Dining table wobble

[Julian Elliott]

Not the biggest issue, but annoying.  The pedestal of the dining table on my MkII has sufficient play inside the collar affixed to the sole to cause annoying wobble.  When I pull out the pedestal assembly, it appears that there is a gasket that should secure the fluted pedestal to the mount.  Mine is worn, causing excessive play. 

This can't be unique; is there a source for replacements or a easy fix for this?

Julian

[Indian Falls]

You likely have the same broken part of the pedestal that I do.  The lock nut presses a piece of plastic into the side of the tubing going to the table top.  On mine this piece broke off and disappeared. Once this piece is missing, you have to really look at it to realize that anything is missing at all.  It is meant to flex so if you screw the lock nut in with the table pulled out you'll break it off.  I had a piece of extruded acrylic I found lying around and whittled it till it fit.  It was a big pain to get back together, so I'll never take it apart again.  It got rid of  the wiggle and tendancy of the table to go down if you leaned on it.  Hope that helps.

[tonywright]

The table pedestal is made by Forespar. In my experience they have outstanding customer service.

You might want to contact them to see if you can get a spare part. Worth reminding everyone to not use lubricants on the post...

http://www.forespar.com/products/boat-table-pedestal.shtml

Tony

[Julian Elliott]

Tony,

This helps immensely.  I will call Forespar tomorrow.  Per description, "The lower base is epoxied to the tube."  I wondered why it was so easy to pull out the entire pedestal from the base-- the epoxy seal evidently failed, creating the wobble.

Dad, the looseness was at the fixed base, not at the telescoping shaft.

Thanks, guys.

Hmm... having said that, there's some advantage to be able to pull out the table and get it out of the way when needed to work, etc.  Maybe Forespar has a way to elim the looseness without permanently epoxying the tube in.

[DarthOccam]

An old thread, but thought I would add the comment here in case someone searches for table wobble.  I have a 2005 MKII boat and the saloon table wobbled when we bought the lightly used boat in 2010.  Unlike others, it wasn't the pedestal flexing or a loose mounting base. 

It took me several years before I figured it out (I'm a little slow), but the problem turned out to be insufficient space between the mounting base and the hull.  The Forspar diagram shows it needs 5" of clearance.  When inserted, the pedestal would not fully seat into the base because it was (just barely) coming into contact with the hull.

I filed down the end of the pedestal on the outboard edge about 1/8" and now the pedestal seats correctly and the table is rock solid.  Alternately, I could have added a spacer between the base and the sole to raise up the table and pedestal so that it cleared.