I found a table on gumtree (craiglist sort of thing) that had a poker table & topper for $125 aud.. Not a steal but the table topper made it worthwhile.
Anyway this table would have made it onto the Fugly table thread because it was horrible mission brown veneer race track with cheap blue speed cloth. The cushion was made out of the really cheap Vinyl The foam was the really cheap stuff that crushed down to the wood. They also used Dacron (the stuff you put inside cushions) under the playing surface so the surface was a long flat (and very uneven) cushion.
Ugh I didn’t even take a photo of it before I started demolishing it. My eyes my eyes!!! Die table die!!!! Here’s the remains to give you an idea of its foul looks.
Suffice to say it was a mercy killing.
So this got me thinking I need to build another table…
I wanted to have a ten player table with the following :
Be solid, Like really solid!
Race track
Cup holders
USB
Chip Drawer
Be easy to change cloth
Have a kick ass rail.
I found a set of legs at the recycling centre! Yep, there Solid! Colour sux… worry about that later.
Make them solid on the bones of the old table. I used bolts screws and gorilla glue. This stuff is awesome for a guy like me. Measure once yep looks right,,, cut once. Woops… Gorilla glue foams up and fills the mistakes and is really strong. Note: keep some paint thinners handy. Use gloves.
Top Tip! If you get this on your skin a chemical reaction takes place and turns your skin black. Once its black you can’t remove it and I has to wear off which takes about a week or so. You have been warned!
So solid base DONE!
I bought the ply wood and decided to try using a router for the first time cutting the wood.
I couldn’t find a routing jig in Canberra so I made my own. It worked pretty well. I did a few test cuts on a bit of scrap and it seemed to work well. Now I’m an expert!
So off we go… There were a few too many learning Moments… Doh!, darn… Oh for god sake!!!!! Now I find out that you use a solid guide when using those router bits with the bearing, not one that can bend. Off to the hardware store for more wood… that was a AA grade bit of ply. That’s the most expensive ply u can get. Grrr.
Anyway tried a few more times and got a reasonable result. 5 sheets of ply for a 2 sheet table. Face palm. Stupid learning… I'm supposed to be an expert by now…
So the woodwork is mainly done.
Onto the finishing
Here’s the race track after epoxy clear. I'm still learning with this stuff but the good news is you can sand out the blemishes and redo it.
Top tips for epoxy work. aka things i should have done...
Sand your work just before you pour. Don’t touch it after you sand. If your work is clean you will never get the epoxy off if it has some sort of oil you will never get it to stick. I have a few spots to fix and this is what the spots look like.
Get twice as much as you think you need. For pour on epoxy it needs to flow over ALL the work to level correctly. I didn’t do this because I thought I had enough. I didn’t and this will result in MUCH more work, but the good news it with these 2 part epoxy’s all you need to do is sand it down and fill the gaps with more epoxy, sand polish and problem fixed! However this stuff is VERY hard and you have to get very agro with sanding. I use a car polisher with 120 grit sandpaper this for the first bit. No joke. An orbital sander will take you weeks to sand this stuff. I’ve done that experiment on my first table.
Mix this stuff a lot. You can’t mix this too much but mix it slow. Faster you go the more bubbles. You don’t want bubbles. Then pour the mix into another container. this is to avoid any of the non-mixed parts to enter your work. If a non-mixed part makes it onto the work it will never dry. You have to throw the workpiece away after that, there’s no way to fix it.
If you used this stuff you will know bubbles are the Bain of your existence. There is no way around this. There are always bubbles but the lees you case the better. There is one bubble preventive thing you can do before you pour. And 2 ways of getting bubbles out that I have found successful after pouring. (I learnt this at the wood show… Yes the wood expo is a thing)
The preventative step is to make sure the epoxy is hotter than the work piece. Use a microwave to warm it. Don’t boil it! Make it so you can still stick your finger in it without it burning you. 10 to 20 second bursts until you get it right. The epoxy is sucked into the work better this way and when its hotter. And its more fluid for the bubbles to rise. The down side the hotter it is the faster it cures.
1 Whilst the epoxy is still very fluid that’s about the first 15 minutes get mentholated sprits a spray bottle and spray your work lightly you may not see all the bubbles but you will see them pop once the method hits it. the method reduces the surface tension. I usually get about 2 goes at this before it goes like molasses. Then the Metho trick ceases to work. Only use a light mist too much can hurt the epoxy. Apparently it can make it cloudy? I don’t know I’ve never had a problem.
2 Once it goes like molasses have a gas torch and have the flame just about touching the epoxy. (Not an oxy acetylene torch. Too hot.) wave it pretty quickly an you can see microscopic bubbles bursting everywhere. I’ve been told 2 theory’s on why the bubbles burst. 1 is it’s the heat and 2 its carbon dioxide that breaks the bubbles. Blowing on the work doesn’t break them so I’m going with it’s the heat that does it. No need to know. Only that It works and just do it.
