A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 1.

 

*Warning: actual blood and injury photo further down this post*

So, this whole project came about because of my friend Fraser buying a pre built gaming table from Model Railway Baseboards and it's what we've used to game on at his on the few occasions I've managed to make it over to Stockport this year.

Now when you convert the price from Euro to Pounds it works out at over £750! And that's not including shipping and customs fees... obviously far too much money to spend.

The other constraint is size, as a gaming table would have to live in my living room, my house not having a basement like Frasers does.

So a 6' by 4' table is out straight away as it would just take up far too much room and ideally I would like to keep the room useable for the rest of the family when the table isn't in use.

An inspirational scrolling of the Facebook Wargaming tables groups led to these photos, and plans began to form:

I shared these with Cardboard Fortress and remembered his reply of "They make it look so easy".

Well, with a bit of planning and some basic woodworking skills, I set out to build my own little place, determined to see it through before my birthday at the end of September.

I don't have a photo of the entire rough sketches plan based upon the photo's above, but once completed my table will have a gaming surface of 3' by 4', which is reasonable, and you can play some good games in that size.

Lion Rampant, Saga, MESBG, small AoS/40k or One Page Rules, etc.

I wanted to include a shelf around the outer edge, so I could put drinks and other supplies on there during games and not risk them being spilled onto the game surface.

So a rough design for the sides was drawn up, as well as experimenting with the height as I wanted to replace the old dinner table we had, so it has to be a comfortable height when sitting at it.

Another constraint I put on myself was that I wanted a "topper" which would cover the gaming part of the table when not in use.

As intend to add a layer of felt to the bottom, both to soften noise of dice rolling and to make a nicer look, I didn't want these fury little bastards tearing it up by clawing at it:

So I've got a second layer of the MDF I'm using for the gaming baseboard and will be adding a batten around to support this cover when I'm not gaming.

Forearmed with this plan, a trip was had to B&Q as that is my closest DIY shop, and nearly an hour and a half later the trolley was filled with supplies.

An hour and a half, not because I couldn't find what I was looking for, but because I was busy checking the timber I was buying to make sure I got good lengths.

One of the things about woodworking like this is that you don't want any obvious twisting pieces of timber. If possible you want it straight and true and ideally without many knots in the wood.

I also picked up a sheet of 8' by 4' by 12mm MDF for the baseboard and topper sections and had B&Q's cutting service quickly cut them to size for me. In my case two 3' by 4' boards and two 1' by 4' boards for my other hobby of model railway building (eventually).

A lesson was learned about handling boards in windy weather however as I slipped loading the car and looked like this when I got home:

Emo music intensifies!

The other parts picked up from B&Q were aesthetic in nature, being some filler for any gaps, a good stain so that it will match the rest of the furniture in the room and a nice handle for the topper: 

Lastly, the other bits I either already had on hand or ordered from Amazon, all used to strengthen joints or to make the build look nice at the end:

Cracking on with the build, I started with one of the 3' sides and forgot to add a photo, so here is a 4' side in progress, with the Mason Jar there as a test subject as that's what would be placed upon the shelf mostly:

The shelf unit started at Pint Pot size, but it was deemed through experimenting that the table would be too tall overall if I used them, so a compromise was made...plans can be adjusted on the fly after all.

Onto the legs, which have been cut from 70mm by 70mm cut and planed timber and are 34 inches high:

If I can just go on a tangent here, I absolutely hate how some things are measured in Imperial measurements and some are Metric here in the UK. I can buy timber by the door length, but millimeter widths.

Cupboard doors are measured in inches, but listed as millimeters when buying them...drives me insane.

Moving on as the first Saturday of the build marches on and I managed to get the first edge section built, securing the leg to the 3' shelf via these three screws. The brass rings will have a burnished steel effect cap on them which will hide the screw heads, there will be another three from the right hand plane of this photo, as well as a pair of top boards to go on further securing the thing and making it look nice:

Next, with it being late on and my son being in bed, I turned to the baseboard itself.

As well as the felt I'm going to add, I also had these soft play squares left over from when my son was very small, so figured I'd make use of them and spray glued them down to the playing area, this should create a nice surface upon which to add a future gaming mate and terrain:

And just as I was thinking "everything is going swimmingly" I slipped with the knife I was using to trim the foam and went into my finger on my left hand...FUCK!

I went deep into my finger, as it took about fifteen minutes to stop the bleeding before I could apply some antiseptic cream and a plaster/bandage to my finger.

I didn't seem to get anything major as I still have full feeling and movement in it, but it was concerning for a few moments, a trip to A&E was not on my plans!

Annoyingly, being back at work after I did this was the actual killer, as the wound is in just the right place where I couldn't grip anything properly for a couple of days.

Things like securing pins/straps on loads, wagon handbrakes, carrying a taillamp to the rear of the train, all stung like hell.

Cardboard Fortress asked if the build was on hold when I told him about my "Slip of the Knife".

"No, we ride for glory" I replied, meaning to carry on.

At the end of the day, I had these built and waiting for the next steps:

I've gotten all of the side panels, legs and the baseboard done, including the soft play foam glued down, which I didn't think was bad overall.

Work on the table did have to stop there for a few days however, as actual work groundstaffing trains in and out of the railyard where I work.

One thing I am hoping is that by being able to game at home, rather then having to drive nearly 2 hours to get a game (don't worry Fraser, I'll still head over and have a game at yours!), i will have the motivation to get some painting projects finished and more gaming done.

Who knows I may convince the Mrs to play!

Next up are the bottom frame which the baseboard will sit on.

I am not screwing this down as for one or will tear up the felt and for two, I want this table to be fully portable, in that I can take it to pieces in order to transport it, just incase we ever move (never say never).

So I'll do an update on the build in a few days, so...

Until next time, have nice day...