The three sizes
Tape edge tables are described by the mattress they hold, in inches, and three sizes cover almost the whole market. Full is 54 by 75. Queen is 60 by 80. King is written several ways depending on who built the machine, and you will see 76 by 80, 78 by 80, 79 by 80 and 60 by 81.5 with extensions on real machines, all describing much the same working area.
Queen is the size most of the market buys, and it is the size most of the catalogue carries. If you close nothing larger than a queen, a queen table is the right machine and a king table is floor you are paying for and not using.
- Full: 54 by 75.
- Queen: 60 by 80.
- King: 76 by 80, 78 by 80 or 79 by 80 depending on the builder.
- Queen with extensions to king: a queen table with removable extensions.
Buy the table for the biggest mattress you close, not the one you close most often. The small ones will always fit on a big table.
Queen with extensions to king
This is the arrangement we are asked for most, and it is usually the right answer. The table is a queen, and extensions bolt on when a king comes down the line. You get the smaller footprint and the easier reach on the size you run every day, and the capacity for the size you run occasionally.
Two things to check. First, that the extensions are actually with the machine, because they get separated from tables in storage and a queen table with no extensions is a queen table. Second, that the extended surface is flat and level with the main top, because a step at the join will show in the seam.
Height is the second half of the question
Table size decides the footprint of the mattress. The lift decides its thickness. These are two separate specifications and a machine that is right on one can be wrong on the other, which is how people end up with a king table that will not close their own pillow top.
Older machines lift to about twelve inches. Eighteen and twenty inches are common on rebuilt American iron. Twenty and a half, twenty two and twenty four inches turn up on high lift machines. Mattresses have got taller over the last twenty years, so the height figure is worth as much attention as the width and length, and on a used machine it is worth more, because it is the specification most often stated loosely.
- Measure your tallest finished mattress before it is compressed, not the panel.
- Ask for the machine height range rather than a single number.
- A high lift machine will always close a thin mattress. The reverse is not true.
The top: stainless or painted
A stainless steel top does not mark light ticking and it does not need repainting. A painted steel top works perfectly well and is what a lot of original machines carry, but it wears where the mattress is dragged and the wear shows on the fabric first. Most of the tables we rebuild get a stainless top, and where a machine has a painted top we say so.
If you are running white or very light covers, ask for stainless. If you are running dark heavy ticking, either is fine and the money is better spent on the drive and the corner control.
The floor around the table
A walk around table needs a clear path all the way round it, wide enough for an operator holding a handlebar to walk backwards at a corner. That path is part of the machine, and it is the thing people forget when they measure their floor. A queen table in a space that only allows three clear sides is a machine that will be worked badly.
Send us the dimensions of the space and we will tell you honestly which of the sizes will work in it.
What to tell us when you enquire
Three things get you a same day answer: the largest mattress you close, the tallest mattress you close, and your electrical supply. With those we can go through the catalogue and tell you which machines fit, which could be made to fit, and which are not worth your time. We are adding table size to every record. Ask us and we will check for you.