Gaming Table Ideas

GTanny · 23 Feb 2017 at 21:37

if its only a temporary solution why not just add a top to the current table?

Felt wise given your requirements id suggest either red or purple if you want colour or a medium grey, you could do orange but I'm not sure if that's too bright, if you get decent light in the room a darker colour might be fine. you could have a look on sites like geek chic and see what colours they offer and get some ideas.

personally I don't like drinks at the game table, even with holders, I would rather there be somewhere behind the players to place their drinks/phones etc... just to keep them off the table but I know I'm a bit ocd with these things.

either way should be good to see this progress.

Bickaxe · 23 Feb 2017 at 22:30

GTanny said:
if its only a temporary solution why not just add a top to the current table?.

There is no current table. We sit around the dining table in the house but its not very practical as all the games are in this room as there is no available space in the house.

Going to a fabric place on Saturday, will see what they have.

As for drinks, there is nowhere else for them to go so having a particular place means i can make an attempt to restrict where they are and limit the chances of them being knocked over.

lordhughes · 23 Feb 2017 at 23:40

Looking good Bickaxe,

Been looking into making a cover for my table myself, add about 15cm each to each edge but I need to be able to store it easily. Has anyone seen any designs that disassemble down to a few pieces?

Bickaxe · 24 Feb 2017 at 00:15

Am guessing you are looking at maybe 4 pieces that lock together? Do you have a router? You could make some from MDF.

I'm fortunate that I have the space otherwise I would have gone that route. But as you say, storage is a problem as there is nowhere to keep a tabletop in the house without it either getting in the way or just looking like it shouldn't be there.

Pookie Bear · 24 Feb 2017 at 14:40

I've just recently built a frame around an old monitor and we use it as a digital tabletop for maps and images when we're D&D'ing. It's portable, so I can take it away from the dining room table when it's not in use, which has made me super popular with the missus

I'm thinking of building some sort of dice-holder and rolling tray to go alongside it as I think it will come in handy for a few of the heavier-handed rollers in the group

I lined my old foamboard dicetower with self-adhesive felt I got from a shopin a random market for 50p a sheet - worked brilliantly.

Bickaxe · 27 Feb 2017 at 13:43

Picked up a couple of sheets of material over the weekend. Which do you think is better?

The carbon fibre type faux leather has a bit more feel in the texture and is thinner. The grey mottled would be easy to clean and is lighter. There will be sonic gold underlay underneath as I have some left from doing the house and it will remove the imperfections in the table joins and screw countersinks.

Pookie Bear · 28 Feb 2017 at 18:11

I like the top one with the texture to it - but that's just me.

Bickaxe · 1 Mar 2017 at 14:47

Cut our the drink holder spaces witha 102mm hole saw. The pots were a bit wobbly but can't fall through.
Got the underlay stuck on and trimmed it down and then made some incisions where the drinks holders will go. Once pushed through, they hold the plant pots firmly with no wobble.

I'll follow the same process for cutting the material.

Now I was tempted to go with the lighter grey but I think the purple plant pots look better with the darker grey (Missus's choice. I was happy with the galvanised steel look but she is the DM usually). So, any other opinions?

Another problem is that my staple gun won't penetrate the ply very far (14mm staples) and I'm not sure carpet adhesive will keep the material in place permanently.
Anyone got any ideas on that front?

Bickaxe · 4 Mar 2017 at 13:41

Went with the darker one.

3 x 3 map of Zombicide

Firefly game mat with the 2 expansions as standard. Even enough room for the 20 odd decks of cards

As for roleplaying, plenty of space should we need maps. I have a 4 port hub next to my PC so can run an ethernet cable up and across for the GM (as we have a player that Skypes in)

Just the 2 chairs in the corner to build now (*sigh)

A few things I learned along the way.
6mm staples are quicker than clamping planks of wood when you've used carpet spray adhesive (underside of table).
Carpet spray adhesive is sticky. Also, protect around the areas you are using it as I have lots on the floor now (which is okay as I was going to put something else down as I don't like it)
Underlay dents easily.
Underlay joins show through if the top material is too thin.

GTanny · 4 Mar 2017 at 17:47

looks good, I would expect the adhesive to last, I used normal spray adhesive when I attached my old top and it was still firmly attached when I got rid of it.

I would have been tempted to have the drinks holder sitting proud so you don't lose any dice into them but if you have a tray or careful rolling you should be fine.

lets hope you get plenty of use out of it, I imagine its cost a lot less then any gaming table you can buy from a store which is a big plus.

Bickaxe · 4 Mar 2017 at 18:02

£100 as we bought 2 types of material. The drinks holders can hold a pint glass so easy enough to get dice back out. They are a few mm above the surface to shouldn't be a problem for the non-cannonball rollers (who will be banned because its really not hard to roll a die).

Built the chairs. 1 bolt sheared off but the chair is usable.

Its game time!!