Surely you have seen on social networks some animated image of a table that begins to rotate and opens, forming a star in the center and that ends up being much larger than at the beginning.
Well if you are curious you will like to know that it is a Fletcher Capstan Table and that it is worth around $50,000. It is “very” used on cruise ships and luxury yachts
The table with a 120º turn makes its surface to be enlarged by 73%. With these 2 positions we can play with the number of diners.
If you’ve never seen her in action, check out this video because you can’t miss it.
History of the Fletcher Turntable
La idea original de una mesa de estas características fue patentada en 1835 por Robert Jupe, la mesa era similar, pero en la de Jupe el proceso de expansión era mucho más complejo, requería de muchos pasos y esfuerzo.
The original idea for such a table was patented in 1835 by Robert Jupe, the table was similar, but in Jupe’s the expansion process was much more complex, requiring many steps and effort.
As a curiosity, it is paying $350,000 for the original tables built by Robert Jupe. I am sure that Captain Nemo’s Nautilus would have one of these tables among its treasures 😉
David Fletcher improved it by providing a simple system to open and close it and adjusting the tolerances to the maximum because as we see it fits perfectly, so much so that the star looks like a drawing instead of seeing the slots. He has been working on this table since 1997 and has designed more than 5000 pieces for the winch table.
How to make a winch table
There is a video about how it was done, but it doesn’t go much beyond the editing. I’m sure that if you want to make your own table, it’s not going to be enough. You’ll just feel more like making one.
And for more technical data here is patent US6994032
But if you really want to build a table that expands like Fletcher’s winch, searching and searching I found this tutorial.
It has not been easy. If you have more information or interesting links let me know to update the article.
What is a winch?
I don’t want to finish the article without making a brief review towards the winches we have referred to during the whole text.
A winch is a mechanical device used to move or lift objects with a large load. It can be driven manually, or by other forces, electric and hydraulic motors.
You’ll hear the horizontal axis ones used on the front of off-roaders and cranes. And the one in the article refers to marine winches.
Knowing this, we can get an idea of why they call this table.