Free Plan: Folding Card Table
A 1912 folding card table whose brass brace springs into a locking hole on every leg. Folded, two wooden buttons hold the legs flat.
Free download. No signup required.
- Full 1912 materials list
- Brace-and-track mechanism explained
- Folds flat for storage
✓ Your card table plan is downloading.
Download didn't start? Get the plan here.Once the fourth leg folds clean, here is where the next project comes from.
- 16,000 plans, each with a cut list, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds, beginner to advanced.
- What to print first: search the library by keyword for the next piece you want, and filter by beginner, intermediate or advanced if you'd like something simpler than this one.
- Sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Original illustration from Popular Mechanics, 1912 (public domain).
Most furniture claims floor space forever. This table folds flat and leans in a closet until game night.
The 1912 Popular Mechanics design locks each leg with a bent brass rod and a stack of copper washers that slide in a track made from single-groove electric wire moulding. The moulding is the part to solve early: a substitute needs the same groove, slot and hole geometry.
The plan keeps the original construction and marks where a modern substitution is allowed: the original top is 1/8-inch cardboard, and 1/4-inch plywood works only if you check the folding clearance first. Edging, felt and leg pads are covered.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Advanced (27 steps, moving hardware, metalwork and a felt top)
- Main materials
- Oak legs and edging, poplar or basswood frame, 1/8-inch cardboard top (plywood only as a checked substitution), single-groove wire moulding with battens, brass rod, thirty copper washers, brass corners and screws, felt
- Top size
- 29-1/4 inches square
- Build time
- Several weekends, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Saw, drill with 3/16-inch metal bit, hacksaw, riveting tools, layout tools, clamps, tacks for the felt, sandpaper
- Source
- Popular Mechanics, 1912 (public domain)
Before you cut the brass:
Source the track first. Then build one leg assembly all the way: open it until the brace springs into its locking hole, fold it back under the top, and check the clearance before you make the other three.
That is the shop note in the plan: build one complete mechanism, confirm the clearance, then do the batch work.
If that way of working appeals to you, one plan is a start. A library is a habit.
What one of the plans looks like
One plan, front to back
Every plan in the library comes with the same three things: a cut list you can total before the lumber run, measurements on every part so nothing gets scaled off a photo, and step-by-step instructions from rough stock to finish. That is the layer this card table plan gave you, sixteen thousand more times.
The library covers furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds and small projects, beginner to advanced. It works with a few hand tools or a full shop, and you keep it for good.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the technique layer
Woodworking Secrets is a printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing, the part a plan leaves out. The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked — untick it if you only want the book.
See the book →