have to go buy some himself. I was trying to find either a picture, or a proper name for these fasteners, but cannot find anything online. Can anyone help?
As complete a description of the fastener as I can offer is as follows. I call it a dumbbell because it consists of two small (7/8" or so) spheres, which are on a threaded rod. The spheres each have several small holes around their "equators", and the threaded rod goes through their poles. The idea for use is that a depression is routed out between the two halves of the tabletop, and there are deeper routings where these two spheres socket into on either side, with the threaded rod crossing from one side to the other. You use the holes around the spheres' equators to turn the spheres on the threaded rod and tighten the whole thing like a turnbuckle. As the spheres go on the thread, they pull the halves of the table together. Does anyone know what these things are called or know of an image of same?
Best answer: Is this what you are looking for? I work for the company that makes these, though they are available from many other manufacturers as well.
posted by Chrischris at 7:42 PM on October 31, 2007
posted by Chrischris at 7:42 PM on October 31, 2007
why not make your own with threaded rods, washers and nuts?
posted by Gungho at 7:44 PM on October 31, 2007
posted by Gungho at 7:44 PM on October 31, 2007
BTW, there are also what the industry calls KD fittings, which kind of match your description as well. If your friend is in the US, he can probably go to his area Woodcraft or woodworkers shop and get them.
posted by Chrischris at 7:51 PM on October 31, 2007
posted by Chrischris at 7:51 PM on October 31, 2007
Response by poster: Chrischris, that is EXACTLY the thing! Thank you so much!
posted by barc0001 at 8:59 PM on October 31, 2007
posted by barc0001 at 8:59 PM on October 31, 2007
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posted by deadmessenger at 7:34 PM on October 31, 2007