Sauton Coffee Table Lift Mechanism, Lift up Coffee Table Hardware, Black Spring Stand Furniture Hinges

I purchased this kit in order to retrofit a lift top to an antique table that I refinished. The challenge was that the table was open-bottomed with individual legs, and as such it would be impossible to hide a bulkier lift mechanism inside the table itself. I ran across this set and notice how low-profile they mechanism is, so I decided to give it a try. I had to build a box frame to mount the mechanism to, but once done and installed, the lift operates perfectly. When the table is down, you cannot tell that it has been modified.

This was super easy to install, although there were no instructions to do so! Beware, the open/close mechanism isn't particularly smooth. It sort of springs into place once you get about 80 percent of the way open or closed.

This is strong and well built. It's fairly thick steel in the U extrusions used making it heavier than I expected. Threr things to be aware of: First, the spring is strong so in my case lifting a 1/4" light shelf it snaps upward violently. Might take 10 pounds to calm it but I haven't tested that. Second, when lifted, it still covers half the space underneath so you must reach under to access the back half. Third, if you have a box underneath, as is the norm, the sides of the box steal from the box-to-lid gap size. I had to add a spacer belween box bottom and lift bar. If you don't put that spacer in, the lift doesn't close all the way and the top extrusion doesn't align with the bottom one front to back. I also had to shorten these about 1/4" to fit my box. There is perhaps an inch that one can cut off without affecting operation, but of course paint touch up is needed and you lose the end screw holes. I had to put a side support on the inside of box, as shown in a picture, to get good stability. To screw from the sides becomes an exercise in getting assembly otdering right or else putting undersireable holes in the side support. In other words, don't glue/nail in side supoort until you've got this figured out. You'll have a hole where the lift disaapears into, so be aware if cleaning might be problematic in your application. All in all, it's way better than my original DIY attempt. I just wish I could adjust lift spring strength without challenge of iteratively replacing it.

I really like these lifts as they fit size-wise into the narrow space they needed to be in. They pop up and down pretty easy. The only downside is they were not square: the lifts tended to expand at a slight angle. To compensate for this, I put several stringers between the lifts to ensure they would remain the same distance apart when collapsed and when extended. Not all that big of a deal, just something to keep in mind when you're installing them. Good for the price, I would buy them again and just be mindful of the limitations.

When installed I noticed one of the two items was not performing as I expected. Upon contacting customer service it was dealt with swiftly and to my full satisfaction. Pleasure to do business with. Oh, the item? Just as described and is working excellent to enable me to use a table both as a standing work desk and as a bar top table.