67"x44" Raised Rail Ellipse Table Build (1 Viewer)

So great news, I finally put the finishing touches on the table this weekend! it is officially done, and I will try to start moving this thread along a little quicker. I took, like, waaaay too many pictures and they do take awhile to sort through and select ones to post.

Next up, tear down and final assembly of the rail. The previous assembly was just to ensure everything fit properly.

Layer one glued:




and screwed:




Layer two glued:




and screwed.... Okay you get the idea.

Next I have this huge gouged out piece to fix on the upper rail.




Glued down and clamped:




Sanded flush:




Now it's time for some filler. And by some, I mean this entire can. It's pretty good stuff - two part, dries very hard. Strong enough to use as an adhesive. Not at all like regular filler that you can scratch away with your fingernail.



It dries sooo fast though! They really try to ease you into that realization :



OK, um, I would like to find the hookup for whatever these Minwax folk are puffing on. In 10+ batches I never got more than three minutes of working time, with correct mixture ratio and room temperature.


I worked very hard to get the rail as smooth and even as possible. Basically an entire weekend+ of filling, sanding, rinse & repeat. Here is a section after some rough sanding:




Belt sander got a good workout. You can see the fillets (rounded edges) on the three outside edges. I carefully sanded these to about 3/16" radius, also a ton of work. Ideally this would be done with a router, but my router went missing during my last move. Ugh, it was a nice router too. Bosch.




Recall the top surface of the rail is two pieces. I wanted to cut a pocket in the underside of these pieces and reinforce the joins with strips of wood. But without a router I didn't have a good way to pull that off. So I just loaded it up with the filler. To my surprise, this was reasonably effective.




The other joined section, sanded smooth:




The bodywork is finally done! If these were precision CNC-cut parts, I wouldn't have needed to do all this. It was probably still overkill, given this all gets covered with 1" foam. But I wanted to ensure as smooth and even a rail as I could get. Good results are always in the prep work.




Next issue was mold/mildew. I was storing my parts in a basement and each week I'd find some. So as soon as final sanding was complete, I gave the rail a coat of Killz primer.

Put bolts into all the T-nuts first to keep primer out of the threads:




Priimed and (almost) ready for upholstery!!




In the next installment we'll get the playing surface ready for upholstery, paint the riser and trim ring, and add a nice little feature that will make storing the table easier.

Then the fun part starts. I will get some upholstery posted before Thanksgiving!

Man, I wish you had detailed plans for this. It's starting to look awesome!!!

^Thanks! I could do dimensioned drawings for each of the parts. Between those, the cross sectioned models, and the build pictures, it wouldn't be too hard to replicate.

Quick post to bring us up to the upholstering stage. Believe it or not, the table is almost done at this point. The foam, fabric, and final assembly all come together very quickly.

Riser needed some filler too:




Onto the tabletop prep. Back to Lowe's for more putty. The cheap stuff this time. Easier to sand, no need for the extra strength.




I hate sanding....




Much better! ....




The surface was very rough to start but filled in quite easily with one coat.




I'll be using the quality waterproof SSC, but added this extra protection in case any moisture ever gets down to the surface. Should have painted the bottom as well for aesthetics, but didn't. Meh.




Apologies for the horrible picture, but didn't get any decent ones of the paint job. This is the trim ring and riser in their shiny new paint. Also added the feet, to keep the table off the rail when folded up and stored.




I used a 5/16" bolts and more T-nuts for these. Obviously they just get removed for play, instead of @T_Chan 's very cool kickstand design. But that is where the idea came from.




Folding legs arrived from Rockler. These are absolutely fantastic. Just had to set them up right away for a test fit. I think they look so much better than the standard style banquet legs, and they are very sturdy:




Next up, ready to cut some foam, woot!

ejot said:

I will get some upholstery posted before Thanksgiving!

Click to expand...

OK I lied. Fell asleep early last night. Will pick back up after the holiday. Thanks for following along everyone!

Not enough build threads anymore. Thanks for posting.

I've been itching to build something recently. Already have multiple tables that I'm not using.

brains613 said:

Not enough build threads anymore. Thanks for posting.

I've been itching to build something recently. Already have multiple tables that I'm not using.

Click to expand...

I can't wait to be back in the states so I can build my first table!!!

Onward!

