San Diego "ultimate game table" Build part 3

Redwood was a great choice for the base and bottom....

Things are looking really good with the bottom complete.  Amazingly enough everything sits level even with out the adjustable feet bottoms were planning on adding.  We needed to add only one small shim to make the table rest to the base.  No creaking, no wobbling, and its only going to get sturdier once we screw in the shelving and pit edges.  

One thing we did have to do is add wood bracing for the bottom of the leaf.  The carriage bolts alone actually hold everything together well, but the top has a noticeable bow in the middle on one side.  After we added some wood for the leaf to rest on when in position, it was very very 

flat. 

after the second or third sanding, just before we started applying treatments to the wood.  

Usability looks good.  Not too big, not too small.  After we add shelves the map area will appear smaller but its still going to be more usable space than when we were getting out of  "Ol' Rickety".

The next Saturday after our first game session with the half done table.  We were half temped to leave it like this but the extra shelving should come in handy.

Extra pic just before we cleared everything away and restarted.

San Diego "ultimate game table" Build part 2

Fast forward a little bit and you got yourself 2 table halves.  Nice. 

We flipped over the two halves to check for alignment then drilled the holes for the carriage bolts.  With 4 bolts the two halves squeeze together tight and become one piece.  Now we flip it again and begin to assemble the pedestals upside down.

BTW, Can anyone spot the Hirst molds in the picture?

You can see a bit of bowing in the middle.  We gave each top's brace about a 1/16" gap and let the carriage bolts squeeze everything together.  The braces look a bit warped under the pressure but the table top looks like one piece from the other side.

Here is where we threw out the plans for the bases.  No crate bottoms for this baby!  We "octganized" each pedestal half and spread the legs around.  L bracket pieces and screwing right into the wood both insure there won't be any shifting or wobbling.  I had read elsewhere that the secret to a good pedestal table is to make the base rock solid and heavy.  Done.

The only problem with building it all upside down is that we were constantly afraid of measurement drift.  We constantly checked each leg for plum and height and used vises to hold everything together.  We had to unscrew a few of the legs and re seat them too.  This was one of the longer parts of the project for sure.

As a note, the table legs do not rest directly flush and poke onto the bottom of the table surface,  We added soft furniture feet stickies to each one to rest between the table and the legs to insure that the majority of the weight was transferred to the horizontal bracing of the pedestal.

Now onto the leaf.  Our original designs called for a lot of cross bracing to sit between the two long braces....but it was totally unnecessary and we settle for just 2 more towards the center.  We also had to make sure we didn't inadvertently cover up a spot where carriage bolt holes were going to go either.

San Diego "ultimate game table" Build part 1

Right after getting back from Home Depot (1st trip of 4).  We ended up spending about $500 when all was said and done.  It was tempting to go for poplar and pine, but we thought....awww frack it and went with rewood and white oak.  The table top itself is A/C 7 layer grade plywood...basicaly the best we could lay our hands on.  

Were just making some last checks on the final design before we start marking and cutting.  The ping pong table (ie, old game table) is so rickety that we only trust it to hold some of the wood.  Our tools were laid out on the side, all Ryobis, but we bought extra good saw blades just for the project, galvanized 1/8th deck screws and lots and lots of hardware.

Making the first measurements.  The table dimensions here have to be pretty spot on as we planned on building just about everything else to fit from it.  We had 2 people check everything twice and I still managed to make my first mark off by a foot :)

Right after the cuts were made to the end pices we sanded the hell out of it because it might (and did) effect further measurements and angles.  We ended up sanding the table top a good 2 or 3 times before applying the varnish and it will still get another sanding sometime thi week before we put the shelf pices up.

First brace is cut and we pre drill the holes and an inset for the screw head.  We covered all table top holes with durhams rock putty in between sandings.

Getting these angle pieces on was actualy a lot less of a hassle than expected.  "Cut to fit" became out motto, and it actualy turned out pretty well.  BTW, 3/4 inch A grade plywood + 2x4 = flooring.  This table can be stood on and it doesnt even shift.

San Diego "ultimate game table"

We have been dreaming of getting ourselves one of these for a while now.  Inspired by several on the net, the group decided to spend a couple weekends (and a few hundred dollars) and build our own custom made table for RPGs and wargames.

Our goals:

• Table had to be the right size...big enough for 8-10 players but not so huge that it couldn't fit in a small garage (basicaly not larger than a ping pong table)
• Table had to be movable.  We wanted to be able to put it away on non-game days.
• Sturdy, low to the ground, and pedastle style.  The last thing you want to do when playing a game is knock a table leg with your foot and send half the minis flying.  We also wanted a table that was no more than 30" off the ground to both sit and reach comfortably.
• 3 discrete areas:  player game space (rule books, extra figs, cards and dice), food/bevarage space, and communal game area for a map and terrain.
• recessed game area to make it easier to see over dungeon walls and to cover up in progress games between sessions.

The desgin process actualy lasted a few years.  We knew it was going to be a  lots and lots of dollars in materials, and none of us are experienced wood workers in any sense of the word.  Plus there are a lot of design challenges to overcome even for the simplest of plans... and what we wanted to do wasn't going to be anywhere near simple if we wanted to satisfy all our goals.

Eventualy however, it became pretty obvious that we needed something more than a ratty ping 

pong table covered in plastic.  One of our group had become fairly handy with power tools (of which he actualy owned his own small collection) and we had been gaming out of another guy's garage for the better part of a year.  It was time to bite the bullet, and here was the initial design:

Top view of the table design.  With the leaf it make a 10 player oval, and without make a perfect octagon.  Players have shelf space, an individual area, and the terrain space is in a lower pit.

Underneath you can see that the 3/4 inch plywood is heavily braced with 2x4.  Maybe even a little over built;

Still better to be safe than sorry.

Each piece seperated out.  2

 end table top pieces, one leaf, and two pedastals.  Modular and movable.  Individual sections would be held to gether with carraige bolts.

We ended up making several modifications to the design, mostly on the top of the table.  We gave players a bit more vertical room for thir shelves, but we ended up cutting out every other corner to allow space for beverages, snacks, and dice rolling.  Also as we begun to build we knew we had to do something with the ugly pedastles....they were about as elegant as saw horses and didn't look like they could give us the footsie room needed for marathon sessions.

Unfortunatly, the final designs are in my other digital pants so I'll post them this weekend.  Next post will include all the action shots we took over the first weekend.