So far its been only 2 days and it takes about a week to cure before sanding so ill do the next installment then.
Anyway this table would have made it onto the Fugly table thread because it was horrible mission brown veneer race track with cheap blue speed cloth. The cushion was made out of the really cheap Vinyl The foam was the really cheap stuff that crushed down to the wood. They also used Dacron (the stuff you put inside cushions) under the playing surface so the surface was a long flat (and very uneven) cushion.
Ugh I didn’t even take a photo of it before I started demolishing it. My eyes my eyes!!! Die table die!!!! Here’s the remains to give you an idea of its foul looks.
Suffice to say it was a mercy killing.
So this got me thinking I need to build another table…
I wanted to have a ten player table with the following :
Be solid, Like really solid!
Race track
Cup holders
USB
Chip Drawer
Be easy to change cloth
Have a kick ass rail.
I found a set of legs at the recycling centre! Yep, there Solid! Colour sux… worry about that later.
Make them solid on the bones of the old table. I used bolts screws and gorilla glue. This stuff is awesome for a guy like me. Measure once yep looks right,,, cut once. Woops… Gorilla glue foams up and fills the mistakes and is really strong. Note: keep some paint thinners handy. Use gloves.
Top Tip! If you get this on your skin a chemical reaction takes place and turns your skin black. Once its black you can’t remove it and I has to wear off which takes about a week or so. You have been warned!
So solid base DONE!
I bought the ply wood and decided to try using a router for the first time cutting the wood.
I couldn’t find a routing jig in Canberra so I made my own. It worked pretty well. I did a few test cuts on a bit of scrap and it seemed to work well. Now I’m an expert!
So off we go… There were a few too many learning Moments… Doh!, darn… Oh for god sake!!!!! Now I find out that you use a solid guide when using those router bits with the bearing, not one that can bend. Off to the hardware store for more wood… that was a AA grade bit of ply. That’s the most expensive ply u can get. Grrr.
Anyway tried a few more times and got a reasonable result. 5 sheets of ply for a 2 sheet table. Face palm. Stupid learning… I'm supposed to be an expert by now…
So the woodwork is mainly done.
Onto the finishing
Here’s the race track after epoxy clear. I'm still learning with this stuff but the good news is you can sand out the blemishes and redo it.
Top tips for epoxy work. aka things i should have done...
Sand your work just before you pour. Don’t touch it after you sand. If your work is clean you will never get the epoxy off if it has some sort of oil you will never get it to stick. I have a few spots to fix and this is what the spots look like.
Get twice as much as you think you need. For pour on epoxy it needs to flow over ALL the work to level correctly. I didn’t do this because I thought I had enough. I didn’t and this will result in MUCH more work, but the good news it with these 2 part epoxy’s all you need to do is sand it down and fill the gaps with more epoxy, sand polish and problem fixed! However this stuff is VERY hard and you have to get very agro with sanding. I use a car polisher with 120 grit sandpaper this for the first bit. No joke. An orbital sander will take you weeks to sand this stuff. I’ve done that experiment on my first table.
Mix this stuff a lot. You can’t mix this too much but mix it slow. Faster you go the more bubbles. You don’t want bubbles. Then pour the mix into another container. this is to avoid any of the non-mixed parts to enter your work. If a non-mixed part makes it onto the work it will never dry. You have to throw the workpiece away after that, there’s no way to fix it.
If you used this stuff you will know bubbles are the Bain of your existence. There is no way around this. There are always bubbles but the lees you case the better. There is one bubble preventive thing you can do before you pour. And 2 ways of getting bubbles out that I have found successful after pouring. (I learnt this at the wood show… Yes the wood expo is a thing)
The preventative step is to make sure the epoxy is hotter than the work piece. Use a microwave to warm it. Don’t boil it! Make it so you can still stick your finger in it without it burning you. 10 to 20 second bursts until you get it right. The epoxy is sucked into the work better this way and when its hotter. And its more fluid for the bubbles to rise. The down side the hotter it is the faster it cures.
1 Whilst the epoxy is still very fluid that’s about the first 15 minutes get mentholated sprits a spray bottle and spray your work lightly you may not see all the bubbles but you will see them pop once the method hits it. the method reduces the surface tension. I usually get about 2 goes at this before it goes like molasses. Then the Metho trick ceases to work. Only use a light mist too much can hurt the epoxy. Apparently it can make it cloudy? I don’t know I’ve never had a problem.
2 Once it goes like molasses have a gas torch and have the flame just about touching the epoxy. (Not an oxy acetylene torch. Too hot.) wave it pretty quickly an you can see microscopic bubbles bursting everywhere. I’ve been told 2 theory’s on why the bubbles burst. 1 is it’s the heat and 2 its carbon dioxide that breaks the bubbles. Blowing on the work doesn’t break them so I’m going with it’s the heat that does it. No need to know. Only that It works and just do it.
So far its been only 2 days and it takes about a week to cure before sanding so ill do the next installment then.
