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Part 107: Table, for designing machine

 
107Table, for designing machine19161940110
The Meccano designing table, only supplied pre-war
Loading picture Designingtable

The parts

This part finds itself at the end of the special loom parts, and it was introduced for a similar reason.  The Meccanograph was a winning Meccano Competition entry and was apparently a great favourite of Frank Hornby at the time.

The designing table consists simply of a bush wheel screwed to a square piece of timber, and was introduced purely for the Meccanograph.  The image above shows the part upside-down, of course.  Not surprisingly, most modellers simply make up their own (particularly since these are rare and expensive parts nowadays!).  However, it is interesting to note that almost all Meccanographs still use a similar design for their patterns.

Chronological variations

The designing table is found in various shades.  Certainly it is seen as plain timber, and stained both green and red, and also with a very slight green stain.  Black has also been reported, but let's wait for pictures before we make too many assumptions.

Naturally, it's pretty easy to make a fake one, and we can be sure there are plenty of these around. It takes a good look at close range to see whether things look real.  However, the black round-head screws are not common, and if you are really suspicious of course it should be possible to spot a significant difference underneath the bush wheel (and on the reverse of the bush wheel) if you are prepared to remove it. 

This is one of those parts that you should be very wary of paying a large sum for unless you are quite certain of the source.  In past decades Meccano collectors have been known to be considerably less concerned about the provenance of their parts.

Bush wheel removed from designing table
This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright.
Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been
kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner,
John Nuttall
Loading picture Tablebushhole To the right is shown the hole cut for the bush wheel.  Note that the indentation is large enough to take the early patent boss bush wheels, as they would have been at the start of the part in 1916.  This example has three screw holes, which seems to be the 'correct' layout.  The example at the top of this page has four screws, but careful examination shows that the fourth screw is slightly larger than the other three.  On the other hand, there are no screw holes under the unused four holes (which there would be if it had originally had three screws), so we just can't be sure.

Variations and oddities

Dealer spare parts boxes

No, never seen one of these wrapped either...

Individual part numbers

Part numbers for the parts on this page are as follows:    Unique part numbers
For identification, each variation has been given a suffix to the main Meccano part number. These suffixes consist of a two-character code for the colour, and if there are many variations, a further number and sometimes letter code to identify each variation. See the bottom of the 'Parts' page for further details.

You don't need to worry what the codes are, just click on any one for a photograph.

The button above turns on and off the display of DMS numbers (where they are known). The DMS (Development of the Meccano System, Hauton and Hindemarsh) published in 1972 and added to in 75 and 82, suggested part numbers for every variation of every Meccano part. These numbers aren't perfect, but they are recognised and also referenced in the EMP (Encyclopedia of Meccano Parts, Don Blakeborough).

More about bosses More about stampings More about paint colours
Descriptionfrom107
Lightly stained timber square, bush wheel with black round-head screws??.gr
Plain timber (or brown stained) square??.xx
Green stained timber square??.gr1
Red stained timber square??.re
ALL

Please send us pictures of missing parts! Hints and tips for pictures
Take a picture of the part in very good light, preferably on a plain yellow background, without a flash but with a tripod.
Ideally, trim the picture to about 150 pixels per inch of the Meccano part (unless the part is particularly big or small), save it as a reasonably good quality jpg file with a filename of exactly the part number, for example 19b.ni1.jpg, and email it to us by clicking on 'Contact us' at the top of the page. Thanks!

Further information

Total number of messages on this page: 10.  This is page 1 of 2.   Next

Roelf      (at 11:41pm, Tue 20th Oct, 20)

Today I acquired a collection of Meccano containing two(!) Designing Tables, each dark brown stained wood with a single-tapped Bush Wheel fitted by 4 black (japanned) round headed wood screws. The collection was dusty and had been in the attic for decades, originally belonging to a gentleman born in 1926. So I am convinced that these Tables are original. This may imply that this version with 4 wood screws is an genuine variant, older than 1927 because of the single tapped Bush Wheels.

James M. Ogden      (at 7:25am, Mon 24th Sep, 18)

Thank you very much Bob T.

James

bob t      (at 12:37pm, Sun 23rd Sep, 18)

5/16" thick x 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"

James M. Ogden      (at 8:46am, Sun 23rd Sep, 18)

Could someone please me of the thickness of the designing machine table timber as i wish to make same.
Thank you.
JAMES

anon      (at 5:18pm, Fri 20th Jan, 17)

Were the screws used the same as the wood screw part number 68?

Mike Williams      (at 4:08pm, Sat 11th Feb, 12)

Was the thickness of the wooden table always the same? And was it always the same wood, or just any timber that Meccano had to hand? Thanks


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