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HMS Gaming Table

HMS Gaming Table

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Project Blog by onlyonepinman Cult of Games Member

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About the Project

Following the success of building my painting desk, I have been at the woodworking again, this time building a permanent gaming table. To give some background to this project, it actually represents an upgrade of sorts to an existing setup built last year. Originally I had the idea of building modular table toppers that could be added/removed from a tabletop to create larger or smaller areas as required and, being modular, they were also portable. They were intended to sit atop any table of any width and provide a gaming area 4' wide. In theory the idea was sound but in practice they didn’t really work out as hoped due to the environment in which they were being used. The floor in the attic isn’t very even and because the base on which they were placed was made of several folding tables, each table sat at a slightly different height and angle making alignment of the modules very difficult. The table was also slightly too high to sit at comfortably when you factor in the combined height of the table plus the table toppers. We also found that people were leaning on the table which was causing the modules to bend. Additionally at no point since their creation have the modules left the attic or even been moved to create a smaller table. So we made the decision to make the setup more permanent. This Project charts the build of that table. I will try to show the stages and the materials used, decisions and design choices and where possible, give reasons why.

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12 - SNAG A NORMY!

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When we moved into the new place in 2019, we lucked out with the neighbours.  Dave, the guy next door is really friendly, couldn’t wait to meet the new neighbours , you know, all that good stuff.  Then he saw the wargames stuff being moved in.  Huge boxes of miniatures and pieces of scenery and I am pretty sure was hooked right there and then – he’d already bought his son a Stranger Things D&D set based solely on seeing the show but had never played it.  My brother is a huge D&D nutter so he was all like “yeah, I will definitely run a game for you!”

Obviously it took us a while to get settled in, get things unpacked and the the event happened and we all had to hide away from the world.  During that time we built the table in the garage over a period of several months which he saw, sometimes watched (from a safe distance of course) and we would chat, talk about all the games.  He told us he was a massive Star Wars fan and he showed us his box of (quite possibly priceless) Star Wars memorabilia -books, toys, all sorts most of it still in shrink wrap and boxes.

For Christmas, we extended an invitation that, once all the silliness was over and done with that both he and his son could come over and we would run a game of something for them.  Obviously the lockdown seems to be never ending however, as soon as they said you could meet people outside and in gardens, he sent us a WhatsApp messages that just said “does your garage count as outside if the door is open” – we agreed that it did and within a couple of days the table had its inaugral game.  Due to their love of Star Wars, we opted for Xwing – it’s easy, it’s fast, it’s fun and it’s something they both already know and understand.

I can only apologise for the bad hair styles, this was a week before the barbers opened again.  However this is Ian (my brother) helping Noah to defeat Darth Dave

This has also lead to the table being named The Second Deathstar:

  • It’s the second version of the table.
  • It’s bigger and badder than the first.
  • It’s got a hole through the middle that leads to its power supply.
  • It was fully armed and operational before it was technically finished.
  • It had Xwings and TIE Fighters buzzing around shooting each other

Following that game, as they were leaving Dave dropped a bit of insight on us with this line.

“Do you know what I would really like to try?  A massive game of 40k”

He knows about it, has seen a tank somewhere (we think it was an Ultramarines Land Raider from the description) and he’s desperate to give it a try.  tonight he got his wish.  Partly at least.  My brother ran a 500 point introduction for him and it turns out he absolutely loved it.

So in summary, the table is if not finished, operational and we have used it to SNAG A NORMY!  Was it all worth it?  Abso-feckin-lutely

There may be a couple of extra updates on this when I come to add the sound system but there won’t be much more now.  It’s time to call it done, leave it alone and really just enjoy it

Normy, snaggedNormy, snagged

11 - This Is It!

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It’s done.  Or at least it’s operational, there is currently no sound system, although there is a dedicated power socket for one, I just need to decide what I want to install on it.  However, highly important decisions like that are for another day.  For now I am just going to bask in the glory of my work.

As you can see from the images above, the dodgy joinery isn’t quite so bad once the wood was stained.  Sadly I will never not be able to see it but hopefully it won’t be so obvious to anyone using the table.

I also did a little walk around video of the table.  Where it would seem that everything is “lovely”.

10 - Move Closer

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So close now.  You can almost hear the dice rolling.

Now all the power supplies, cabling and lights were in place the lower surface was pretty much complete which meant that I could finally focus on the more important upper surface – you know the one that we will actually play games on!

