Global Gaming Table Threads and Pictures

Wow. Im out of my league here. Some truly amazing works of art.

We started dreaming of a table after a utube visit to young grasshopper’s channel.

Using boardgamegeek’s (table options forum) website with different table construction options broken down.
We decided on a pedestal 2’8"×6’ with a loose 3/4 sanded pine 4x8 sheet of plywood for a table top. Cross braces extended past plywood on the sides to support, a 2x4 frame on egde like a leaning rail. Plan is to upholster this for padding and add a sheet inside to act as a cover, creating a vault to keep the super weapons (3 cats) off the game. Its 42 inches high, 8feet 3inches long and 4feet 3inches wide. With a 48x96 inch map possible. It’s a walkaround back saver table with barstools.

Currently using 1940 gobal (oob). Lots of room around the map and cover leaves it setup between games.

We added a 1/8th of an inch extra space all around the plywood table top and cover, so it can be removed and be potentially upholstered like a poker table. This also cuts down on weight while moving the table. Pedestal is also removable. Built it on the deck, so it needed to come apart for move to basement anyway. 4 piece separations made it manageable for 2  people to move relatively easy.

To date its a 150$ Canadian, build for everything screws wood, and an extra sheet of plywood for a cover, taxes the works. Using only a pencil, tape measure, framing square, drill and circular saw (store can cut it for you so the saw is optional).

Now we need to Play test for possible issues and must-have add-ons. And figure a good way to support the cover. If we upholster the leaning edge i can hide the staples with a wood/metal strip to keep it up, its currently smaller than the opening.

Need a few more post for pictures. I’ll wander the forums!

Thanks cwo mark!

I doubt I’ll ever match any of those finishes though. Some true heirloom pieces cherrywood or tiles all look amazing.
The hero to my table was Dad. His framing knowledge converted a wobbly table to a nice braced table. A 2 day head sratcher  :?  into a 4 hour project with all his tips. Our group has no tradesmen, so the preplanned gaps for future materials and bracing etc are all his. We would have figured it out but this way we only built it once :lol:

Hey, I don’t have enough posts to actually post pics or a link on here yet, but if anyone wants to check out the table I’m just wrapping up, it’s right here:

I used my old gaming table (also custom by me) as a base. I used a 4x8 oak ply ($50) from Home Depot. The surrounds are also oak planks (~$150 total). Stain is Bombay Oak. It came out sloppier than I had hoped, but I’m always terrible at staining. The board is YG’s taken to Kinkos. It’s 6’6" ($170). I wanted it 7’, but they kind of screwed up and left 6" of white on each side. It worked out OK though since it meant I could fit it on the 4x8 board and still have room on the side for a rolling area. I did about 10 coats of spray on modge podge to keep the beer off. It came out a little rougher to the feel (like sandpaper) than I’d hoped, but I think it’ll smooth out with play.

The piece holders are 4" cup holders from some boat store. They were .67 each. If I were to do it again, I would have done 3" instead. I used a 4" hole cutter on my drill. Was very simple, but you don’t want to do it on a cordless. You’ll drain a battery every 3rd hole and it’ll take forever. Rolling area is just a piece of foam with green felt glued to it. I’m going to make a green felt cover too so I can save a game and play something else on top.  I think that’s it.
All told, not including the game and my old table, it probably cost about $400.

I still have some finishing touches to put on it. I have some bronze owl feet corner guards coming in that will go on all the corner pieces, and I’m going to do built in abaci at some point. I’m not wild about the ones I have now.

You only need 10 posts I think, get into a discussion on another thread and than come back and post pics… would love to see them.

@Young:

You only need 10 posts I think, get into a discussion on another thread and than come back and post pics… would love to see them.

Oh, that’s not bad. This should actually be my 10th. Been trying to lurk a bit here and get the lay of the land before I get too into posting. I know each forum has it’s own culture and etiquette that I like to figure out before I dive in.

The table is awesome Resident… much jelly on this end… very fine craftsmanship.

