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I built a gaming table.
This has been a goal of mine forever. Ever since I started board gaming probably 15 years ago, and I saw Geek Chic's tables, I wanted one. Of course, I was moving from one bedroom apartment to one bedroom apartment at the time, and they were bonkers expensive, and then Geek Chic went bankrupt. So that never happened. But it's always been on my bucket list.
Well, it's finally happened! I've settled down, I own a home, I have my nerd cave, and it's time for the table. But having a family and responsibilities, it's hard to justify dropping between $3000 to $6000 on a table for gaming. So instead I spent $450 on some 4 quarters and 5 quarters rustic walnut, $50 on a sheet of plywood, $50 on some cork, and probably another $100 on assorted glues, finishes, hardware and fabric. And lets not forget about 3 months of my precious free time, as well as perhaps some not so free time. My wife is starting to want me to be done with this so she can have her husband back for things she wants done. Like another chicken coop, or redoing more of the kitchen.
It starts with the plan, rather dog eared and torn at this point, but you'll have to forgive me. The idea is that I can bring it into my basement in pieces: legs, armrest/apron, bottom play surface, supports, and toppers, then assemble it. Because getting a whole ass hardwood table into my basement simply isn't going to happen, much less back out if I ever move. Now normally this would be done with some simple leg/apron hardware like this, but my problem with most hardware I saw was it would interfere or look really ugly with the recessed playing area. So instead I made things difficult for myself and went with a dovetail slot design, along with an inner and outer table apron. To add another plane of rigidity, I also decided to use some dowels for the arm rest to both keep them level with one another since they are separate parts, but I also kept them perpendicular to the direction of the wood despite being along a 45 degree miter joint. This also has the added benefit of making assembly somewhat easier. I tested all this joinery out on some scraps of maple I had lying around, and then went to work on my walnut.
First I made the legs. These are about 3 inches thick, and instead of gluing up a solid 3x3 chunk of walnut, I decided to go with miter locks. They glue up super strong, and conform into place effortlessly, plus you get an attractive face grain on every side. I did have to go over the corners with a burnishing rod to close up some gaps however. Still, they came out super nice.
After that I picked out the boards for the aprons, and then marked the boards for the arm rests and toppers. I'm still learning how to pick out lumber, so there were a lot of really gnarly knots I had to work around in figuring out my rough cuts. Some couldn't be avoided, but the ugliest defects became interior surfaces. It's a fun process, like reverse tetris. The aprons milled up nicely, then I shellaced the legs. I made a jig to assist in routing out the dovetails and it worked amazingly well once I had it dialed in. After a test fit, and laying the arm rest on loosely, I was very proud of myself. Each individual dovetail slot had a little play in it, but collectively there was none, and the table doesn't wobble a millimeter when nudged or even hit. But now began the laborious process of getting the finish done.
First I filled the voids with some sawdust and wood glue. The results were OK but I think next time I might try sawdust and CA glue. I also had to route the rabbet the toppers will sit inside along the armrest. I wasn't 100% confident in my ability to have perfectly flat toppers, so I decided to use felt along the rabbet to compensate for a small about of unevenness. The last thing I wanted was any rattle in the toppers as people use the table. It worked fantastic. Then I shellacked and waxed the apron, along with the underside of the arm rest. Visible surfaces got 3 coats of shellac and hard wax, interior surfaces got a single seal coat of shellac. I've seen conflicting reports about how smart this is. Some people swear you must evenly coat every surface or the humidity will unevenly effect the wood, resulting in cupping or cracking. But every piece of furniture I've ever seen, even really nice hardwood furniture, skimps on the interior or underside. So I'm going to assume it'll be OK.
One thing I've learned is I definitely prefer finishing surfaces before assembly versus attempting to finish inside corners. I'm terrible at inside corners, and always leave really obnoxious marks where the coats on one surface run into the other. Adds more steps to the process, but the results are way better with my skill level.
Along the way I glued up all the panels for the toppers. Each panel is approximately a foot wide and and three feet long, with some rabbets along the sides to slot into the table armrest or each other. I also had to make a Home Depot trip for plywood, which I have a helpful carrier for. Full sheets of plywood are so much cheaper than project panels. I also didn't want the bottom play surface to have any seams. And this was super easy to break down to the proper dimensions thanks to a rip cut guide I got. Because I still can't freehand very straight with a circular saw, and track saws are more expensive than they have any right to be. Needed some notches taken out for the leg corners which intrude about a 1/2 inch into the play area, but I did that with a small hand saw.
The aprons got joined to the arm rest using a fuck ton of pocket hole screws. I also did some mortise and tenon joinery for the support planks that will hold up the playing surface. They are a little loose, but I judged that to be acceptable since I won't be gluing them and they are going to be held in on both sides by the rest of the table joinery.
Another test fit, checking the plywood, and onto attaching the cork. This was just accomplished with a 3M adhesive spray, and cutting the excess off with a utility knife. Super easy.
I attempted to use a ghetto shooting board and my carbide sanding block to clean up the angles on the armrest miters. It made them better but only slightly. I think I just need to invest in an actual hand plane and a proper shooting board.
Next it came time to do the pocket hole screws, and after getting everything situated and clamped it came together quickly and easily. I shellacked the rabbet on the topper pieces and then applied the felt. The result was a very nice and very flat top surface. After much sanding to get out a few of the uneven areas, it was time to take it all apart and get it ready to be finished.
