Oval Table Build with Chanman Custom Cloth - Step by Step (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Cheese]

After almost two years of owning my custom Chanman cloth I finally bit the bullet and built my custom Gangster Squad Table. Actually getting my custom CPC Gangster Squad chips was a big motivator for me to get the matching table done.

Details:
86x46 inches
5 inch rail
65 pound 1 inch foam used for rail
Whisper vinyl
Volara 2A 1/4 inch foam for playing surface
Chanman custom cloth (thanks to @T_Chan for the cloth and @p5woody for designing it for me)
Twin oak pedestals 33 inches in between
2x 3/4 inch Maple plywood used for the build
Pedestal risers built from solid hardwood. A very special thanks to @lnlver who made these for me

Finished product (I may paint the pedestal black at some point)

Without further ado pictures I took during the whole process:
My homemade circle jig made from a scrap piece of masonite board

Rail lower locating ring (1.5 or 2 inches I believe)

Doing the 5 inch rail arcs now before removing my fancy circle jig from the router

Rail piece is finished, just awaiting a good sanding to round off the edges and smooth everything out.

lower rail locating ring final cuts

Pedestal risers made by @lnlver - They fit perfectly! Thank You!
In this picture you can see my lower support piece going between the pedestals is too short so I had to make a new one.

Gluing and screwing the rail pieces together.

Now the sanding process on all the sharp edges!

Putting the studs from the old lower pedestal support on the new longer 2x6 solid oak board.

Time to start staining everything! More shots of Bobs beautiful pedestal spacers!

Picked a shade to dark for the stain but eventually I may paint everything black so its a moot point. That or I'll sand the pedestals and restain them someday

More to come in next post

 

[Mr. Cheese]

The piece of plywood mounted to the pedestals was the center piece that was cut out from the rail piece of plywood. I countersunk 5/16th T nuts to connect this piece to the pedestals (6 bolts total)

With the terrific design from Bob for the pedestal spacers removing the playing surface from the rail is a matter of simply loosening 6 bolts which are easily accessible as you can see

Testing to see what it will look like. Anna's supervising to make sure I don't slack off.

Supervising is exhausting... yawn

"Why are you standing there taking my picture?! Get back to work!"

Drilling all the T-nuts to bolt the rail to the playing surface. These are 1/4 inch T-nuts so the holes I had to drill are 5/16th. counter sunk and filled the void with glue.

Rail foam time. I couldn't remember how much overhang on the foam so I went 2 1/2 inches on the outside and 1 inch on the inside. Hindsight, do like 1 1/2-2 inches on the outside and 1 inch on the inside for a rail with an outside height of 1 1/2 inches and 3/4 inches inside height. It makes wrapping the vinyl and getting the foam situated under the vinyl on the bottom edges easier if you don't have so much overhang.

When you start doing the vinyl... don't get carried away with the staples until you are happy with the results... I ended up doing the whole rail. I finished it but until about halfway through I hadn't gotten into the swing of it again (it's been 2-3 years since I did this last) so I ended up pulling about 200-250 staples out and redoing half the rail because I noticed there were some uneven bumps towards the bottom/underside (thanks to my 2 1/2 inches of foam overhang instead of 1 1/2-2 like I should have done). Also don't try to finish the job at 1am like I did...

(You know its getting late when the supervisor falls asleep on the job)

Make sure you don't cut too far in or it'll show when you wrap the vinyl. Be careful not to tear either. (notice the little yellow screw driver and blue handled pliers in the picture... that was what I used to pull half the rail staples to redo it)

Wrinkle and bump/lump free from top to bottom finally!

Letting the glue dry for a few minutes. I only put foam where the playing surface would be and not where the rail will sit (a technique I saw Tony do in a video).

After laying the cloth out I measured about 10 times to make sure it was even. Then I did exactly like Tony did in his video and put one staple on each side towards the middle. Then I flipped half the cloth over, light sprayed 3M 77 spray adhesive on the volara foam and even just a super light haze on the gaming cloth. Flip it back over and smooth out from the center towards the edges. Measure, pull it up, smooth again, measure pull it up... curse that you keep putting it back in the same spot which is 1/16 of an inch off from where you want it to be... finally get it! Move on to the opposite side and then you can put staples all the way around and trim off the excess cloth.

All done!

 

[Kyle]

Cool!

 

[200 Motels]

Great looking table. Can't wait for the rest.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

Cool!

Great looking table. Can't wait for the rest.

Thanks guys! Just finished uploading the last of the pictures.

 

[CdnBeerLover]

Great job. That's a setup to be proud of.

 

[72o]

Wow awesome table from execution to cloth design. Thank you for taking the time to document and take pics along the way. Congrats and very nice work!