Laying the cover on this was a lot easier, much closer to laying roof felt (I even used felt tacs to fasten the covering to the edges).  The roll of material turned out to be almost the perfect length and width for the table with only a small amount of off cutting required.  I put a coat of PVS glue down onto the wood surface before laying the material over the top.  I then used the felt tacs to fasten the material to the wood along two adjacent edges, trimming the excess from the other two edges before tacking those on too.  I also screwed a length of wood along one of the long edges – there was always going to be a lip around the gaming surface to stop things getting knocked off the table.  Adding the first piece before trimming the excess material off just further secured the covering making it a lot easier to trim down.  I then built the rest of the lip which again just added more security to the covering.

At this point I would like to also take a moment to showcase my shoddy, amatuery joinery skills.  I had measured everything so perfectly and tested it to make sure it fit.  What I had forgotten to take into consideration is the additional 6mm that the leather covering would create…  Luckily I had a bit of wood filler but I was pretty annoyed about this

9 - But most of all, pleeeeeease, let there be ...

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…light

This bit was relatively straightforward, it mostly just involved fastening cable clips to the underside of the upper surface and mounting the brackets for the LED strips.  Not particularly exciting, it was a bit of a chore trying to hammer the tiny clips into the wood, it certainly didn’t do my finger and thumb any good.

The lights themselves are just the multi coloured LED strips from Ikea, I can’t remeber the name, probably some daft sound psuedo-swedish word like LÆD or something.  Anyway, I bought two sets and mounted the switches side by side at one end.  The power supplies are nicely hidden out of the way and cannot easily be disconnected without venturing inside the table, so as long as the table is plugged into the mains, the lights will work.

However, unlike the beading, there was absolutely no question at all whether this step was worth it.  Check this out (imagine the tune from Phantom Mennace is playing in your head, yes, this one)

8 - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish...

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…Well, during this step there was a point when it certainly felt that way

With most of the table built and stained, by this stage we were into the finishing touches stage.  The table would be entirely usable if I just screwed the planks for the upper surface onto the cross beams.   But this was a labour of love and I couldn’t abide that ugly plywood surface to be visible.  So I lined the whole surface with blue fake leather to cover up all the blemishes and joints.  I think the royal blue colour also looks really swish.

8 - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish...

The problem with lining the surface was that I am in no way qualified to lay carpet and essentially that is what I was doing here.  Now, I didn’t do a bad job but honestly the edges weren’t very straight, so I decided to head back to the DIY store and get some beading to cover up my mistakes.  This also necessitated getting a mitre box in order to cut the ends of the strips of beading into 45 degree angles.  It turned out, due to the way the supports for the upper surface are connected, that the beading was a royal pain in the arse.  I didn’t just have to cut the angles for 4 corners, I had to cut angles for a total 36 corners – a total 72 cuts.  Yeah, that got annoying real quick,  even now I look at it and wonder if it was worth it (SPOILER ALERT – of cours it was!)

8 - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish...

Once the beading was done, I finally screwed the planks in place for the upper surface.  I actually quite like it at this stage, it reminded me a little of a table in a beer hall

8 - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish...

7 - You Lift Me Up

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The first step to all this was to build the second (upper) surface, raised approximately 1.5′ above the first (lower) surface.  The intention was to use a similar method to the bottom of the table – build a series of sub-frames based on two posts with some cross beams.  However there were a couple of constraints that weren’t necessarily applicable to the lower frame.  First, I need to keep as much space as possible free from obstruction, meaning that adding additional supports to the lower parts of the subframes wasn’t possible.  Second, I wouldn’t be able to add any central supports because, again, the space needs to be as clear as possible to maximise storage space and also allow easy installation of electrics.  There’s always one gamer in any group who just has a total lack of self awareness and who is usually also overweight and will lean on the table.  Is that a horrible sterotype?  Yes.  However I am investing a lot of time and effort into the table and I am making this as idiot proof as possible to ensure that, well, those people can come and play without me worrying they’re going to break the table.  It’s an inclusive table.

To solve this and create the  stability and rigidity needed I decided to build a lip around the lower surface which would allow me to fasten the supports onto that via one side and also directly to the lower surface via the underside.  I then decided to just use a thicker beam for the cross beams.

So, design decisions made, off to the DIY store to get wood…

(no, there isn't a child in that car seat)(no, there isn't a child in that car seat)

It was while I was browsing the timber section of the DIR store that a thought occurred to me.  The intention is that the table will support an 8′ x 4′ gaming area which will predominantly be made using neoprene mats.  However I have noticed something with the mats we have at the moment – they’re always slightly wider than 4′.  I didn’t want there to be any overhang at the edges so that meant making the upper surface wider than 4′ and that in turn meant I wouldn’t be able to use the standard 2440mm x 1220mm plywood sheet.  Some quick thinking and I opeted to go with two packs of sanded pine planks which I could lay flat, side by side, to create a play area a couple of inches wider than 4′.  This also had two added bonuses;  it looked a hell of a lot nicer (not massively important seeing as I was going to cover it anyway) and it was way sturdier.