For playing surface padding I chose 1/4" Ensolite "Gym Rubber" from foambymail/The Foam Factory. I wanted something on the firmer side after being displeased the soft playing surface on my last table.

Applied with 3M Super 77 and cut to the table shape after gluing down, with a utility knife:





Fabric is burgundy SSC from YAT. I laid it out in position, tacked two staples in the middle and folded back, then sprayed half with 3M on both surfaces. Also made cutouts in the foam where the bolts pass through to attach the rail:





After attaching the first half, folded back the second half and repeated. Pressed out a few air bubbles by hand before stapling down. I chose to staple to the table edge instead of the top:





Trimming off the excess:





Now onto the rail. Laid out some clean plastic sheeting and marked out the cuts. I used a little jig to keep the mark at an even distance from the edge of the rail. Not sure what distanced I used - just kind of eyeballed it. Foam is 1" thick, 2.8lb SuperMax, also from foambymail. This is just a tiny bit firmer (70lb vs 65lb ILD) than YAT's premium rail foam.





Made the cut with an electric kitchen knife. WOW does this work great - seriously, get one of these! I grabbed the cheapest one on Amazon for $13. We also used it on the Thanksgiving turkey, after some pause. ("I'm sorry, you want to use my foam saw for WHAT?).





Marked the position of the rail and then spray glued the foam on.

Rail fabric. So, I'd originally planned on going with vinyl. But after looking through lots of pictures of other tables, the idea of a padded suede began to grow on me. Reading @Irish 's favorable reviews of how nicely it worked, and thinking back to the struggle I had with vinyl last time, sealed the deal. I don't mind the patterns that show up in it when you brush it in different direction, and figured it would be super comfy.

Started by pulling and stapling the outer edge with a buddy's help. I used the "halving" method. Started at the ends and middles of the sides, then tacked in positions halfway in between, then halfway in between those, etc.





Deep breath aaaand .... slice up the inside, start pulling & stapling:





Flipping it over to check out the finish. So far, so good:





With no straight sections, I v-cut the whole perimeter:





Then it was just one staple at time. Have to say, this material was a dream to work with. Hands still cramped up though. I can't imagine trying to work vinyl.
Voila!




Rail uphostery complete. This was the by far the most stressful and demanding job of the build. Total time was just over two hours. Pneumatic stapler was a MUST-HAVE.





Unfortunately I never got a good shot of the rail by itself with the rest of the fabric trimmed off. Here's the underside after being trimmed, with the riser mounted in place. Yup, there are some exposed staples inside the riser. Oh well! (Can't see them when flipped back up).




And trim ring mounted to test how it fits up:



I'd be lying if I said I didn't temporarily set the pieces together at this point to see what they looked like. But - you don't get to see it yet.

Here's what we have left:

- Mount the legs
- Cut & finish the thru-holes in the cloth for the mounting bolts
- Install the decorative nail heads in the trim ring
- Final assembly.

Looks to me like two more installments, and it will be wrapped up and ready for cards to fly.

Good work and it's nice to hear how you're learning from your mistakes as you go and what you'd do different next time. I was very glad to see you're using a pneumatic stapler, the only way to go.

Great work...table looking really good. I love the progression throughout the thread, looking forward to pics of you playing on it!

Love this build. Thanks for documenting it.

Wondering what @T_Chan's opinion is on stapling the felt to the edge...mostly wondering if there are any issues with the plywood splitting and/or the staples not grabbing.

ejot said:

I used a little jig to keep the mark at an even distance from the edge of the rail. Not sure what distanced I used - just kind of eyeballed it.

Click to expand...

Lol. I used a deck of cards.

Great write-up and very helpful. Loving this table and this thread. Thank you.

Suede rail! I went suede a couple builds ago, and will never go back.

I've never tried wrapping the inside of the rail before the outside but I've only made a few tables. Wonder if one way is better than the other. Great build so far.

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. Glad to see people enjoying the progress and thrilled to know some of the things I've learned may even help out on others' builds.

And now what we've all been waiting on ... we'll get to see the table fully assembled! But there's a bit of work to do first...

