My new table (and chips!) (1 Viewer)

[Venturalvn]

Wow this is a beautiful table! Perfect rail, love the lightweight construction.

I'm actually in need of a topper similar to this situation, and will look through your album for inspiration. Fantastic job!

 

[WedgeRock]

I think the biggest difference is that I built the base like a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP). This is just a sandwich of rigid foam insulation between two layers of plywood. My goal here was to create a base that weighed the same as a 1/2” sheet of plywood but was flatter and stronger. I used a sheet of 5mm (0.2”) plywood on top and bottom with 1.5” foam in between.

The special rail foam is kind of expensive, so I looked at other options. Everything at JoAnn was really soft and squishy. I decided to try 1/2” thick anti-fatigue mats from Harbor Freight. I bought two for $10 each and cut them out and glued them to the rail.

To make the table topper easier to move around, I cut holes in the back and added recessed plastic handles in four spots:

 

[dew4au]

Those kerf cuts!

Nice work and thanks for sharing.

 

[FDLmold]

You play some solid board games. Catan Junior gets a lot of play around here, but the new Monopoly Gamer has taken over, at least for the time being.

 

[Bill]

Nice table and nice chips.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Thanks for the bump last week and the recent comments! It was fun getting updates on this thread out of the blue on my phone while I was on vacation last week.

Wow this is a beautiful table! Perfect rail, love the lightweight construction.

I'm actually in need of a topper similar to this situation, and will look through your album for inspiration. Fantastic job!

Let me know if you have questions on the construction, and I'd love to see photos if you try a similar build! One tip I'll add is that when you glue the plywood and foam together, make sure that the top and bottom sheets are perfectly aligned before the glue dries! Mine shifted a little, probably when I was stacking all the stuff on top to flatten it out. It wasn't off by a lot, less than 1/8", but enough that the edge banding wouldn't sit flat without some extra sanding to make the sides nice and vertical.

Those kerf cuts!

Nice work and thanks for sharing.

Definitely one of the most tedious parts of the build, but the result turned out great!

You play some solid board games. Catan Junior gets a lot of play around here, but the new Monopoly Gamer has taken over, at least for the time being.

Thanks! I just picked up a new game called Trekking the National Parks while on vacation last week that looks like it will be fun. Most of the reviews compare it to Ticket to Ride. I also just got the Firefly board game for my birthday. I've played it before with friends, and now I've got my own copy! Yesterday on Amazon Prime Day I bought a game for my kids - the new Despicable Me version of the classic Labyrinth game. I like that game, and my kids love the Minions, so I hope it will see the table a lot.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Update: I scored a BBO game night mat for $25 locally and cut it down to fit my table and protect the speed cloth while playing board games with my kids.
https://www.bbopokertables.com/portable-game-night-mat.html

Unfortunately photobucket disabled embedding since I started this thread, so none of my pictures show up anymore, but they're all still there on photobucket if you click on each one.

I mentioned the Minions Labyrinth game above, and I gave that to my son for his birthday last month. We've played it a few times and my kids liked it, but I keep winning. I have to play to lose a little harder next time.