Quilting on DSM
 

I am quilting on my Singer 5050 mechanical machine which is sitting on an old dining room table. It is good workhorse and quilting on it is as hard or as easy as on any other DSM. While I was doing the FMQ just few minutes ago I realized that all my struggles could be solved by simply making my machine flush with the tabletop - duhhhh! Since that would mean cutting into a really nice old table, I am thinking of either buying or makings raised platform to fit around my machine. Is there a name for it? I also make garments and I need that free arm feature so I need something removable. I saw some stuff on Internet but it is just too small. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Thank you!

This is an inexpensive, non-permanent, easy DIY solution - watch both parts (the 2nd deals with FMQ/large quilts):

Part 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g14govA4pIM

Part 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAS25v3ZTk0

I have a large Sew Steady plexiglass table w/legs that I use and it works great. You have to give them make and model of your machine and table is made for that machine. This table was made for a different machine with a small arm to use to make clothing. A man we know has a CNC machine with a water jet and he re-cut it for me. He wouldn't take money to do it, so I made him a quilt.

I had the same problem. My main sewing table is an Ikea table from my college days. I also had an Ikea knock-off coffee table (yes! Ikea-knock-off! Canadian company called Idomo...)

I took the legs off the coffee table top (simple particle-board-and-laminate), traced my machine's footprint and jigsawed it out, and then added six little legs made of 1.5" wooden dowel to bring it to the height of the bed of my machine when it sits on the Ikea table. To keep the new top from sliding around on the old top I have it anchored with the sticky putty stuff you can buy for putting up posters (I know it as "Sticky-Tac").

I made this top for my old machine whose footprint is slightly different from the one I use now, hence the gap visible in the picture. One bonus of doing this is the very useful space you generate under the new table top - I keep all my accessories there (and some dust...)

Let us know what you decide to do.
Alison
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Thank you all for your replies. Alison, this is exactly what I had in mind. Ikea here has an As Is section so I will go and browse for an inexpensive table top to massacre. I have plenty of doweling remnants and all the tools so I think I am set. Thank you very much and happy Thanksgiving from a fellow Canuck living in the US. Ikea knock off, really? Now I've heard everything. LOL. :)

This is great! I even have some insulation boards with reflective stuff on it so I mat not even need vinil. Very, VERY good idea. Thank you!!!

After seeing Eleanor Burns video on turning a farm table into a sewing table, I found a nice farm table at a "moving" tag sale for $50 and my DH made it into a quilting table. Absoluitely love it!

That is really creative!!! That is such a good idea! If I only had the tools. And the brains! ha ha And the table! But you are smart!

I made the styrofoam insulation table for mine..LOVE IT!!! So much easier with the machine level with the table surface. I would love to do the table that is pictured above, but I can't afford it right now so the styrofoam was the way I went and I'm not sorry. Maybe someday I'll find a table to cut a hole in, but till then, I'm loving the styrofoam!