Our kitchen has an island stove - with no counterspace around the cooktop. Makes it difficult when cooking and needing to keep ingredients handy. Solution was to add a pair of fold down 'wings' on either side of the island. Wings can swing up when needed, and fold down when not in use. Lets see how it goes.

Supplies

This is part of a single board contest... So the main ingredient is a single board. In my case it was a 1x piece of maple about 10 feet long and just over 7 inches wide... Enough for two wings.

Also need some hinges. I bought 2 4 foot piano hinge and used a hacksaw to cut to the lengths I need.

4 threaded inserts and a screw or bolt that thread in. This makes it easy to adjust the wing for level

Not needed, but used are some magnets to hold the supports under the wing which makes it easier to fold.

Tools... I have a garage full of woodworking tools - I suspect I used all of them. Table saw, circular saw, jig saw, drill/driver, bandsaw, sander(s), jointer planer.

Step 1: Terminology

Going to define some terms.... Made 2 wings, using 2 different techniques. Both wings consist of 4 pieces....

1) Wing (this is large flat workarea)

2) Support (have two of these - these store under the wing - and swing out to hold the wing up when being used

3) Mounting block (the piece that will screw into the cabinet)

4) Leveling block (a wedge that mounts on the cabinet - and allows the wing to be adjusted to level)

5) Adjusting nuts (the threaded inserts and associated nuts)

6) Sewing magnets that hold the supports under the wind to make it easier to fold.

I made two wings, and used different techniques. One I'll call a three hinge and the other is a four hinge design. Keep reading and see what the differences are.

Step 2: Glue Up the Wings

Seems like I was having camera issues - don't have pictures of some steps - including cutting and gluing up the wings... This step is pretty straight forward. I measured the depth of the cooking island and determined the wings should be 20 inches long... And measured around the stove and figured they could swing out 10-12 inches. The countertop had an overhang of just under 1 inch to the cabinet - so keeping the folded depth was important to me. Since the wing is 3/4 inch thick, had to take care to keep the overall folded thickness under an inch.

With my target set to a flat wing of 12x20 I cut 4 boards to 6x20 cleaned up the edges with my jointer and glued to make 2 wings, each 12 by 20.

Step 3: Cut the Supports.

I wanted each wing to have two supports. One support may have been adequate, two should hold all cooking requirements. The supports are each 10" x 6". Cut a blank 14" long - and cut a slot 4 inches from each end, about an inch deep. I used my table saw for this. Then drew a line to connect the kerfs and used a circular saw to hog out most of the angle, finished the cut with a jig saw. Needed two of these for a total of 4 supports, two on each side.

Step 4: Add Alignment Blocks With Adjusting Nuts

When the supports swing out from the wing they will need to some help to contact the cabinet. The first picture shows what happens without any type of assistnace - the wings are droopy. Couldn't have the block connected to the cabinet any more than 3/4 inch and still needed something to allow adjustment for level.

Took a scrap of maple about 5 inches long. Used a straight edge to find the center of the block. Drilled a hole for the threaded inserts into the end grain - and used a driver bolt to install the threaded inserts. Then glued the blocks to the 4" flat part of the support from the previous step. I put a couple pocket screws to hold the blocks since they are glued together the screws are probably irrelevant.

At this point I sanded the parts to about 120. Top and bottom of the wings. All 4 of the supports. Sanded over all the sharp corners before I go on to the next step.

The bold in the insert can be adjusted to against the block on the cabinet that will raise or lower the wing for level.

Step 5: Hinges

I used two different ways to attach the hinges - curious which I preferred.

In both cases I started with a 4 foot piano hinge - and cut the smaller hinges to connect the supports to the bottom of the wing.

The 3 hinge wing used a single section of the piano hinge to connect the wing to the mounting block. In this wing the support bracket had to be shy of the hinge in order for everything to tuck under the long hinge.

The 4 hinge wing I cut the hinges to connect the supports to the bottom of the wing- just like the 3 hinge method. The difference is the top hinge was cut to allow a gap in the middle - where the alignment block could be reached with the wing folded down. I thought this would allow a thinner leveling block.

Found out the hard way on the 4 hinge wing that the alignment blocks cannot be proud of the hinge - or it contacts the cabinet and prevents the wing from swinging up.

I used a centering bit to drill the pilot holes for the screws - and then set a bunch of screws. Pretty easy with my driver.

Step 6: Mistakes Were Made

On the 4 hinge wing I thought I'd be cute cut cut the alignment block longer so I wouldnt need a block on the cabinet.... But failed to realize that with the alignment block being proud of the hinge causes the block to impact the cabinet when the wing is lifted - can't unfold the wing.... bummer. Cut the alignment block so it was even with the hinge - re-installed the threaded insert. The second picture swings nicely- but needs a leveling block on the cabinet.

Step 7: The Leveling Block

Took a scrap of maple and drew a rough outline of what the I wanted the leveling block to look like. Wanted a slot for the alignment screw to rest. A ramp the help the alignment screw - and a stop to prevent the alignment screw from falling off the other side. Didn't have to be perfect on the slot, the adjusting screw allows things to be fine tuned when adjusted.

Cut out the wedge with my bandsaw - used a pocket screw to attach to the cabinet where the alignment screw lands.

Step 8: Trial Assembly

I have a mobile bench in my garage. Before I did all of the assembly, trials and tuning outside on this bench - when everything worked like I wanted it was simply a matter of removing from my garage workstation and mounting on the kitchen island - knowing everything would work just fine.

Step 9: Final Install

A couple pictures of up and down. The other side is the cover image - picture a mirror image.

Haven't used it much yet, but confident everything will work well.

The wings are very solid - surely plenty strong to hold a full cookpot with no problems - but I wouldn't want to stand on it.

3 hinges or 4? Not sure it makes much difference. The 3 hinge setup you just see the piano hinge when the wings are folded - a nice clean look. The 4 hinge setup you see the adjusting screws - which I think adds an interesting visual element. As far as ease to build or stability it didn't seem to matter much.

One thing to consider - need to make sure the adjusting screws clear both the hinge and the cabinet - kind of difficult to explain - but pretty easy to see the mistakes when you have things assembled.