 

[Phantom]

Nice work mate, really great table and great pics. Enjoy it

 

[BNM]

Grosso rispetto...

 

[mummel]

Wow really well done. Great job.

 

[200 Motels]

It's pretty inspiring. I've always wanted to make a table but could never justify it since we never play here.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I can't wait to play on it!

First impressions of the cloth are that it's almost like having an air hockey table. The slightest flick of the wrist and you can send cards floating all the way to the other side of the table no issue whatsoever. Even with old slightly sticky cards.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

Got the tables positioned last night. Now I need to pick up another 8 chairs.

 

[Irish]

Great setup and nice work on the table!

 

[inca911]

Looks great, Dan! I can see my chair. Can't get a game pulled together for this Saturday/Sunday? At least we should try top get a Maslow or two for some OFCP. 13Aug is such a looooong time from now....

 

[chipjoker]

Very nice Job, look AWESOME..

 

[ruskba]

You've answered almost all the questions I was debating with regards to the playing surface and rail! I just finished cutting and sanding the wood last night so now I can move forward with some confidence. Great work!

 

[mattduck]

That is a sweet setup. Inspiring for sure.

 

[ParrotheadMZ]

Man that turned out great. Good job....

 

[CHP TD]

Awsome work

the rail is beautiful. Im on the way to redoing mine Version 3.5 lol.

i have a few questions:

Is the wisper vinyl 4 way strech?
Did you use heat to work the vinyl?
Did you glue the overhang foam around the rail then cover it? or maybe how did you do the overhanging foam?

thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

Awsome work

the rail is beautiful. Im on the way to redoing mine Version 3.5 lol.

i have a few questions:

Is the wisper vinyl 4 way strech?
Did you use heat to work the vinyl?
Did you glue the overhang foam around the rail then cover it? or maybe how did you do the overhanging foam?

thanks in advance.

Thanks, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Yes I believe the whisper vinyl is 4 way stretch because it seems to be able to stretch every direction. No heat was used on the vinyl. Just lots of pulling and stapling. No only the top of the rail got glue and the overhang just got wrapped around when I pulled the vinyl around. Just make sure you pull the same amount when you are doing it and only put enough staples so it won't rip and will hold it until you are 100% happy with the results (unlike I did where I had to pull 200+ staples out to redo half of it lol).

Good luck!

 

[atomiktoaster]

Did you put a roundover on the plywood for the rail? If so, what radius bit did you use? I'm doing a single sheet of 3/4" ply, thinking of using a 1/4" roundover bit.

 

[manamongkids]

helluva setup

 

[Mr. Cheese]

Did you put a roundover on the plywood for the rail? If so, what radius bit did you use? I'm doing a single sheet of 3/4" ply, thinking of using a 1/4" roundover bit.

I did round off all the sharp edges. I ended up just sanding it with a palm sander vs using the router with the radius bit. I'm no expert but I think you could use a larger radius bit and just don't drop the bit as deep and it would be a more gradual rounded edge. (definitely test it first because I may be wrong about that lol).

 

[atomiktoaster]

I did round off all the sharp edges. I ended up just sanding it with a palm sander vs using the router with the radius bit. I'm no expert but I think you could use a larger radius bit and just don't drop the bit as deep and it would be a more gradual rounded edge. (definitely test it first because I may be wrong about that lol).

You'd have to run the bearing on the face of the plywood, rather than the edge, but that's an interesting concept. Wouldn't be too hard with a router table.

 

[Max D]

great setup, really nice custom felt too.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

great setup, really nice custom felt too.

Thanks Max!

 

[CHP TD]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.




Thanks, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Yes I believe the whisper vinyl is 4 way stretch because it seems to be able to stretch every direction. No heat was used on the vinyl. Just lots of pulling and stapling. No only the top of the rail got glue and the overhang just got wrapped around when I pulled the vinyl around. Just make sure you pull the same amount when you are doing it and only put enough staples so it won't rip and will hold it until you are 100% happy with the results (unlike I did where I had to pull 200+ staples out to redo half of it lol).

Good luck!

thanks for the reply. is there any reason why you wouldnt glue the overhang? I thought that if you did this it would be one less thing to worry about... Hannnnnggg on.... LIGHT BULB!!!! if you glue it you cant readjust it - Is that it?

 

[Mr. Cheese]

thanks for the reply. is there any reason why you wouldnt glue the overhang? I thought that if you did this it would be one less thing to worry about... Hannnnnggg on.... LIGHT BULB!!!! if you glue it you cant readjust it - Is that it?

Yeah I believe that's why it's normally not glued

 

[CHP TD]

well i'll be damned ...

i;ve been doing it wrong all this time... Well not that?!?! well some say.... back to the subject

im stunned - that is just one of those things where it doesn't make sense But it is the key to a perfect result.

time to redo my table!!!!