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What is this part for?
My bf's dad lives in a prefurnished apartment. There is a large dining table in a small room, but it has a middle panel that can be removed to make the table smaller. The table has alignment locks holding the middle panel in place, but it also has these plastic parts. I unlatched all the locks, but these pieces prevent me from removing the panel. I wondered if anyone recognized this part or knew some magic way to open it. The tab is very hard to press, and I'm not sure if it can be pushed in. I don't want to unscrew them and risk damaging the wood on reassembly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Posted 2017-09-28T03:57:21+0000  by PJ888 PJ888
 
Would it be possible for you to post a couple of pictures of the underside of the table?  I've seen a couple of these types of tables over the years, one just had catches that needed to be released, the other had a "pull cord" that released the locking mechanism so that you didn't have to crawl under the table.  I'm also wondering if these plastic blocks aren't something installed for shipping and meant to be removed?
Posted 2017-09-28T09:06:04+0000  by Adam444

 Greetings PJ888,


I am with Adam on this one, I bet the plastic parts are keep the expansion panel in place and secure for moving or shipment. Is the property a rental? Can you contact a landlord or maintenance team that may have experience with the table? If it is a rental property the panel may have been secured so that it is not easily removed.


One other option: most furniture will have the manufacturers name imprinted somewhere on the piece, you can call them and see if the plastic braces are part of a shipping method.

Once again Adam is correct, pictures would be helpful!


We will wait for your response to better assist you,


Good luck!   Maureen

 
Posted 2017-09-28T15:39:55+0000  by Maureen_HD_BOS

Posted 2017-09-29T01:56:11+0000  by PJ888

Posted 2017-09-29T01:57:13+0000  by PJ888

Posted 2017-09-29T01:57:49+0000  by PJ888
Thank you for the quick response! This website is super buggy on mobile, and my images apparently didn't attach. Sorry about that!  I just posted each image individually as comments, so hopefully you can see them now.

The property is a rented condo. The owner doesn't really communicate with us at all. My boyfriend's dad asked the owner if he could remove the 3 mattresses in the condo, as he was bringing his own. The owner refused and now my bf's dad has no garage because of 4 beds and 4 boxsprings. The window of his car got stuck, and now we have 4 beds in the living room :(. That's why I really want to shorten this table
Posted 2017-09-29T02:04:14+0000  by PJ888
Hello PJ888, thanks for posting the pictures! The brass locks on the left have a lever, move the lever to other other side, there should be at least 2 of these locks. The panels or commonly knows as a table leaf, once the leaf lock/latch is disengaged, have someone on each end of the table and pull, the table will pull apart, once the table leaf has been released you can then remove the table leaf and then push the table together, make sure to engage the locks underneath the table again. 
Posted 2017-09-29T13:50:56+0000  by Angelo_HD_CHI
Hello PJ888.

It looks to me that these plastic tabs are designed to do the exact same thing as dowel pins would do.  These keep the middle panel from being lifted up as well as aligning the panel with the table on both sides.  In order to remove the panel you have to unlock the latches, which you have done.  Then you have to extend the table by pulling it apart far enough that the tabs are no longer connected.  You can see that the slide arms on the table are long enough for you to do this.  The panel will now be just resting on those slide arms, and you can just pick it up to remove it.  Now you can push the table back together, making it the smaller length that you want.

Chris.

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Posted 2017-09-29T13:53:55+0000  by Chris_HD_CHI
Thank you both for your help! We managed to pull the table apart. I didn't think it was possible because we pulled crazy hard before, and nothing happened. But we tried every angle and used all our strength, and it eventually started to come apart.

Once again, thank you both so much! The room is a lot roomier now!
Posted 2017-09-29T22:32:41+0000  by PJ888
 
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