I wanted the legs to be very securely attached so I added a layer of boards to the bottom surface to give a little more depth of material, for longer screws. Laying this out:




Glued on and screwed in:




Legs attached:




Now I need holes through the speedcloth for the bolts to pass through. First, making the cutouts:




Then a quick pass with a lighter melted the edges to prevent fraying. Of course I tested this technique on some scrap material first:




Finally a few staples to relieve the stress on the opening:


(Okay, that's a different hole than the previous two pictures. This one came out prettier LOL.)


All holes finished off:




Testing to see that the riser covers the dimples from stapling around the holes. It was perfect, phew!!




Riser and playing surface bolted into the rail:






Time to open up the legs and flip 'er over........




(YES, we are still talking about a poker table here! )




.. drumrolllllllllllll........




Boom!






So, one frustration I've had -


I'm not a skilled photographer & this table is really, REALLY hard to photograph in a way that gives a feel for what it looks like in real life.

> the shape causes all sorts of weird perspective/distortion effects
> the rail always ends up looking fatter than it seem when you're sitting at the table
> the recessed black riser blends into the rail and makes it difficult to see how it's raised up
> any shot that minimizes one of these effects tends to exacerbate others


Here's a couple more shots from a higher angle and then in a cleaner environment:







Of course we are not quite done yet. There are still decorative nails to apply, which really finishes it out nicely. In the final installment we will add these on and get some finished pics posted. In the future I will post up some better shots of the table if I am able to capture them.

Nicely done!

Link for those legs?

Thanks!

Legs are from Rockler. Earlier this year they were on sale for $75.

http://www.rockler.com/folding-stacking-banquet-table-legs

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Folding-St...200265?hash=item3a9002b749:g:cXsAAOSwQiRUmqK5

Nice!!!

Throw some chips and cards on it and it will allow us to see a little different perspective.

Good idea, I will definitely do that. (y) :thumbsup:

Great looking table. Thanks for the read.

Christmas tree and presents kind of took over the living room last month but I finally got the table set back up for some final pics. Sorry for the long wait!

Last thing left to install is the decorative nail heads. Got these from YAT, and they're nice, very substantial.

Used an adhesive backed rule and spaced them at 50mm (~2")




Marked positions with this handy little impromptu jig and then pre-drilled. They came out pretty well aligned, but not perfect. I would do this a slightly different way next time.




Tapped them in with a big 'ol hammer and some cloth to protect the finish. Done!





AAaaaaaand - final reveal! I need some stuff to hang on the walls, haha.





with 10K tourney start stacks:




Nail head detail:




And with some big limit set stacks:








If all goes as planned I should be picking up some chairs within the next week or so!

Bravo!

You mentioned the black inner rail not being well defined? Any thoughts on adding some sort of deco nail to the inside?

Did you start with an '8 x '4 plywood? I'm wondering if that is the maximum resulting size since it is an elliptical shape of an 8 x 4? Or is it smaller due to the limitations of your hosting room?

Trihonda said:

You mentioned the inner rail not being well defined? Any thoughts on adding some sort of deco nail to the inside?

Click to expand...

I'd just meant that it's hard to distinguish in pictures and hadn't given any thought to actually making it 'pop' more - however - that's a pretty cool idea!

dkersey said:

Did you start with an '8 x '4 plywood? I'm wondering if that is the maximum resulting size since it is an elliptical shape of an 8 x 4? Or is it smaller due to the limitations of your hosting room?

Click to expand...

I started with smaller pieces because they were free, and more importantly for space considerations, as you suggest. It shares more personality with a typically-sized round table that "just happens to be be a little squished", than with a full-sized oval.

You can make an ellipse from any LxW. For dimensions in the ~95"x45" range you end up with a shape that seems a little more "pointy" at the ends than my table. Some have considered an alternate shape called a superellipse to combat this for those sizes, but it would be more difficult to lay out.

Ellipses, so cool. My brain hates the maths though.

Gasser chairs!!! They're amazing. Gold trim wouldn't be my first choice, but for $25 a pop I'm not complaining, and the black fabric is perfect. These were in northern NJ on Craigslist - if you're interested I'm sure you can find the ad, or PM me. Seller was very easy to work with.

Eight spots squeezes in better than I imagined and legroom isn't too bad once chairs are at seating distance from the table. Seven is definitely comfortable - just like a 48"-50" round.

Nice. Gassers are nice but damn ugly (typically). Those look great though!

Beautiful table! Thanks for sharing.