I am currently making a magicians table. The one like you see on L & L publishing DVD's. What I would like is some input on what to put into the table. What I mean is.... different things that you would always have wanted in a magic table if you could. Examples are load for extra large coin, half size coin, quarter size coin, servant etc. Any and all ideas are welcome and encouraged. So come on and put your thinking caps on and come up with some great ideas of what you have always wanted in a magic table.

The Hoffman books explain all sorts of gadgets that go into tables.

Form follows function.

What you put in and under the table is dictated by what you'll need to make your routines work. What we think are great ideas may not be what you need.

I once made a table that had two trap doors and an acme screw-driven elevator with micro switches that started and stopped motors. It shuttled a ball from one spot to another but I could have accomplished the same effect with some slight of hand.

So the question is weather YOU need to produce jumbo coins or have small bins that are the size of your thumb or whatever... Write down all the routines you think you'll ever perform THEN design the table.

Please post some pictures as you progress.

One of the custom tables I made was for a magician who wanted two spring loaded coin slides that could shoot a coin into his hand.

-=tabman

Hay

in my pile of "treasures" I have a prototype that Ed Massey was working on that would shoot 5 coins individually.

Now that's very cool.

Im a fan of Massey's work and we used to make a version of his Cardagger.

-=tabman

Is that Professor Hoffman's "Magical Tidbits" and "Modern Magic?"

Dov

I don't have them in front of me this second, but either, "Modern Magic", or "More Magic".

Are you making the table for yourself, or for everyone. I would be careful not to 'over-engineer' the table and, to paraphrase a quote, make it so much to everyone that it's noting to anyone.

If you really want a 'universal' table, design it to be modular so a performer can 'add-on' whatever they need, without a bunch of extra stuff that isn't needed or wanted.