Gaming Table

From Fozzee.net

Since Richard and I will be trading off for D&D duty, and he has no table large enough to game on, he decided that we'd build one. We went with a pretty basic design which turned out to be very similar to my workshop in the garage. The table ended up being very sturdy, withstanding me jumping on it, as well as the Dave Test.

The Build

We started by taking Dave's van to Home Depot to get materials. In retrospect, Home Depot doesn't have a fantastic selection of lumber, so we made some design revisions. We had a few issues getting everything crammed into Dave's Van (I'm pretty sure his T&C is a "short" version), but we managed. It might have required rope.

The initial plan was to use a 4'x8' sheet of plywood as the top, set on a base of 4"x4" legs, arranged in a 3' by 6' base. It turned out that HD didn't have untreated 4x4s at all, so we had to revise each leg to a pair of 2x4s, in an L configuration. The legs are 29" long. They attach to two frames 3x6 (feet), one at the top, and anchored to the bottom of the tabletop, and one in the middle, with a plywood shelf on top. The top is attached to the upper frame with cleats, and screws that shouldn't penetrate the top. Unfortunately, I was a bit over-zealous in one case, and a screw penetrated the top. A bit of wood filler should fix that, though.

To be Done

We still have to get some lines painted on the top surface. Our plan is to use a paint pen and straight edge to put a 1" grid on. From there, a clear topcoat will be applied, to flatten the surface. Richard deems the current top a temporary solution, to be eventually replaced with a hardwood top, printed surface and plate glass cover.

Additionally, the base, legs, lower shelf, etc all need painted.