I noticed the world map on the wall in the back… i’ll take a wild guess and assume its a relatively recent world map?  Maybe if you could get your hands on a 1940’s map of the world and stick it up, that would add to the cool-factor (unless you already did that, I could not see the map with enough detail to know for sure).  Another idea for ambiance, is to maybe get some 1940s major power flags… (not current ones)… like the 48-star American flag, a Rising Sun flag, Soviet Flag, etc, etc and toss em up around the room.

Anyways, great work… I have neither the space nor the talent to do such a job, so I just have some roll out maps on vinyl I put on my kitchen island when its time to play… once again, great job Resident!

Yeah, that map on the wall is actually my daughters (2 & 3). In installing the table we had to move around stuff in the basement. That map used to be at toddler level, but had to move it because furniture was going in it’s place. It won’t be up there long. My wife has some of her grandfathers charts (he was in a b-17) that I’m going to get framed and put in that corner at some point.

I’m hoping to eventually add a room into the unfinished portion of our basement (we’re lucky, it’s a 50’s ranch with a 2000 sqft basement. plenty of room for my game hobby). That’ll get the full treatment.

As far as the talent goes, trust me, I have little to none. My cuts are sloppy, staining is uneven. My projects usually don’t turn out this good. It was actually a really easy one. One of the great things about home depot is that they will do all the cuts for you there. Just make sure your measurments are good. It saves a ton of time and money if you don’t already have the right tools.

Wow, that is really awesome Resident… one of the best I’ve seen. The players in your gaming group should consider themselves very lucky.

@CWO:

This is a great table, and the cup holders are a clever concept that I don’t think I’ve ever seen used before on this kind of project.  Nice work!

Thanks!
here’s a link to the cup holders if anyone is interested:
http://www.boatstore.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?p=1&q=cup+holder

I got this item
http://www.boatstore.com/large-cup-holder-3-77-d-x-4-2-w.html

If I had to do it over again, I’d probably go with the smaller more expensive size. As it is now, they’re a bit big and particularly with the planes and ships, the smaller pieces fall to the bottom (subs and fighter). I’ll probably end up making some 4 way separators for each cup holder to keep like pieces apart. That should fix it nicely. Also might install some LED’s in the German wells.

Speaking of electronics, my next add on is going to be a motion sensor in the rolling area hooked up to an MP3 player that plays fighter and machine gun sounds every time it gets tripped so that dice rolls will have sound effects.

Hey Resident! This an amazing table - I don’t usually frequent the threads on gaming tables, as I’m more of a painter. I had to stop and comment though - love what you’ve done here. The rolling tray and fooseball style hit marker beads are a great touch. Looks like it would make for a very integrated game. Thanks for sharing!

@Resident:

Speaking of electronics, my next add on is going to be a motion sensor in the rolling area hooked up to an MP3 player that plays fighter and machine gun sounds every time it gets tripped so that dice rolls will have sound effects.

WWHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT!!!

@Spitfire38:

Hey Resident! This an amazing table - I don’t usually frequent the threads on gaming tables, as I’m more of a painter. I had to stop and comment though - love what you’ve done here. The rolling tray and fooseball style hit marker beads are a great touch. Looks like it would make for a very integrated game. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot. I’m really happy with it. Not 100% satified with the beads. I’m going to look around for a nice set of bronze beads that will match the corner guards I’ll be putting on. I think it’ll tie it together nicely.

@Young:

@Resident:

Speaking of electronics, my next add on is going to be a motion sensor in the rolling area hooked up to an MP3 player that plays fighter and machine gun sounds every time it gets tripped so that dice rolls will have sound effects.

WWHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT!!!

It’s a few steps off. Will post video when it happens.

That is one awesome table. We are still trying to determine the best way to print the map. So not much progress for us yet.

@seancb:

That is one awesome table. We are still trying to determine the best way to print the map. So not much progress for us yet.

Kinkos was perfect for me. It wasn’t cheap, but something like this will never be cheap. I paid around $160 or so for mine. It took 3 days. Came out very crisp and sharp. No complaints at all.

What kind of material did you use for the map? Also is it a solid board or can it be rolled or folded?

@seancb:

What kind of material did you use for the map? Also is it a solid board or can it be rolled or folded?

Foamcore, so no rolling. It’s mounted to the plywood with trim molding around it. I could take it out in theory, but it’s designed to be permanent.