I made a simple topper for my Gorilla Illuminati table:
BUILD NOTES:
I bought a cheap remnant of heavy felted material to help protect the rail from the unpainted plywood of the underside.
Originally I was going to use spray adhesive to line the underside with this fabric, but decided just to cut it down to hang loosely over the edge by about 4 inches. This wraps the vinyl rail without peeking out from the topper’s side boards.
I am (for now) using the superelliptical cut cardboard piece the table was shipped with to further buffer the rail when I slip the topper onto the top (a bit tricky to do by myself). I may replace this with some closed cell foam at some point.
I also got two 22-inch square pieces of regular chair foam from Joann’s, which are wrapped in cloth and placed on the tabletop under the remnant, to further distribute the weight of the topper. I’ve seen calculations which suggest this should be unnecessary, but it seemed a cheap way of further protecting this large investment against any compression.
I used semigloss kitchen-and-bath paint to match the matte colors of my poker room’s walls, which doubles as my partner’s studio. Before painting I filled and all visible screw and nail holes wit wood fuller, sanding these and also lightly rounding all edges.
The carpentry involved was pretty basic. I used birch ply and MDF boards. The top is secured by various screws and my nail gun, and braced with scrap wood pieces I had in my shop next door.
If you look closely, the MDF side boards on one edge are partially doubled up. This is to accommodate the width of the table which is a little under 48”. All but one board is attached under the plywood, except for the one double board which was ripped down from a larger piece to attach on the outside to add that width where the table is wider. (I didn’t explain that very clearly, sorry.)
The king diagonal braces are possible because the table is superelliptical, not a racetrack. The cardboard piece came in handy when making sure the rail would just barely clear all the supports and edges.
This is hardly fine woodworking, but it means I don’t have to drag the table into storage after each game 2x/month, and provides a new work/display space.
BUILD NOTES:
I bought a cheap remnant of heavy felted material to help protect the rail from the unpainted plywood of the underside.
Originally I was going to use spray adhesive to line the underside with this fabric, but decided just to cut it down to hang loosely over the edge by about 4 inches. This wraps the vinyl rail without peeking out from the topper’s side boards.
I am (for now) using the superelliptical cut cardboard piece the table was shipped with to further buffer the rail when I slip the topper onto the top (a bit tricky to do by myself). I may replace this with some closed cell foam at some point.
I also got two 22-inch square pieces of regular chair foam from Joann’s, which are wrapped in cloth and placed on the tabletop under the remnant, to further distribute the weight of the topper. I’ve seen calculations which suggest this should be unnecessary, but it seemed a cheap way of further protecting this large investment against any compression.
I used semigloss kitchen-and-bath paint to match the matte colors of my poker room’s walls, which doubles as my partner’s studio. Before painting I filled and all visible screw and nail holes wit wood fuller, sanding these and also lightly rounding all edges.
The carpentry involved was pretty basic. I used birch ply and MDF boards. The top is secured by various screws and my nail gun, and braced with scrap wood pieces I had in my shop next door.
If you look closely, the MDF side boards on one edge are partially doubled up. This is to accommodate the width of the table which is a little under 48”. All but one board is attached under the plywood, except for the one double board which was ripped down from a larger piece to attach on the outside to add that width where the table is wider. (I didn’t explain that very clearly, sorry.)
The king diagonal braces are possible because the table is superelliptical, not a racetrack. The cardboard piece came in handy when making sure the rail would just barely clear all the supports and edges.
This is hardly fine woodworking, but it means I don’t have to drag the table into storage after each game 2x/month, and provides a new work/display space.
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