How To Make A Campervan Table – This article contains affiliate links that I have created for you.
Number one, the most important thing when it comes to building a motorhome is space optimization. Everything should be purposeful, multifunctional and/or easy to remove. So there’s no point in having a big table in the middle of your car.
How To Make A Campervan Table
There are many things people do for a table in their RV. There are removable tables, folding tables, turntables and perhaps even more creative ideas. Depending on your floor plan and what you plan to use, any of these may work. But I decided to go with a rotary table.
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I originally planned to have a table that would slide off the side of my bed, but my chair (which concealed my refrigerator) ended up being too high. So I decided to go with the table. This was probably the least important way I had to have the desk available in multiple positions and work for my specific floor plan.
The only problem is that ready-made turntables are very expensive. I’m talking about $200, not including the actual tablet. It’s just a circulatory system. So I decided to build my own turntable for a fraction of the cost.
All they took with them was a water pipe, some screws and a piece of wood. To be clear, this is an exact list of what you’ll need to make this rotation table.
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Now you have everything you need and I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. More specifically, this is a stepping stone to completing your turntable build.
The steel tube you have is cut to size. You need two pieces. One for the legs and the other for the arms of the table. Home Depot or Lowe’s will certainly do this for you for free. So go to your local hardware store and let them cut your pipes with their small, easy-to-use machines.
Your table legs should be about 2-3 inches shorter than the actual height you want the table to be. This leaves room for elbows and tablecloths to add some height.
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Arms depend on the length of your table. However, hardware stores don’t allow pipes smaller than 18 inches, so keep that in mind. You want the arms to be between half and 3/4 the length of your tabletop. Don’t forget to raise both hands!
Your arms and legs should be pulled together with your FPT x FPT elbows. The FPTx MPT elbow connector goes on the other end of your desk arm and attaches to the edge of the floor. It’s a pretty self-explanatory explanation.
Be sure to use your pipe wrench or large clamp to secure these babies as tight as possible with a human. Except smooth surfaces. We will remove it in the next step.
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The tablecloth will be attached to your front. First, measure where you want the tabletop to sit on top of your curve, then lay it down and rest it on the edge of the floor. Once you’re comfortable, poke a hole in the edge of the floor under your desk with a pencil.
Once you have pulled it, set the table down and remove the floor edge from the swing arm. Use the drill to drill the edge of the floor at the marked spot on your table and screw the edge of the floor onto the swing arm. You can harden it if you want or you can leave it to make a removable tablet for storage.
To attach it to the wall I used the PVC tube as a kind of hole for the table leg. Now I can take the table legs with me if I want and leave the “envelope” hanging on the wall.
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Place your outlet cap on one end of your PVC pipe. Rest that end on the floor, leaning against the wall where you want your turntable. Wrap the hose around the PVC hose at the top and bottom. Drill your PVC pipe holes in the wall to secure them.
Once the PVC pipe is properly secured you can now slide your turntable legs into the PVC pipe. Enjoy your new desk whenever possible! A folding table in a motorhome is an easy way to create more space for work, eating, etc. Then it can be folded up when not needed. Our cabinets were installed a few years into our car’s life because we didn’t initially design our car interior for the job. Now that we both have to use our laptops at the same time, the folding table makes our car a bit more comfortable and practical!
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Folding Table Build & Installation
We discard the legs and just use the tabletop. The easy way to get cheap bamboo planks!
You can buy folding braces in a variety of lengths (from 8 inches to 24 inches). For very heavy folding tables (for example to carry heavy loads) it is advisable to purchase brackets that match the length of the table. In our case, however, we consider our program to be “light use”, so we opt for a brace that is a few centimeters smaller.
The foldable brackets that fire individually vibrate like crazy when not installed…we almost sent them back when we realized the alarm was really driving me nuts.(Anton). But we managed to avoid cracks by installing them slightly differently, see step 3 below.
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We couldn’t find a source for the bamboo board, so we ordered this bamboo table from Amazon. This is an inexpensive way to buy the right amount of bamboo planks that are finished and ready to install. When we unscrewed it we realized that the bamboo table wobbled a bit which was disappointing… but we knew it would straighten out when we pulled it into the bracket and it did. So it’s all good!
Adding a drill will make your life easier if the screw is on top of the table (normal drilling won’t turn it over on its own):
You will notice that our folding table is very small… this is to ensure that when we fold and unfold the table it clears the fire extinguishers and items packed in the storage net (see on Amazon). . That storage net is usable and we don’t want to have to move things around every time we need the table.
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We used a 9.5 x 22 inch bamboo cutter. Overall, the bamboo we bought was exactly what we needed, so only one was cut 🙂
There are some tree trunks behind the tabletop, but that’s okay, we can work around them!
The two brackets must be parallel, otherwise the folding table will not rotate… So we first mark the position of each bracket and make sure that the distance along the two lines is equal (D1 = D2); This ensures that the brackets are installed parallel. Then we attach the bracket to the table.
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Again, the folding brackets must be installed parallel to each other for the mechanism to work. But that said, they are a bit fiddly to install, which puts tension on the mechanism when the table is folded…this helps prevent a mess when the table is closed.
Just like in the previous step, we marked the position of the brackets so that they line up perfectly. But to get to the point, let’s make them a little contradictory. Little is the key word here (it is not noticeable in the photo below)! Too much and the table won’t fold.
In the open position, the folding table vibrates like crazy… well, we don’t drive with the table in that position. When closed, the folding table doesn’t move… great. We won’t lie, we expect noise!
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We did it! As we always say, repetitive tasks should be easy and this is a step in that direction! Sweet!
Hehe not much to say here. With the above tips, the folding table setup went smoothly and we enjoyed it!
Hello! We, Isabel and Anton, sold our house (and everything in it) in 2017, gave up our engineering career and moved to live in our self-contained motorhome. Every day is an opportunity for a new adventure. We are chasing our dream and hope it inspires others to do the same! Explore interactive design, artists, jewelry sellers and more
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