Perfect padded poker rail (2 Viewers)

Grimalkin

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Hey all,

Just looking for any feedback of the perfect padded rail (https://www.casinosupply.com/products/perfect-padded-rail-per-ft-no-returns-cut-material-1)

I’ve sunk a lot into poker hosting in the past few months, and I just priced out building a padded rail on my now bare table I built (4x8 oval with speed cloth on it no rail). Well to build just the padded rail I’m looking at around an extra $350 CAD, vinyl and foam are insane pricing. The perfect padded rail is looking like around $160 CAD.

How bad is the perfect padded rail? I’m also looking at building table 2 for a growing game, and I’m just not up for sinking so much money into these tables right now. However, I do want to have 4x8 oval playing surfaces so I’m okay building another plain Jane oval table with speed cloth. I currently have played a few games and no one has mentioned the lack of a rail.

basically wanting to know

1. any opinions on the perfect padded rail and if it’s a waste of money or not.

2. or should I just go ahead and build my second table with no rail, and possibly add a proper rail to these tables another time when I’m able to?

3. I saw a grey foam backed vinyl at the fabric store, looks like 1/4” foam, would this be too little padding for the rail? downside is it’s grey and not black, but it’s much cheaper to buy this item than both foam and vinyl separately.
 

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May do okay temporarily. Benefit is that it can be removed occasionally and used as a swimming pool noodle.

More seriously, since it's so cheap you could buy a tiny sample and see if you like it. Let us know what you find.
 
I don’t think that foam-backed vinyl would be adequate. Too hard if just placed directly on bare ply. I’d recommend using some of the standard green foam underneath, maybe 1" thick.
 
May do okay temporarily. Benefit is that it can be removed occasionally and used as a swimming pool noodle.

More seriously, since it's so cheap you could buy a tiny sample and see if you like it. Let us know what you find.

The description says it’s a dense rubber, so does indeed appear to be different than a foam.
 
I’m hijacking my own thread now, anyone ever used carpet underlay foam? It is recycled foam looks like… enough here for 3 tables! Waiting to hear back on thickness, hoping it’s close to 1/2”. This whole roll
Is $40… I might take the plunge, it’s too cheap to ignore it, would definitely make the rail more viable….. on 3 tables… :)

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It’s junk, bought it around 12 years ago, it lasted one game. Don’t waste your money.
Thank you for the feedback, it’s hard to know from the reviews on the website if the “perfect rail” is any good, alright well that makes my decision easier…
 
I don’t think that foam-backed vinyl would be adequate. Too hard if just placed directly on bare ply. I’d recommend using some of the standard green foam underneath, maybe 1" thick.
I agree! If you're going to add a rail and spend some money... might as well spend a bit more and actually get something useful.

@Grimalkin Have you considered building the rail from scrap plywood (if you have any) by joining/laminating peices together and then using a router to cut the final profile? I just built a full second table from the scraps of my raised rail build. It saves from buying the sheet of plywood.

For the rail foam, try to source 1" HD EXTRA FIRM open cell foam from upholstery stores.. And you don't need a full sheet where the middle is wasted. Get your 2 long sides cut and then 2 rectangles of foam for either radius end. This will also save you a good bit of money, should be around $60 (CAD). You can join the foam seams with the same spray glue (3M77) and it works great!

For the vinyl, I found a decent one for us Canucks on Amazon. VViViD Black Weatherproof Faux Leather Finish Marine Vinyl Fabric - 10ft x 54 Inch <- $61 (CAD)

If you do have the scrap plywood you can build this rail for around $140 including the wood glue and spray glue. If not, you can use a sheet of 5/8" one side good ply about $75 (CAD) and if you cut the solid rail from this full sheet with a router, you'll give yourself another playing field surface . Hope this helps you figure out a way to build a more substantial rail at a better price!
 
I’m hijacking my own thread now, anyone ever used carpet underlay foam? It is recycled foam looks like… enough here for 3 tables! Waiting to hear back on thickness, hoping it’s close to 1/2”. This whole roll
Is $40… I might take the plunge, it’s too cheap to ignore it, would definitely make the rail more viable….. on 3 tables… :)

View attachment 1267558
I’ve built a few tables with carpet pad. Works fine. It’s not the 1” foam sold for rails but it cushions your arms and nobody ever said “hey WTF? Is this carpet pad?”
 
I agree! If you're going to add a rail and spend some money... might as well spend a bit more and actually get something useful.

@Grimalkin Have you considered building the rail from scrap plywood (if you have any) by joining/laminating peices together and then using a router to cut the final profile? I just built a full second table from the scraps of my raised rail build. It saves from buying the sheet of plywood.

For the rail foam, try to source 1" HD EXTRA FIRM open cell foam from upholstery stores.. And you don't need a full sheet where the middle is wasted. Get your 2 long sides cut and then 2 rectangles of foam for either radius end. This will also save you a good bit of money, should be around $60 (CAD). You can join the foam seams with the same spray glue (3M77) and it works great!

For the vinyl, I found a decent one for us Canucks on Amazon. VViViD Black Weatherproof Faux Leather Finish Marine Vinyl Fabric - 10ft x 54 Inch <- $61 (CAD)

If you do have the scrap plywood you can build this rail for around $140 including the wood glue and spray glue. If not, you can use a sheet of 5/8" one side good ply about $75 (CAD) and if you cut the solid rail from this full sheet with a router, you'll give yourself another playing field surface . Hope this helps you figure out a way to build a more substantial rail at a better price!
Thanks for the tips!
 
