I built a mechanical table with a hidden table top for puzzles. pic.twitter.com/BtZcuzw4EO
— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) September 29, 2021
Roboticist Simone Giertz loves to assemble jigsaw puzzles. And if you've spent lockdown time on one, then you know that they take up a lot of room. Giertz applied her genius to this problem and designed an elegant table that is perfect for jigsaw assembly. Yes, there might have been simpler solutions, but Giertz says, "...I was, like, no, let's make it more complicated and overengineered than that."
It was two gearing systems taken from bicycles. The first rolls the top on and off. The second lifts and lowers the surface. So in addition to protecting the puzzle from damage during the long assembly process, the table space remains useful for other purposes.
Here is a long, often funny video illustrating the demanding build process.