Finally we stained the whole lot to protect it from the environment – garages tend to be cold and damp especially during the winter months – and we had a celebratory beer!  Cheers!

The keen eyed among you will also notice an additional beam disecting thlower surface, this serves two purposes.  First it helps keep the gaming areas tidy by creating dedicated spaces for each player or team.  Second it will allow me to mount the power supplies onto something a bit more solid than a sheet of plywood.

6 - I Am the Resurrection...

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At the end of 2019 we moved house and sadly this table had to be dismantled and I was sad 🙁 so was my brother 🙁  But because I am a thoughtful, considerate big brother, I managed to save the pieces and we decided to reassemble it in the garage at the new house 🙂  However it wasn’t all plain sailing

The garage is a much more enclosed space than the attic at the old house meaning that it needed a small amount of redesign.  This is what we managed to reasonably assemble after the move.  The trays that were on the edges of the old table made it too wide to fit in the garage so they had to go.  There also wasn’t a great deal of room for seating but the playing surface was too low to stand at.  So I put my thinking cap on to assess how exactly I could solve the two issues

 

 

6 - I Am the Resurrection...

The problems:

1. Playing surface too low/No Seating

Obviously I couldn’t make the garage bigger so to get around the seating issue I decided that it would no longer be a table at which you sit – simple.  By raising the playing surface it would become a standing table, which I actually think is OK for wargames.

2. Loss of the storage trays

In order to raise the table, instead of just extending the legs, I could create a second 8×4 surface above the existing one.  The lower surface could then be used as a storage area and be a lot more useful than the original becaus it would be large enough to store all manner of things.  Model carry cases, models that are either waiting to be brought onto the table or have been removed from play, drinks, snacks, books, laptops, phones, tablets, the kitchen sink and all the other paraphernalia that wargamers tend to carry with them.

Obviously, being an engineer when coming up with these solutions I naturally thought of other ideas I felt would be entirely necessary and in no way constituted over engineering the product.  Ideas like

  1. Coating the surfaces in some kind of material to give it a luxury finish
  2. Adding built in power supplies so that players could charge phones or laptops or tablets
  3. Building in some PC Speakers so we can have a musical accompaniment to the games
  4. Adding lighting to the lower playing surface.
  5. Making those lights colour selectable so that players can pick a team colour

My brother, who is not an engineer disagreed because he didn’t understand but I quickly explained that basically it would totally unusable without them.  Plus, I was paying so he should stop worrying about budget…

And with that we set to work

Now, I should point out that a lot of this work was undertaken last year during the lockdown.  Seeing as we couldn’t have people round to play games it seemed like a good opportunity.  However photos got lost and even when most of the work was complete, the table kind of just sat there, unused 🙁

I am posting these updates now because, well, one I found the pictures but also because not only has the game table been officially launched but it is only a few weeksaway (hopefully) from the final finishing touches being added – I am currently weighing up options for building in the sound system

5 - And It Looks Like We Might Have Made It

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Well, The final stage was very quick and very simple. Attach the gaming surface. The sheets for the gaming surface were recovered from the original build. This means there were lots of small holes were screws had been but as these will generally be covered by a mat it’s not really a problem. It did make screwing it onto the frame slightly more difficult as it was sometimes hard to work which of guide holes were new for this table and which were pre-existing but that only a minor setback in a very easy task.
And so here it is , complete with two Deepcut studios 4′ x 4′ gaming mats. For anyone interested it used 268 screws of varying sizes, each of which was placed into a predrilled guide hole. I will stress at this stage the table meets the original design (subject to changes made during construction) and the table is functional, but it’s not finished. I have two additional improvements I wish to make that I hadn’t considered in the original design, as well as giving the table a nice coat of varnish.
However weekend is now a memory and real life is taking over for another week and I am working away from home. So additional work will have to wait until next weekend

5 - And It Looks Like We Might Have Made It
5 - And It Looks Like We Might Have Made It
5 - And It Looks Like We Might Have Made It

4 - You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings

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With the basic frame built, the next task was building something to store drinks which would be done by attaching two womgs the the table – the wings.   The design I had in my mind was a simple L shaped shelf with the upright running along the edge of the gaming area and providing quite a nice boundary whilst also preventing bottles, glasses or cans from being knocked into the game area. This shelf would have some small struts  attached to the bottom which could then be fastened to the main table frame. Because the overall width of the gaming surface is actually slightly larger than 1200mm (4′) i had to place a couple of the plywood sheets on top to get the spacing right for the shelves. To prevent them moving I screwed them onto the frame whilst the shelves were being fastened on. I cut the struts bigger than needed to ensure I had some room to adjust the table width to the correct size. The final result can be seen below, at this stage it’s starting to look like my original vision, with a few design tweaks of course.
The shelves are built from.

