New from WA, building table & want advice! (1 Viewer)

[1fish2fish]

Hello fellow players! My friend and I are building 2 identical tables and almost have the first one completed (his table) but I would like to make small changes when it comes to my table and would like some advice from anyone who has made their own table before and can help point me in the right direction when it comes to foam padding that will be placed on the outer rail and wrapped in leather. Although it is not included in the picture, the foam he chose to go with felt to me like it had too much give when compressed and I fear that players will be feeling the edges of hard wood against their forearms after 20 minutes of game time. While we are discussing foam, it reminds me that the padding we used under the playing surface, although it is good enough and has a decent bounce for the chips and slight give to make card pick up easy, I'm curious if there is a padding more specific for this purpose, or commonly used in casino tables? Does anyone recommend a specific felt for the playing surface? I will say that his table is good and the materials used serve their purpose well enough, but when we construct my table next... I want it to have a bit more WOW factor to it finally, there will be LED lights ran in the 3/4" gap between the cushion rail and race track. Any LED suggestions? Any at all? Run with it! I'm open for design ideas/Comments on the table as a whole, and not limiting to my questions

 

[pedrofisk]

Welcome aboard. Plenty of expert table builders here. I'm sure you'll get good advice.

 

[longflop]

Prepare to get your ass chewed for that wooden racetrack!

 

[Irish]

Good foam for the rail: https://www.yourautotrim.com/1x54x1060hdr.html

Some thoughts on different playing surface foams: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/poker-table-question.30485/#post-561441

Tip - before you foam the rail, round off the top corners of the wood with a roundover bit / router, it'll really help to soften the edge.

And welcome to PCF (y) :thumbsup:

 

[Alex Lundstrum]

Prepare to get your ass chewed for that wooden racetrack!

^^ First off, I'd go with cup holders in rail and do away with race track a bit more work, but I did it with mine and I'm so glad I did, no cards or chips getting stuck on racetrack or noisy chip play.

My other suggestion is to make rail and playing surface easily removable by putting T nuts in the wood under the foam on both surface and rail and attach them to the table with bolts. This way, if ever a piece needs repaired or cleaned, it's easy to remove. Also makes moving the table far more manageable.

 

[allforcharity]

Hello and welcome!

I would also suggest no racetrack and go full felt. If you're into custom design, @T_Chan just north of you in Vancouver can print and ship custom felts on beautiful gaming suede to help make your table(s) visually rise above all the rest.

I'm also not a fan of fixed cupholders. You can get slide-in holders with a tab that will go under the rail and can be moved to any place where it's most comfortable for the player, for as many players as you would have at once.

 

[Alex Lundstrum]

I'm also not a fan of fixed cupholders. You can get slide-in holders with a tab that will go under the rail and can be moved to any place where it's most comfortable for the player, for as many players as you would have at once.

If you are doing raised rail, the slide under style won't work quite as well, but drink carts are a nice way to just do away with table cup holders all together. There are a few threads around the site that go through building them.

 

[Suited Connector]

I put usb pucks under the table for in seat phone charging.

 

[Darson]

I used cheap speed cloth from Amazon and am very happy with it: http://a.co/d/icCrWrH

I used carpet underlay from the big box store for the playing surface and 1" foam from Hobby Lobby for the rails.

Here's a link to my build: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/wish-me-luck.29937/

 

[v1pe]

Prepare to get your ass chewed for that wooden racetrack!

100% - do away with it before it's too late!!

I'm a fan of under-rail cupholders as well. I have in-rail cupholders in my table and I regret going that direction.

 

[1fish2fish]

^^ First off, I'd go with cup holders in rail and do away with race track a bit more work, but I did it with mine and I'm so glad I did, no cards or chips getting stuck on racetrack or noisy chip play.

My other suggestion is to make rail and playing surface easily removable by putting T nuts in the wood under the foam on both surface and rail and attach them to the table with bolts. This way, if ever a piece needs repaired or cleaned, it's easy to remove. Also makes moving the table far more manageable.

THANKS! I will do this when we construct the second table (mine)

 

[1fish2fish]

I put usb pucks under the table for in seat phone charging.

I saw someone else do this and I plan on adding that feature to my table when we finish with my friends (pictured)

100% - do away with it before it's too late!!

I'm a fan of under-rail cupholders as well. I have in-rail cupholders in my table and I regret going that direction.

I'm a little bit confused by your advice, at first you seem to agree with removing the race track and then you mention your regret with in rail cup holders...could you please clarify this for me? Thank you for your support and advice! It is very much appreciated. I don't want to spend so much time and money on this fun project only to be disappointed with a design decision.

 

[Davism72]

I'm a fan of under-rail cupholders as well. I have in-rail cupholders in my table and I regret going that direction.

Have a pic of this? Sounds interesting.

 

[v1pe]

I saw someone else do this and I plan on adding that feature to my table when we finish with my friends (pictured)


I'm a little bit confused by your advice, at first you seem to agree with removing the race track and then you mention your regret with in rail cup holders...could you please clarify this for me? Thank you for your support and advice! It is very much appreciated. I don't want to spend so much time and money on this fun project only to be disappointed with a design decision.

Have a pic of this? Sounds interesting.

Sorry, my post might have been confusing?

I'll try to break it down:
- Wooden race tracks suck, go with a full felt surface. Use a printed betting line on the felt if you want that (I prefer it).
- You have three options with cupholders, sunk in the playing surface (or sunk in the wooden race track, as OP's picture currently depicts), put into the rail (most casino tables are this way), or using slide under-rail cup-holders (https://www.discountpokershop.com/slide-under-plastic-cup-holder-large-p-542.html).
- My preference is not having any permanent cupholders, instead using the slide-under-rail type of cup-holder.

 

[1fish2fish]

Sorry, my post might have been confusing?

I'll try to break it down:
- Wooden race tracks suck, go with a full felt surface. Use a printed betting line on the felt if you want that (I prefer it).
- You have three options with cupholders, sunk in the playing surface (or sunk in the wooden race track, as OP's picture currently depicts), put into the rail (most casino tables are this way), or using slide under-rail cup-holders (https://www.discountpokershop.com/slide-under-plastic-cup-holder-large-p-542.html).
- My preference is not having any permanent cupholders, instead using the slide-under-rail type of cup-holder.

Thank you for clarifying. I think I'm going to go with your suggestion (along with everyone else's ) and go with full table felt. However It is very important to me to have a simple soft white glow with LED wich (to my knowledge) will require a raised rail [side note- I want minimal hight off playing surface, just enough for led lights] so I'll have to figure out if its possible to combine raised rail with slide under cup holders or I might just have to do away entirely with them and go with a drink cart. (NOT happy about that idea)

 

[v1pe]

Thank you for clarifying. I think I'm going to go with your suggestion (along with everyone else's ) and go with full table felt. However It is very important to me to have a simple soft white glow with LED wich (to my knowledge) will require a raised rail [side note- I want minimal hight off playing surface, just enough for led lights] so I'll have to figure out if its possible to combine raised rail with slide under cup holders or I might just have to do away entirely with them and go with a drink cart. (NOT happy about that idea)

I forgot you were going with the raised rail. If you are very against drink carts, just go with the in-rail drink holders.