There were some finishing details I needed to attend to. I made these support pieces to help hold up the play surface and spread them around the edge of the inner apron. I also had my wife help me attach the upholstery velvet to the plywood and cork with more 3M adhesive spray, then pulled it back and stapled it to the bottom. I think it came out great in the end.
Much sanding, shellacing and waxing later, it was ready for reassembly. It went back together way harder than it came apart. I allowed some room between the plywood and the apron for the velvet to rap around, but not quite enough. It was a tight fit that took some moderate man handling to line back up. Upside, the bottom is in there nice and snug and won't move around on you. And here we are with the final product, covered and uncovered. It feels really good having made something beautiful to put in my home, and I'm looking forward to my daughter making lots of memories of family game nights around it.
Side note, should I ever do this again, I think I'll use loose tenon joinery instead of dowels. The dowels just had too much wiggle in them to really keep those sections level to my satisfaction. Also, as good as the finish came out, I think I need to start thinning my shellac and doing more, thinner coats. It was probably my best, most even application to date, but in the wrong lighting at the wrong angle if you look closely you can still see some unevenness. Alas. Lastly, one of the boards that makes up half a topper has a network of cracks radiating through it parallel to the face gain. I first noticed it in the milling process, but it didn't look that bad, I thought cutting off the last inch or two would get rid of it. Also, I had no spares to replace it with. I kept going, and every step of the way in, it spread even more. I kept attempting to stabilize it by filling it in with glue, but that didn't seem to work as I could only address the exposed portion of the crack which was retreating deeper and deeper into the wood unseen. It resulted in one of the toppers having a distinct hollow feeling in a few spots. If it gets even worse than it already is, I guess I'll just make a replacement. Because I have that option. In the future, cracked boards get thrown out, no matter how far along the process I am.
I was once asked if my adventurers in woodworking and the money I've spent has been "worth it". It was hard to quantify when I was making little experimental practice projects, or unique one off's like an oak computer case or a bookshelf for old PC game manuals. When I made the cabinets for the kitchen I probably saved about $300. This table however, I probably saved myself enough money building it myself versus buying one that it pays for all of my tools and then some. If I had the means to make more tables and reliably sell them, I'd be almost tempted to.
Next up, a set of 4 chairs, mostly with the off cuts from the table. Gotta stretch that $450 I spent on lumber as far as it'll go.
Great stuff! I need to get back into the shop.
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Dude, that looks beautiful. I salute your skill at creating something so nice, it must have taken quite a bit of practice to get to that point.
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Nicely done! I haven't done anything remotely similar since woodwork in school. I was terrible at it, and glad when I could give it up, but there's a feeling that comes from crafting something physical that you can't really get elsewhere.
Thanks. There is something deeply sentimental about making the furniture that goes into your home, that you and your family enjoy and make memories around. The making memories is what I'm looking forward to the most. Every night my daughter wants to play games at it now. But she's only 4, so we've mostly stuck to Carcassonne, Kingdomino and Ingenious because she can handle the matching tile placement, and we do the score for her. I'd post her adorable pictures, but we're trying to keep her internet profile nonexistent. Last thing we need is her in a bunch of digital fingerprint databases from birth.
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Great work and looks amazing! Getting your shellac to look perfectly even is super hard, so if that is the worst you have I think that is pretty damn good!
Thanks for the post and pictures!
Thanks.
One thing I keep wondering about is how much I should really put some elbow grease into it when I'm doing the final rub with 0000 steel wool and furniture wax. I did notice the more aggressive I got, the more I got it to a glasslike smoothness. But it would be straight up warm from the friction when I was done, and I was worried about how much finish I might actually be rubbing off with all the effort, so I ultimately erred on the side of being more conservative. Maybe I'll experiment a bit more with my approach as I work on the chairs since I just care about them less.
It's annoyingly inconsistent I think. I've had great results with really working hard as you described. And then sometimes for no seeming discernable reason the same thing seems to take some of the finish off. I'm sure there was something I did wrong, as I am not an expert by any means.
Your work looks really, really good, so I think you can definitely be proud of that!
I know when I did mine and polished to a glass finish, my steel wool pad was already pretty gummed up and dull from the wax. I have raw dogged with steel wool and gone through the shellac in a flash. I was actually just reviewing a Paul Sellers video where he's doing a shellac finish with wax, and he just barely touches it with a dry 0000 steel wool pad, and then comes after with the wax. Never hurts to keep trying different techniques though.
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Why shellac instead of an oil?
I like the look and feel of shellac over oil. I also don't like how long it takes an oil to stop off gassing.
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Probably because it's a lot more fun to say.
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Very nice
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I really enjoyed the album and the story, thank you. I love how the table matches the hardwood floor in your game room. Also, I am stealing the design of your improvised 45deg shooting board.
You know, in person it doesn't match as much as it appears to in that photo. Also, not real hardwood, just LVP.
I wouldn't both "stealing" my design, it sucked and didn't work that well :P You can see I shoved a feeler gauge in there to try to micro adjust the angle. Might have worked better with an actual hand plane though.
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Awesome post, thanks for the share. Enjoyed the progress pics as well.
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