Dinette table thumb screws

[Townesw]

Occasionally I will place my hand on one of the front corners of our dinette table and it will cause the opposite back corner to lift up out of its bracket. I don’t tighten those two thumb screws down too tight because I don’t want to bend the aluminum bracket or break the screws that secure it to the wall. I drilled two holes on the back edge of the table so that the thumb screws would pass through them to prevent the table from slipping up out of the brackets.

 

If you want to do this, start off by leveling your trailer then check to see if your table top is level.

 

Make sure your table leg is plumb.

Place a level against one side of the table, plumb it, and see how far the edge of the table falls away from the edge of the seat.

Repeat the previous exercise on the opposite side of the table. I did this to make sure the table was centered between the two dinette seats.

 

 

After verifying that the table is in the middle of the dinette mark the edges of each bracket and the location of the holes.

 

Drill pilot holes using a small bit at very low speed.

 

 

 

Enlarge the pilot holes with a step bit at slow speed. I stepped the hole size up to 1/4 inch.

 

Use the step bit again to enlarge the holes on the back side of the table top so that you have a 1/4 inch hole all the way through the table edge. 

 

 

The step bit will chamfer the hole but I used a chamfer bit to widen the chamfer.

 

 

The thumb screws should be screwed in until they just touch the rubber bumper behind the bracket.

 

I found that a 1/4 Nylock nut threaded on the thumb screw backwards made a good stop nut. I used stainless steel because that’s what I had.

The Nylock nut was the right height to stop the thumb screw at the proper depth.

Finished product.

I did this on hull 313.  I don’t know if Oliver continued to mount the table this way so this might not work on tables in newer Olivers.

 

Bill

Edited 4 hours ago by Townesw

[ADKCamper]

Good idea! We've been taking our table down whenever we move the trailer because the thumbscrews always loosen themselves up with movement. Maybe this might help.

I have this notion of a plan (not yet executed) to find some kind of spring loaded latch mechanism that could be used to keep downward pressure on the table top while moving (or even all the time). Haven't looked too hard yet, but also haven't stumbled into any good candidate latches...