Rick's gaming table

The topic came up in another thread, so I figured I'd just give it a gnoblog for ease of updating and not derailing the other topic. So, here is my write up of my gaming table thus far:




The dimensions are pretty easy I'll get photo's up in another day or two, but in the mean time:

Materials:
(1) 4x8' sheet of cheap (non finish grade) 1/4" plywood (I had it laying around in the garage)
(4) 2x4" studs cut to 3' (again, crap wood, just has to be straight)
(4) 2x4" studs cut to 3'9" (same as other studs)
(2) 1x6" pine planks cut to 8', finish grade
(2) 1x6" pine planks cut to 4'1 1/2", finish grade
(4) 1x6" pine planks, miter cut @45º short side to 4'
(4) 1x6" pine planks, miter cut @45º short side to 8'
~16 framing nails
Small box of 1 1/2" wood screws
Small box of 1 1/2" brads/finishing nails

Tools:
Hammer
Drill/Screwgun
Tape Measure
Triangle-Square
Miter saw
Jig saw, Circular saw, or even a saws-all if you've got mad skill.

Honestly, 2x2's are probably fine, I just had a decent pile of 2x4's left from a recent remodel job.

I built up the frame first. Once I had the wood cut to size I used the triangle and tape measure to mark off where the short studs would connect to the long studs. Then a pair of framing nails through the short studs into the longer studs to get the frame wrapped up.

it should look something like this:

----------       -----------   \
|        |       |         |   |
|        |       |         |   |
|        |       |         |   4'
|        |       |         |   |
|        |       |         |   |
----------       -----------   /

{------------8'------------}
{---3'---}{--2'--}{---3'---}

Then I dropped the plywood on top of those frames, screwed one corner down, then used the plywood as a square to force the frame into alignment and put a few screws on each side, and repeated for the second frame on the other side

Once the plywood was down I attached the 8' planks to either long side, lining the bottom of the boards up with the bottom of the 2x4's. That's actually where I left off as my budy (the guy who was attacked by the potted plant) was over, so we started up a game

After the game, we glued down some vinyl backed terrain grass (OMG is this stuff so much nicer than the paper backed stuff I remember as a kid) onto the 2" styrofoam and cut out some small hills. The glue wound up buckling though, so I ran out and got some 3M Super 77, which thus far appears to be working much better.

Back to the table... I've been looking for some collapsible legs as I need to store the table out of the way (possibly suspended from the ceiling) and I managed to find these which should work well. I'm aiming for the terrain top to be at about 37", a stool height. But if you want chair height, you can probably get some "banquet folding table legs" at your local hardware store for under $20 (Ace hardware had them in stock in my home town).

Once I get the legs on, I'll get the 4'1 1/2" planks screwed onto the short side. Then comes the challenge of cutting the book slot. Since I've already attached the side planks to the 2x4's, I'm going to have to cut through them already attached (note: this is one of those times where thinking about what you're going to do, before doing it, can really help). I'm just aiming to notch out the bottom 2 1/2", not cut through the entire board since it does offer some structural support since the frame doesn't cross the center.

At that point, I'll get the rest of the wood cut and stained, fire up the air gun and nail the drink and graveyard rails on with that. I'll probably use some scraps to make the bottom of the book slot, and I'll probably screw those in since they'll be a structural link between the two frames.

After that, a little finishing trim work on the lip of the grave yard and a coat of poly-pro over the entire thing to keep the wood safe from the riggers of excited dice and cold drinks

The 'pit' of my table is designed for 8' of game space, but most games around here are @2250 on 6' of game space. So if you play smaller games, or don't have enough room to store a 8+ foot long table, you can reduce the frames to 2' wide and cut the long side measurements all down by 2'.


There is really only one down side to having a nice gaming table... When we first got the terrain grass down on the Styrofoam (before the glue went to crap), we took a step back and my buddy said, "Damnit. Now I'm going to have to pain and base all of my models." Because who wants to push raw and primer models around on a nice table?

-Rick

PS: G', if you're reading this, you may notice some slight difference from how I actually did it. Yeah... I did it wrong.

I altered my plans again slightly. The two planks cut to 4'1 1/2" I cut to 4'9". When I mount these to the 2x4's it'll leave 4 1/2" inches over hanging on either side. That should add a bit more support to the long side top rail. I'm planning on adding a few other supports in the grave yard channel that look similar (a 5 1/2"x3 3/4" rectangle of the same plank, nailed in place on three side) I'll probably either sand or route the edges too, just to fancy it up a bit.

-Rick

Okay, some WIP pics:

The top rail is finished and the book slot is in place. Just have to get the bottom rail on:




The table pit is 8x4', big enough to a 3k battle. The rail is another 5 3/4" around the whole thing and sits about 2 1/2" the bottom of the pit. The inserts are 2" Styrofoam sheets with vinyl backed grass mat. I plan on cutting up a few more of sheets of Styrofoam to have some other scenarios too, thus the reason for having a 2" base

I tried to get by with some lag screw legs, but I don't think they'll offer enough lateral support to hold up for long. So I'm going to have to order those adjustable height folding legs. They'll be easier to deal with collapsing, but I was trying to get by on the cheap. If I didn't need to have the legs be remove-able, the spindle legs would work fine, I'd just reinforce them better.

-Rick