• Upright 200mm x 18mm sanded timber
• Shelf 180mm x 18mm sanded timber
• Struts 44mm x 44mm sanded timber

4 - You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings

3. - Whip dat Mainframe, I'll explain

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No, I am not finishing the lyric off.

With the legs now complete I could start building the frame on top. This wasn’t a particularly complex task, the wood comes in 2440mm lengths and is pre sanded. Therefore it requires relatively little work, just a tiny bit of sanding at the ends. The frame was constructed by attaching the edge pieces first – that is the two end leg frames and the two long edge beams. This creates a nice rectangular frame. After that I added two more beams running the length of the table Which would ensure that the gaming surface was supported across its entire width. We found gamers tend to lean into the middle of the table to move models and then put their weight onto the table and so the surface needed to be protected from bending both at the edge, where players will invariably casually lean between turns, and in the middle where they lean during their turn. Requesting people not lean on the table hasn’t worked. Once all four beams were attached the remaining leg frames were attached, using the flat plywood sheets to get the spacing correct. The result of this process reminded me of the build process for old wooden sailing ships or viking longships – a bare wooden frame waiting for some panelling to make it useful.

The top frame is made from 69mm x 24mm sanded timber.

3. - Whip dat Mainframe, I'll explain

2 - She Got Legs...

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The first step was to build the table legs, 10 in all. My original idea was to screw the legs down to prevent movement and help with rigidity, which is why they have feet. However I decided against that because we do occasionally move the table. So what I decided on was to build the legs on pairs and connect them with some cross beams, one at the top on which I could eventually build a frame for the gaming surface and one nearer the bottom to keep the legs upright and stop the snapping in the event that the table is moved, deliberately or accidentally. The result is what you can see below – I had already constructed the legs with feet when I changed my mind.
Each leg is made of:

• Upright: 69mm x 34mm sanded timber
• Top cross beam: 69mm x 24mm sanded timber
• Lower cross beam: 34mm x 34mm sanded timber

When affixing the smaller pieces of wood, it is definitely recommended that you pre-drill guide-holes for the screws as soft wood especially has a tendency to split when screws are driven into it.

Note: after I built all 5 and took the photo I ended up adding a second cross beam at the bottom of each leg frame on the reverse side of the legs just to add a little extra strength to the build.

2 - She Got Legs...
2 - She Got Legs...

1 - Initial Design.

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The first step was to come up with a design. I am not really one for technical drawings but I usually have a rough idea in my head of what I need to make and roughly how to construct it. This can make me quite difficult to work with (ask my brother who helps me build these things). In order to come up with a design I needed to know exactly what we wanted from the end product. There were some design requirements that the table had meet, some carried over from the original build.

1) Must accommodate up to an 8′ x 4′ gaming area
2) Must have additional space to place drinks away from the gaming area and also the gaming area should be protected from accidental spillages.
3) Must be a comfortable height to sit at
4) Must be rigid enough to support people leaning on it

Requirements 1) and 2) are carried over from the original design and requirement whereas 3) and 4) are new requirements based on experience with the last table.
With the requirements in mind and with no more need for modularity or portability it was clear that I could build a fixed table and that requirements 3) and 4) could be easily met by careful measurements and choice of materials. So I got my brother to sit on a chair and I measured the height to his knees and simply added a bit on. He’s quite tall at 6’1” so it should be fine for most people. I settled at a height of 65cm, which is slightly lower (10cm) than the painting desk, with the gaming surface eventually sitting around 5cm higher. To ensure rigidity I simply opted to use a thicker wood (24mm thickness) with a set of legs at each end and at the join of each of 4 sheets of wood that make up the gaming surface for a total of 5 sets of legs. Those legs would also neatly divide the table into 8 places, perfect for seating people at d&d sessions.
So with a design in mind it was time for a trip to the local DIY warehouse to feel manly and buy a load of timber. As I already had 4 big sheets of marine plywood I only needed to buy stick timber to build a frame.

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