How to increase the height of a small stand?

[ennoh]

I want to increase the height of a small stand -how can i increase the height by about 10cm?

[MitchellMc]

Hi @ennoh,

What's the stand used for, and what does the top look like? You could consider removing the feet at the bottom and replacing them with something longer. You could potentially remove the verticle turned upright sections and extend them with more dowel. You'd need to drill their ends out and use a connecting dowel piece internally to provide strength to the join. Or, perhaps you could create some type of plinth to go under the whole stand.

Once we hear more about the stand's use and see the top, other options might be worth considering.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[ennoh]

Thanks Mitchell, its for a church function - a tap & give device will be put on the top - but the stand is a bit too low.  If it can be fixed I will do it...otherwise will have to look for something else 

[MitchellMc]

Extending the uprights with dowel is the best approach I can think of @ennoh. I've included an image below to illustrate. This will be a reasonably involved process, and if there are other alternative stand options, I'd recommend considering them.

Let me mention a couple of our knowledgeable members, @Noyade and @TedBear, to see if they have any thoughts.

Mitchell

[ennoh]

thanks michael - it was a cheap and cheerful stand so I will look for an alternative - I dont have the tools to do what you have suggested

[TedBear]

Hi @ennoh,

another possible approach, providing that a 9cm (900mm) increase will do, would be:-

1) remove the 3 turned uprights; I assume they will be be screwed into the top and bottom table & shelf pieces with counter rotating screws, or perhaps the uprights are each in 2 pieces joined at the centre where that thicker section is. A third possibility is that you may need to remove the feet and see if there are screws holding the uprights to the bottom under there. If so, once they are unscrewed, the uprights should then unscrew from the table top.

2) Make up a triangular structure out of 90 x 35mm pine,
https://www.bunnings.com.au/90-x-35mm-outdoor-framing-mgp10-h3-treated-pine_p8032149

which will go under the table top and cover up the 3 leg holes that are there. Mark where the holes are first with long crosses X that can be seen when the pine is in place.
The structure will be 90mm deep, so that the 35mm edges sit against the bottom of the table.
i.e. the inside and outside edges of the triangle will be 90mm, while its top and bottom edges will be 35mm.
(I would draw it, but have found that I don't have a simple drawing program on my laptop.)

3. The idea is that you use this structure to extend the bottom of the table top by 90mm, by screwing it underneath with suitable length screws (maybe 100mm), at locations other than where the legs will attach, (by seeing the crosshairs you drew underneath.)
Those legs will sit near the 3 corners, to keep this structure as small as needed.

4. You will then need to drill holes to take the leg screws at the location of the original holes.
You may need to lever out and re-use the press-in nuts at those holes if there were any already in the table.

5. Paint black or other appropriate colour to match.

Technically you could do this by only using 2 strips of 90X30 pine to cover the 3 locations where the legs screw in, but it would look better and resist any twisting if you fill in the third side as well.
You could also just use 3  100mm blocks at the leg holes, but it would be harder to attach these blocks soundly to the table underside, especially as they would be 100mm long.
If you can get the table legs off then it wouldn't cost much to experiment with adding timber strips to extend the bottom of the table connection points down - and thus raise the table top. if it doesn't look like it will work as planned, then you can just screw the legs back on.