Making your own modular Gaming Table

Well it was a post by Forgottenlor (where I totally missed the point of what he wanted to know btw )that made me look up some stuff again about how I made my modular gaming table following an awesome tutorial.

A very important thing is that I have no credit whatsoever on this project, all kudos should go to the host of this website being Clarence Harrison (check his website http://www.quindia.com/studiointro.htm ) for designing it, I just followed his lead.

On the following page you can find the full tutorial:
http://www.quindia.com/studioarticles.htm
The second to last row are the step-by-step guides towards an awesome looking gaming board.

I have some pics of mine but I'll make better as soon as possible.

Note: this is a board that is rather heavy and also quite big so please keep this in mind before making one and ending up in a fight with your other half about the thing taking to much space in the living room when not used (I did when still living in a small apartment  )

Good luck!

p.s.: if you need to know something just ask here, I'll try to answer the best I can.

Pretty cool site, thanks for sharing.

To hijack a topic in the same vein - I viewed this and was inspired to make my own table. I went about it in a slightly different manner (read: faster and much more basic manner).

The local big box hardware store (Lowes) sells 4'x2' sections of sheets of wood in differing types and thickness.
I picked up 3, 3/4" thick birch sections for about $10 each.
I also picked up 2 2x4 boards for bases.
On the way home I stopped off at a Wal-mart and obtained a 5'x9' section of mixed-green felt. (Also, some 12"x12" felt squares in blue and differing shades of green to use for river and forest-bases/marshes. Mini trees were ~ $1 per 3-pack).

Table Prep
I cut and attached the 2x4's into 38" lengths to one side, 2 per section, to each section of the table.
The bases of 2x4 serve to act as stabilizing/supports for when I place each section side-by-side on existing table tops. I used wood-screws from what would be the "top" of the table to secure the 2x4 sections, and used a healthy amount of wood-glue between 2x4 and table "bottom". I then used a dremel to make certain the screw heads did not protrude above the top surface (so as to not snag trays/fingers/etc through the felt).

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Felt prep/application
Easy stuff - I cut the felt sections by laying the table surfaces top-down onto the felt, and used scissors to cut the outlines. Leave enough 'extra' to extend beyond the table surface.
I then used white wood-glue to make a very watery paste to spread evenly on the opposite side - and applied the felt one section at a time. I used a leftover piece of 2x4 to ensure maximum smoothness and to get the wrinkles out. If you have a lot of trouble with wrinkles, you can iron the felt before applying it to the table. (Be careful not to burn/melt it!)

After the glue dried, I used clothes pins (24 let me do one long side at a time) to glue the excess felt down and over the edge/lip of the table. This left nice, soft, smooth edges all around. If you have a staple gun, I've seen good results with those as well.

I used the remaining felt from the big cut, to make a similar treatment to the bottom of the 38" length of supporting 2x4. Now, my table won't scratch any nice table surface. It also less damaging when I store the 3 sections - as felt on felt is much better than rubbing a hard wood edge along the felt surface.

***

Each section weighs about 12lbs, and when stored takes up ~ 2'x4'x8" - much like the leaf sections of large dining room tables. They fit in a closet just fine. Total time invested was around 5 hours of work. There was quite a bit more time involved waiting on glue to dry - but I did just a little bit of work each night for about a week.
For the home-games that I'll be hosting - this is more than enough quality wise to suit me and my usual opponents. I have around $55 invested in total materials.

I did a poor job gluing one of the sections, and didn't water the glue down enough - that one soaked through. It is purely an aesthetic issue (it plays fine) but I'll replace it one of these days (for $4-5).





I'm in the process of painting my buildings, and building custom hills (not a big fan of the GW ones - model trays are a pain to manage on blocky ledges).