Almost ready for new (first) build... (1 Viewer)

BadMonkeyMusic

High Hand
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OK,
So I returned my warped panels and bought some nice 3/4 maple, very straight and very solid.
Stay away from cheap "radiata" ply at HD!

86"x44" overall

3 sheets 3/4" ply
Black whisper vinyl
1/4" playing surface foam
1" 55lb rail foam (possibly doubling only wrapping over top layer)
dk blue SSC
custom under table sliding/removable cup holders
LED w/ 3/4" raised rail
folding legs, until I find some nice pedestals on CL...

Here are a few crude sketch-ups on my design thought...
Lots of info from PCF's chipjoker... he went above and beyond getting me his documentation on a couple of his old builds! thanks!
Any and all input is welcomed... and encouraged! LOL

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Haha was jus talking about that with the wife... kinda just shook her head!
Lol

This all started with me touching up a cheap table I have, then just snowballed.
Hahahaa

I will definitely add them at some point, there will be room in the rail riser to do that...
The rail itself will be removable anyway.
 
You'll be amazed at how much players appreciate it. Never enough juice for the phones these days. (But once you install, buy a few extra charging cables, both iPhone and android compatible)
 
T_Chan, Do you mean between the rail risers(were they’ll be mounted) or the height?

I know distance AWAY from the diffuser will give it more of the “glow” I was looking for, and not the individual dotted appearance of the bulbs...
Or do you think the height would be a factor too???

How far away do you think would be best, and still allow for the support for the rail?
Is an inch enough?

Thanks!
 
Not height, just the horizontal distance. 1" is usually enough but it also depends on your diffuser material, some show hot spots easier than others.

Height isn't a factor unless you're going trailer than 2".
 
Thanks T, that’s what I figured...
The riser blocks height will be 3/4, maybe 1”.
I’m using a cool product from tap plastics,
Can’t seem to pull up their site right now for a link...
It’s a PC I think... it’s 1/8 thick and cut to the height you want, it’s matte black when unlit and when lighted will show what ever color led is chosen.
Very cool material... someone here used it as well.
 
So...
I sized the sheets to my 44x86 size and routed the radius today...
After looking at it physically, I decided that a 1” top rail overhang past the diffuser will be too much for a small 1” rise.

I’m thinking that if I go with a 4 1/2” lower rail and keeping the 3”x1” riser blocks, that will give me a nice small 1/2” top rail overhang from the diffuser itself, with 1 1/2” spacing between the lights and the diffuser for that “glow” look.
If any of that makes sense.... LOL

Wish I was doing more, faster, but I’m working full time, re-doing a bathroom and prepping for a home wedding in June...
Too much goin on!!! Hahahaaa
 

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Thanks, man!

My riser was two pieces of 1/2 plywood-- which made it just under an inch (0.94" I think) in total actual height. I ordered the diffuser strips 1-3/8" tall as they needed sit down into the track at bit. This helped in several ways since the height also no longer needed to be exact. Since the price was so good, I ordered several extra stips as you have to use a heatgun and get them bend and I was worried. (I also cracked one when I decided to drill small holes at the bottom and secure them with tiny screws). Good luck and send more pictures!

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Thanks, man!

My riser was two pieces of 1/2 plywood-- which made it just under an inch (0.94" I think) in total actual height. I ordered the diffuser strips 1-3/8" tall as they needed sit down into the track at bit. This helped in several ways since the height also no longer needed to be exact. Since the price was so good, I ordered several extra stips as you have to use a heatgun and get them bend and I was worried. (I also cracked one when I decided to drill small holes at the bottom and secure them with tiny screws). Good luck and send more pictures!

View attachment 678258
Thanks for the info!

I was worried that they weren’t flexible enough to take the corners, but hopefully they’ll handle the radius of mine, I imagine it’ll be ok as your end radius, being an ellipse, must be more radical that mine.

I’ll definitely add images as I go, but like I posted, lots goin on right now so times tight.

Thanks again and I’ll probably have some more questions, so be ready! Hahahaaa
 
Started to piece out the lower rail/playing surface...
 

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Well, found some time to move a few steps closer to finishing...
I finished cutting the rails out and worked at figuring out rail heights and whatnot.
Couple of small glitches with the router, but overall it came out great, very happy ;)
Think I'm going with a full inch height as opposed to the 3/4" I originally wanted, mocking up the diffuser position the 3/4" was not enough and the diffuser was kinda hidden, going up to 1" made things look a little more pleasing to the eye...

