Well, after playing on some small fold out tables for a couple of weeks I decided to go ahead and build a table. Total said and done was $650. I ordered everything from Texaspokersupply.com
Materials used
- 1/4" closed cell foam on the playing surface (will find out this weekend how I like that)
- 1" open cell 75lb foam on the rail
- black whisper vinyl for the rail
- black classic texas hold'em design gaming suede
- 800lb 29" fold out legs
- 60 second epoxy for the bolts in the rail
- 4' x 8' 3/4 birch plywood
- 1-1/4 deck screws
- $20 electric stapler from harbor freight with 5/16" staples (MUST HAVE)
- wood glue
Here is a link to the video I used as my template for the build. The only real differences are that my table is exactly 4'x8' so my measurements were different than his, and my rail width is 6" instead of 5". The width of my table cut it close on the material for the rails but we made it work and it turned out good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbJrTIjvcQw&t=220s
Things I did that I would have done differently.
-I ended up taking the rail to an upholstery shop after I tried my hand at putting it on. I wish I would have just taken it to him to begin with. Some of you guys may be better at vinyl work than me, but I am ocd and after trying it myself I was disappointed with how it looked.
- I used a grinder with a flap disc to do my edge sanding because I could not find my palm sander, a palm sander would have definitely been better and made smoother edges (the edges aren't seen, but it still bothered my ocd)
- I wish I would have used bolts that stuck out the bottom of the table at least 1/2" where the rail bolts down. Mine stuck out 1/4" because I didn't want any sticking through the wing nut, but after the padding and all, I BARELY had enough threads to grab.
All in all I am VERY happy with the way the looks of the table turned out. I would have loved to have done a 9' table but the expense for the extra foot was no where near justifiable. This table is EXTREMELY sturdy. It took me about 1-1.5 hrs to cut all of the wood out and get it ready for padding and felt. It took about 1-1.5 hours to get the playing surface padded and covered. I wasted 3 hours trying to do the rail and ended up taking it to an upholstery shop. It took me 20-30 min to put the legs and rail on after I got it back. I probably have as much or more time in material research than I do actually building the table. We will see how it all holds up! Now, on to the good part!