Poker table build thread (1 Viewer)

[GavinStevens]

Guys - on the cup rings...how tight should I cut those? Should there be any play or should they be a friction fit on the cupholder. I cut all 10 today but I could make them tighter if needed. At the time, I wasn't thinking they needed to be too tight but I also don't want them wiggling after install.

 

[GavinStevens]

I'm about done with this build. I'm going to make several posts tonight updating each step. I believe where I left off was the cupholder rings. I bet you I cut 50 total rings. I knocked out 10 real fast but then got to thinking they were too loose so I made some tighter ones. But after that, I saw one guys build post where it made the ring as thin as the cup rim so I thought I needed to make the rim more narrow, so I cut more. What I ended up with was a very narrow rim and a VERY tight fit.

This is a look at how I cut the rings. Nothing groundbreaking here - just copying what several on the forum have posted before.

This are some of my first iterations, you can see they were wide, kinda loose.

More circles, I believe this is after I had it dialed in to final dimensions.

Final rings stacked up.

 

[GavinStevens]

Next, I measured the circumference of the table and marked out the 10 cup holes. I used the router to cut out the holes.

 

[GavinStevens]

I realized after doing this that my cups were BARELY going to need to be recessed into the lower pieces. I thought they were going to clear it but they did not. I put the player's rail on top, traced the circle, and routed each of them out. You'll also notice all these 2x4 blocks laying around. After playing with the layout, I thought the plywood riser blocks I had cut were too short - in terms of the overhang of the player's rail. I should have left them about .5" longer I thought. Instead of laminating more together, I thought it easier just to cut some 2x4's I had laying around. It added a tad bit of height but nothing too drastic.

Just a picture of the holes all cut and the cup holder circles in place.

 

[GavinStevens]

My felt arrived from Chanman. I laid it out to get the wrinkles out. I actually just ended up ironing the thing - I'm not sure if he recommends doing that or not but it worked fine for me.

 

[GavinStevens]

I put some edge banding around the base. I ordered the decorative nails to go here if I end up using them so I thought the background being smoother may look a little better.

there's the final result after trimming.

 

[GavinStevens]

I painted the base black.

 

[GavinStevens]

I laid out all the 2x4 riser blocks and glued them into place.

 

[GavinStevens]

I put the player's rail back on top after the riser's were glued just to see what it was looking like. Threw a couple of cup holders in just to make sure it all linedup right
.

Just a last picture with the player's rail back off. I think I added a few more 2x4's to fill in some gaps.

 

[GavinStevens]

I got the idea to buy drywall corner pieces for the LED strips to mount on. They come in a"L" shape so I cut it down the middle. I then tacked it around the risers with some staples.

You'll see in these pictures the tiny plywood squares.....this was maybe my first "error". When I started puting the drywall corner pieces in, I realized the led strips were going to hit the cup holders. I needed to add those spacers get the led strips to be further out and clear the cups. Not a huge deal, but definitely wasn't in the plan. In hindsight, I could have maybe cut the cup holes a little further back in the player's rail, or just made the risers that dimension in the first place. But when you don't have detailed plans and building based off a picture basically, you're going to run into some issues - this wouldn't be the last on this build.

 

[GavinStevens]

Here's a picture of the drywall pieces all in and I tested out the LED strip. A couple of close ups of the LEDS. This strip had a removable sticky back so I used that and no additional adhesive or staples or anything.

 

[GavinStevens]

Next step: putting the foam on the playing surface.

I used 3M 77 and laid it in the floor. I cut the excess. I will say, the electric knife didn't work well on this stuff. It was okay, but didn't cut near as easy as the player's rail foam. I ended up using a razor blade for a lot of it. I then took some edgebanding and went around around. I did this because I saw a few people put various material around the foam so that the felt has more of a square edge going over the sides. I actually doubled it up with 2 layers of edge banding for a little extra strength.

A close up of what that ended up looking like.

 

[GavinStevens]

I laid the felt over the surface. Took several measurements and centered it the best I could. I used 3m 77 to tack it down a little, then flipped it over and stapled. Cut the excess with a razor blade.

 

[GavinStevens]

Of course I had to put it in the table to see what we were looking like at this point. Plus I was nervous about whether it would fit well after the double edge banding and all.

 

[GavinStevens]

Time for the rail foam and vinyl. I was most nervous about this because I've only done it once before. I didn't take a lot of pictures but I tried to follow the guide that's been posted here many times. It went pretty smooth. I could have pulled much tighter in a couple of areas probably. I do have a few wrinkles on the outside but they don't bother me really and I didn't think it was necessary to try to pull 100% of them out.

The cup holders are very tight. I had to use a piece of wood to apply more even pressure to push it down.

 

[GavinStevens]

Next I put it back together just to see how we were fitting.

In order -here is the base and the inside rail:

Add the playing surface:

Add the player's rail:

 

[GavinStevens]

The diffusers came in. I ordered from TAP Plastics. I thought about getting a custom one from Chanman, and I still may do it but I went with this for now. I ordered 3x 8' sticks. I needed 2 and a small piece of the third but it was cheaper to get a whole 3rd stick for some reason. I tried to get a green to match my logo sort little but they only had 2 to pick from.

They come packaged like this with a sticky protection layer on both sides:

I put the two full sticks in just to get an idea of what it looked liked. And here it is with the lights on:

It was at this point, my 2nd error with the build occurred. The green plastic is very see through. You can clearly see the 2x4's and the white drywall pieces. Had I planned on it being that see through, I could have dressed up the inside area so it might actually have looked neat and been a positive - but with what I've done here, I hated it.

I went back and forth on what to do but I thought the quickest thing to try would be to paint the internals that you can see black. So I took it all apart....

 

[GavinStevens]

I removed the LED strip and spray painted the risers and the drywall corner piece. I also rolled the inside rail piece.

I put the 2 full 8' sticks into place. This is how much is left to cut from the 3rd piece and also a close up of the gap they are fitting into. It is a very tight fit. I was pleased with that as I was concerned it would be too lose but you have to hammer it down and its a friction fit.

The plastic strips are green but the lighting doesn't really show it in these pics with the leds off.

The rail back on.



AND the final reveal for now - with the lights on:

The only problem with that now - is you can see a very small shadow spot in the bottom of that last picture where there is no LED lights....when I removed the strip and put it back, I lost some of my slack with undoing the sticky strip and reattaching so I'm about .25" shy of making the full loop. I will most likely fix this at some point but it isn't that big of a deal to me at the moment. My guess is I will end up getting a diffuser made from chanman and replace the led strip at that time. But for now, I am very satisfied with how the black paint helped. You can't see all the details of the white drywall corner or the 2x4's anymore.

So what's left?
(1) put all the bolts in and tighten it all down
(2) put the cup holders in
(3) put the decorative nails around the base edge
(4) put the legs on


edited to add: here is a picture showing the LED being short after having to remove it and put it back. Not too happy about it but I'm also not buying another strip and taking everything back apart until I have another reason to do so whether it be exchanging out the diffuser for one from chanman or maybe adding an underneath lockbox/chip drawer or something along those lines. I also don't love the final felt colors I chose. I may get a second felt made at some point too. The background logos don't show up all that well. Which is 100% my fault for picking that design.