I changed from a 5" upper rail to a 5 1/2" upper rail, mocking up the 5" seemed a bit narrow and 6" seemed to be too much.
So settled on the middle ground ;)

Looking at the last few pics you can see the height of 3/4, then 5/8's and finally a full inch.

Next on the list is cutting the riser blocks for the rail and figuring out how i'm gonna attach all this together LOL!!!
Still not sure if I want to go with JUST the rail wrapped or if I want to make the upper and lower rail "one" piece(so to speak) and wrap all of it...
 

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Couple more steps accomplished today...
Got the risers mounted, used 3/4 ply piece and some 1/4” pegboard I had to give me the full 1” I wanted.
Attached a backer for the LEDs which was a drywall edge with the “L” side trimmed off.
The lights will be mounted with the tape on the strips as well as some extra small cable ties to help keep them secure.

I’ll try to clean up the post when done, make it easier if anyone wants some ideas.
 

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So, original thought was to vinyl only the top rail and trim out the rest...
Now that it’s together, looks like a lot of real estate to trim out... 2 1/2”.

Maybe vinyl the top rail down to the bottom rail which is 2 1/2 “ + the padding...
That’ll leave the bottom base of 3/4” to trim out.

Thoughts???
 

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Consider putting USB ports for each seat to handle phone charging. Awesome touch, needs room for additional wires though.
I'm planning on putting this on my next build. My table will sit 8, squeeze 9. The 9th player will have to hook up a potato-clock charger or something.

Charging Stations ($32)

USB Hub ($15)

I'll connect the hub to a Viking car charger mounted under the table. The battery on that thing should easy last the night. Players will just need to bring their own charging cables.
 
So, original thought was to vinyl only the top rail and trim out the rest...
Now that it’s together, looks like a lot of real estate to trim out... 2 1/2”.

Maybe vinyl the top rail down to the bottom rail which is 2 1/2 “ + the padding...
That’ll leave the bottom base of 3/4” to trim out.

Thoughts???
I did 2" on mine and was happy with it.
 

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Man that table looks like it weights a ton. It real looks nice but my back glad I did not have to move it. But i do have to say the table looks great just out curiosity how long did it take from start to finish.
 
Man that table looks like it weights a ton. It real looks nice but my back glad I did not have to move it. But i do have to say the table looks great just out curiosity how long did it take from start to finish.
Thanks, but not done yet...
A million other projects going on at the same time.
If I did start to finish it probably would have taken a couple of days to do, I think.
And YES, it’s frigging heavy!
It’ll be 3 separate parts, so it’ll be doable though
 
That good that it three separate parts other wise it be a pain in the ass to Move. An it would be a big headache if you ever moved house to move if you could not break it down it to parts way less heavy in parts so that should be easier to get in the final location I have a ESPN Table that is portable but it weight a lot is a two to three people to move the thing with out throwing out your back.
 
So I got all the T nuts and threaded inserts done for the playing surface and the top rail.
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Next step is to cover the playing surface so that I can work out the lights and diffuser.
I was going to use the chemcast material from tap plastics for the diffuser, but decided to try some thin acrylic from Lowe’s and frost it with some sanding...
NEVER have them try and cut the acrylic, three times, three people and two different Lowe’s and none could cut that stuff straight!
So... ordered the chemcast this morning.
Now to hurry up and wait! Hahahaa
I’ll do the rail padding and vinyl soon as well.

I really wish I could just get it done, but too many more “important” projects at once
 
Got the playing surface covered this morning...
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Then tried out my idea for movable/removable cup holders...
It’s going to work, but the slot bit broke a quarter of the way around the table

 
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Been busy on the table yesterday...
99% done!!!!
Woohoo!!!! LOL

cut out the cupholders...
Installed the LED strips...
Painted the pedestal legs and under side of the table...
Wrapped the top rail...(never took pics of that arghhhh)


here's a quick shot of the movable/removable cup holders...


LED's mounted, control mounted and power wire ran.
Decided to router a channel for the wire to be able to run it down through the pedestal to keep the wire somewhat hidden and out of the way.
Had to drill a small hole in the side veneer so feed the IR for the remote... very week remote too, need to basically be right near it to work :(
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Got the base mounted to the pedestal and the table will be screwed to that once it's in the poker room... so friggin heavy!

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So happy just had to place it together a bit to see how it looked!!!!
Waiting on the diffuser from TAP plastics, can't wait!
Only issue I see is there's a slight gap between the rail and the veneer edges allowing you to see a bit of inside.
I am hoping that when the rail is tightened down it will disappear... If not I was thinking some sort of "gasket" arounf the inside top edge to kinda seal it up and fill the gap...

Other than that, VERY happy with the first build!

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