The Upholstery Forum

I am trying to recover a medical exam table. The top is shaped to have something of a head rest. The original build had the foam glued to the back of the vinyl to hold the vinyl down over the entire pad. The problem i am having is getting the foam to lay in the concave section on my recover. There are no seams on the top of the vinyl. Only at the corners and a small gusset in the middle where the back raises to an incline.

I have tried without success to glue everything and put the foam with the backer in but at that point there is not sliding to stretch the vinyl. My last hope to to pull the backer board and glue the foam in and then put the backer back on. It seems unconventional with my limited experience. But, I see not other way. I cant really figure how they pulled this off f at the factory.

@john, help!

Here are pics:

Well, I gave up on getting the vinal glued to the foam. I could not get it smooth and figured smooth unglued looked better than glued but looking like crap. So, here is the final project. I needed to get it back to the clinic this morning so I could not wait to see if there were any of you with an answer to my delema. My lone functioning brain cell still cant figure how they pulled this off at the factory... but somehow they did (glued vinyl to foam).

Anyway, if anyone has an idea, please respond. I may have more to come.

To be honest I’m slightly confused on the area you’re talking about? Are you talking the dip between the 2 sections?

@cody the area below the semi-headrest and the area where the two parts fold. it is probably not as big a deal as i make it out to be, but the vinyl dont conform to that area. It does look better than what my attempts at glueing was.

@vicstric ,

In my opinion it is a more sanitary table and looks better.

I agree with both you and bigrig. I think it looks good. I tend to over analyze everything I do myself. I’m sure the client didn’t notice the difference. Like bigrig says. As long as it’s not warn down, cracked and ugly. It’s the cleanliness that counts here. Keep it up. If they want more you’ll get better and better.

@vicstric ,

Next time they want something recovered do not go to such great efforts to try and find the exact medical vinyl. Looking at the recover job you would have been perfectly fine with Morberns MorCare line. It is specifically designed for health care covering. I experiment with vinyls and have some esprit vinyl to try on my next table recovering. After that I am just going to go with an old school thick vinyl that I know will last.

Steam. You need to steam the fabric and make it soft and pull it really tight into that dip. The problem is coming from because the cover is being warped around that shape in one peace instead of having a side piece that fits that shape. Try to understand that fabric naturally wants to lay flat. When you pull it around the side on the inside bend the fabric will want to make a bubble somewhere because the shape is not a flat shape. This is why you have to stretch and manipulate the fabric. Try to imagine what would happen if you tried to wrap that shape in one piece with something more stiff like card board. It wouldn't do it. Fabric trys to do the same thing.

I hope this makes sense. The finished result does look great though so don't worry!

Thanks all for the comments and advise! What a great group we have on this forum!

At the end of the day the customer was VERY happy with the finished table. I will have more to do in the near future and will add steam to my basket of tricks. I usually only think about steam when shaping outside corners and curves as opposed to concave and inside corners.

@bigrig ! I went with Naugahyde Spirit Millennium as per @john 's suggestion. They had a very close match to the color the customer wanted. I am no expert on vinyls yet but from the specs, this vinyl is VERY durable (1.5 million double rubs.... ballls!) and spec'd for medical use. Definately not cheap but about half what Ultraleather was quoted.

@vicstric ,

I think that Spirit Millenium cant be beat as far as the rubs. They have a Spirit Millenium that is a grade above too has to be tougher than nails.

@vicstric

I think the reason you see it so much from the original to yours, is the strap on the original. After reading what @John wrote about the side panel I went back and looked. He’s right. But you made it like the original. In the original pic with the strap removed you can see how the material bunches up. I think the strap hid a lot. But again you did a great job don’t sweat it!

Another consideration is old foam, the edges roll and it’s packed down in the hardest used areas. I find the only way to produce factory like results is to start with new foam, a sturdy backing to fasten to and a snug vinyl cover.

Unfortunately it’s not in a lot of our customers budget (financial and time wise) on our level so we do the best we can with what we have. Your results look good and they got it in there time line and I doubt they looked at it under the same critical eye we all tend to use on our projects.

The first thing there going to do is pull a disposable paper over your cover and the next time your in for a prostrate exam I doubt your going to notice the cover much either.

@Revv Up ,

That's was hilarious!!! @vicstric , now you rule the office, every piece you do for them now will have the same look. Don't bother trying to copy the old designs you just started a new one!

Yeah @revv up ! The first thing they did was pull the paper down over 80% of the new cover and put a pillow on top. lol! I had to pull those away to take the pic I posted... lmao! You guys will find that I am a perfectionist. It really beats me down to know there is something not quite they way I want it. I KNOW it is there. Most people dont think twice about it. That happens with everything, woodworking, upholstery, painting, drywall, etc. The list goes on. I am generally not critical of other people's work but my own is another story. It's some kind of curse. :)

@Revv Up

@vicstric Yup we all do that. Were our own worst critic. But you only have so much time and budget.

@john , @Revv Up, @bigrig , @cody, others. The customer liked the work on this exam table. I also recovered a chair that was cloth with this vinyl so they match. They seemed happy with both. Now we are into negotiations for 10 exam tables and 30 chairs. I kept pretty good track of time and the vinyl, not so much on stuff like sew foam, adhesive, etc. I cam up with a "wish I could get" number for bid to do the work. They countered. I countered their counter. That is pretty much where they are. Just curious what time it you take you guys with more experiance than me and what you might charge per chair and exam table? For the sake of this question, I am asking $600 per table and $330 per chair. Not cheap but not what i would guess an upholstery shop would charge either.

here is a pic of the chair.

Well first of all congratulations on the possible massive job! That's awesome!

I'm am no expert in medical furniture and I have no idea what the going rate for work like this is. From the looks of it most likely you will make very good money on the numbers you mentioned above. The $600 seem reasonable to me on the table. What concerns me on the $330 for the chair is what would their cost be to to just buy new chairs? A lot of times with furniture this is the problem you run in to is that the cost to recover compared to replace doesn't make sense.

What are they wanting to pay to have it done?
Also on bulk jobs like that its ok to reduce your price a little because you will be able to get really efficient doing 30 chairs compared to 1. You can combine a lot of the steps to save time. Also you can usually get a little better deal of fabric when you buy in that quantity. You just have to ask.