I used 1.5" HD foam for the rail, but used the dense underlay in the center of the table inside the race track oval. I traced the inside on the racetrack on the underlay, cut it, then glued on the table in place. Then covered the underlay with the custom cloth, stapling the cloth on the table in which the racetrack covers all the staples.
It works great for a playing surface under the cloth. It's just slightly higher than the race track, so it's easy to slide the winning chips from the table to the racetrack for stacking.
 

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To add to this thread, Straight Poker Supplies and or Chanman Poker tables have building supplies available. I purchased my 1.5 " foam which comes in 110"x 12" strips for $49.99 from Straight Poker supplies. I only needed one strip to do my 84" table, and a 4.5" rail. I used 3m 77 to join each end of the foam together. The seams are not seen through the vinyl.
I've also purchased some supplies from Chanman as well.
 
To add to this thread, Straight Poker Supplies and or Chanman Poker tables have building supplies available. I purchased my 1.5 " foam which comes in 110"x 12" strips for $49.99 from Straight Poker supplies. I only needed one strip to do my 84" table, and a 4.5" rail. I used 3m 77 to join each end of the foam together. The seams are not seen through the vinyl.
I've also purchased some supplies from Chanman as well.
Did you have extra foam at that length? My table is 94” x 48”. I might build a new table from scratch and do a proper build with a rail in mind. Currently there’s no room on my table for an overhang of the rail as I didn’t build it with that in mind
 
To add to this thread, Straight Poker Supplies and or Chanman Poker tables have building supplies available. I purchased my 1.5 " foam which comes in 110"x 12" strips for $49.99 from Straight Poker supplies. I only needed one strip to do my 84" table, and a 4.5" rail. I used 3m 77 to join each end of the foam together. The seams are not seen through the vinyl.
I've also purchased some supplies from Chanman as well.
Don’t have a picture. Curious what the 1.5” foam looks like done. @4SUMERZ
 
Nevermind :) I needed to scroll down. Looks good. How tall was your raised rail?
 
Nevermind :) I needed to scroll down. Looks good. How tall was your raised rail?
here is another pic of the current table. The 1.5 " foam from SPS compresses to 1" when tightly wrapped with vinyl. My rail only overhangs my current table by 1/2" at the most, and that is the foam that overhangs it. I'm a few days away from finishing a new rail, and this new one is 6" wide to have cup holders in the rail. It will overhang the table by 2.5 ".
 

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here is another pic of the current table. The 1.5 " foam from SPS compresses to 1" when tightly wrapped with vinyl. My rail only overhangs my current table by 1/2" at the most, and that is the foam that overhangs it. I'm a few days away from finishing a new rail, and this new one is 6" wide to have cup holders in the rail. It will overhang the table by 2.5 ".
That's a tight vinyl rail! bounce a loonie of that tarp! Nice job on zero wrinkles! My first shot didn't go that nice! I have a few wrinkles in the corners to get out
 

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That's a tight vinyl rail! bounce a loonie of that tarp! Nice job on zero wrinkles! My first shot didn't go that nice! I have a few wrinkles in the corners to get out
I purchased 4 way stretch vinyl for that rail. I could not find that same type vinyl for my new rail, so it will be interesting if I can get the same tight wrap. May need to bring some hair dryer heat to stretch it a bit on the corners.
I purchased the new vinyl from Straight Poker supplies, and they said it was 4 way stretch, but NYET!

Where did you buy your vinyl?
 
I purchased 4 way stretch vinyl for that rail. I could not find that same type vinyl for my new rail, so it will be interesting if I can get the same tight wrap. May need to bring some hair dryer heat to stretch it a bit on the corners.
I purchased the new vinyl from Straight Poker supplies, and they said it was 4 way stretch, but NYET!

Where did you buy your vinyl?
Believe it or not... Amazon haha https://a.co/d/d3OlMuu it's pretty stretchy. I think I'm just inexperienced and didn't take enough time with it. I also saw the stapling pattern editorial someone posted so I'm going to follow that for my raised rail vinyl for sure and take more time with it!
 
Believe it or not... Amazon haha https://a.co/d/d3OlMuu it's pretty stretchy. I think I'm just inexperienced and didn't take enough time with it. I also saw the stapling pattern editorial someone posted so I'm going to follow that for my raised rail vinyl for sure and take more time with it!
On corners, one has to cut into tiny strips, close to the edge of the rail, and staple while pulling to limit the wrinkles.
 
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Speed cloth with no bumpers! You're a man who likes to live on the edge! How often do cards fly off the table?
I’m using the same setup, no issues with cards, but splashing pot can sometimes get rollers and almost had a chip fall off the table last game… no splashing the pot!!
 
Speed cloth with no bumpers! You're a man who likes to live on the edge! How often do cards fly off the table?
The table is huge so not very often but it has happened because I use a powered dealer since I only have one hand that I found online, I hated having someone deal for me. The damn thing works too well sometimes when dealing to those sitting closest to me if they aren’t paying attention.
 
The table is huge so not very often but it has happened because I use a powered dealer since I only have one hand that I found online, I hated having someone deal for me. The damn thing works too well sometimes when dealing to those sitting closest to me if they aren’t paying attention.
Oh I've never seen a powered dealer!
 

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