# Folding Ping Pong Table Stand



## micaudill (Dec 26, 2011)

Hi all, new member here. I'm not much of a woodworker, but I found your site while doing some research on a diy ping pong table stand. I couldn't find what I was looking for so I thought I would post it here. My parents bought me a used ping pong table for Christmas. The table top is in perfect condition, but the metal frame it's on is not. I wanted to build a heavy duty wooden frame for it, the inspiration for it came from a table on my college campus. It has a square frame made up of 2x4s under each half and two 2x4s bolted together for each of the legs. It's the most heavy duty ping pong table I've seen. I would love to build something like it, but with folding legs. The reason why I want a heavy duty frame for it is because I am the 2nd oldest out of 12 kids in my family. I know no matter where it ends up in the house it'll get abused, and I would like to know no matter what they throw at it it'll be able to take it. And, it needs folding legs because there's no room in the house (again, 12 kids) to keep it set up all the time. 

I gone through a couple ideas in my head, but not sure if they work or not: First is, rounding off the top of the leg and running a bolt through that it can swivel on. But I would be worried about the nut coming off from repeatedly opening & closing the legs. The second was using a metal hinge of some sort. But they require bolting to the table top not the frame, and I'd rather not do that and risk damage to the surface.

A ping pong table is 9'x5' total, and since the one I have was once a folding table it has two 4.5'/5' sections and the top of the table has to be 30" tall. That rules out having two legs on each side that swing in towards each other, unless on side is offset from the other. But if I'm basing them off a square frame, I'd imagine it to be a pain to offset one side. 

Any ideas would be greatly appriciated. Hopefully I'll be playing ping pong by the end of the week


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

One way to make a leg pivot is to use a shoulder bolt, and bushing, screwed into a t-nut which is set into the other side. I used this type of bolt on a baby crib to let it rock. You would need some type of lock for sure to keep your leg extended.


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