Suggestions to make table less wobbly (1 Viewer)

[BigSlickTux]

Hello, I've been searching the threads and couldn't find anything on the topic. So, I built a Junnel style table. It's relatively heavy with the three sheets of Plywood and I used two pedestal bases. The way that each of these bases connect to the table is a bolt on each of the corners of the square metal plate on the top of the pedestals. I used t-nuts and tighten the bolts tight. The table is so wobbly and would love suggestions to make it much less so. Thank you.

 

[moordb]

If you added a picture of your table I could give you a better answer, however, in general the right way to do it is to add some sort of leveling feet.

An example from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Furniture-Le...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[BigSlickTux]

So it has levelers on the bases. The issue is the table itself sitting on top of the bases. If someone bumps the table it tends to get wobbly on the top. I won't be able to provide pictures sorry.

 

[Jake14mw]

Is there a stretcher piece of wood that connects the two pedestals together near the floor? Stretcher is not the correct term technically I don't think, it slips my mind at the moment.

 

[BigSlickTux]

Sorry I don't have pictures. That would make this so much easier. The pedestals are metal and not connected to each other. Each one only connects to the underside of the table.

 

[BigSlickTux]

Think table top wobble. There is not much wobble involved with the pedestal bases themselves. Thanks again everyone.

 

[ekricket]

Think table top wobble. There is not much wobble involved with the pedestal bases themselves. Thanks again everyone.

Like if you lean on one side it wants to tip over, it’s top heavy?

 

[BigSlickTux]

Sort of, yes. It won't ever tip over. It just wobbles a bit and makes chip stacks fall over. The pivoting point is where those pedestals connect to table. It wobbles if someone on one of the long sides pushes down on it when they get up or bump it.

 

[moordb]

Is the pedestal bending, or is the table top pulling away from the pedestal?

I don't know that anyone will be able to help you without pictures.

 

[BigSlickTux]

I will try and get some sort of picture. The table is taken apart and in storage. If I had to guess, it is a little bend in the mounting bracket and the plywood itself. It's not major wobble, just enough to be annoying. I was thinking of using angle iron to use as a brace underneath, but thought there would be risk of people getting cut and it being ugly. I'm just looking for ideas that I haven't thought of or if anyone has had this issue before.

 

[markleteenie]

Maybe a long piece of wood but flush under the table (and to the top insides of the pedestals)? If it is connected to the top and to the bases, you'd have more structural integrity. You'd also be able to add ribs from that middle support to help with top tilt.

OR maybe take the table off and create a better "top" for the pedestals. Then connect those more securely to the table topper. It sounds like the connection point is not providing structural support, even though it's connected tightly.

 

[Irish]

It sounds like the pedestals you have are the cast iron restaurant style type, like this:

Is that correct? These peds work really well (allow for maximum leg room), but they have to be sized correctly. The standard restaurant peds for a small diner table won't be sturdy enough. Full size poker tables are really large and heavy, and thus they need heavy duty legs. In particular, the plate/spider that connects the top of the pedestal to the table is a key detail point. Here are good heavy duty ones:

I don't believe I have the dimensions on these anymore, but the spiders were heavy duty cast iron, so these were really solid. Not quite as solid as oak pedestals, but pretty close. If the spiders/plates on your peds look more like this:

They're lightweight and more designed for a smaller table top. You can tighten the bolts/screws to the underside of the table all you want, but if the connection from the spider/plate to the top of steel leg is flexing, I'm not sure if there's much you can do to stiffen that.

 

[BigSlickTux]

That is exactly my problem! My bases are the last picture. Looks like I may have to upgrade bases. Thank you all for your input.