Custom gaming table ideas

[JamzTheMan]

OK, so my Projector developed spots again so I figured if a TV dropped to the right price I'd replace it with such, and well, it did.

Original question...

So, now I guess I need to build a custom enclosure/table to mount it/play on it. It's a Vizio 50" with a small bezel. So I'm thinking of maybe just a nice 4x8 sheet of finished plywood cut with a whole to fit, and get a sheet of plexiglass to sit on the screen at the same thickness so it's all the same height at the top. I'm not terribly worried about liquid spills but depending on how deep the screen is set, maybe cut plexiglass to same size as whole and seal it, and mount tv under.

Anyhoo, anyone have any ideas, websites, pics, done it yourself, etc? My google-foo is failing. TV and Table are way to common of a term, and gaming table usually results in either projection setups or just regular tables for gaming.

I'm not a furniture maker by far but I do have all the basic tools and moderate skills, so hoping for something not TOO difficult but want it to look nice.

OK, so almost a year later and the Project is done! (well, ok, 99% done, still need to order the glass top and give a final sanding to the finish for a final hand rubbed coat to apply.)

All done and running Map Tool!

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Fulling assembled sans glass top

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Attaching aluminum bars for brackets to the VESA mount holes

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TV secured via 4 bolts, additional brackets will be added but for now it's solid!

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Some assembling required!

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Measuring and aligning TV support brackets.

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*The top may look a little glossy in the picks but it's not quite as glossy IRL and Waterlox looses some of it's gloss over the next 6 months...

[Azhrei]

I haven't seen it done in person. There are a few "project tables" floating around the forum here. I seem to recall a Swede or similar building a really nice table, but I don't have it bookmarked. Probably under "User Creations" or "Links & External Resources".

That said, I have a few suggestions for things to keep in mind.

Make the acrylic a little bit larger than the tv's cutout and use a router (not the networking kind ) so that the acrylic sheet will drop in and sit tight without the need for glue. That will allow you to take it out and clean it should something spill on it.

You probably won't be able to do anything about glare from overhead lights other than turning them off. Don't expect the acrylic sheet to help. You can get acrylic that's been "frosted" but the pieces I've seen would make the tv unusable.

Keep heat dissipation in mind. Tv's are designed to exhaust heat through the top since that's the orientation their expected to be in. Don't build a table that somehow blocks that air flow. This is less important with LED/LCD than plasma, but even LEDs burn about 110W-160W so they'll get very warm without air flow and some components could have a much shortened life.

If I were going to do this, I'd try to find a way to use a "poker table-like" fabric covering on the table. You can buy green (or blue, or red) sheets of fabric from craft and fabric stores quite inexpensively. A buddy of mine just recovered his poker table with a sheet of that stuff and some spray-on glue. It turned out very nice. The reason I'd use that stuff is to eliminate the need for staining the wood, and with a covering you don't have to worry too much about sanding either. I would buy it large enough so it could be folded over the side and then a 1/2" half-round trim piece attached over it to keep it in place. Or maybe better would be an L-shaped bracket with the bottom of the L under the table and the upright part of the L coming around the side and providing a bit of a lip so dice and pencils and such don't go rolling off the table.

Plan to mount some power strips on the underside of the table so people with laptops or whatever will have easy access to power without tripping over cords! Another option would be to attach the strips to the inside of the legs so they're easier to find and won't be dropping into your lap.

A 4x8 sheet of plywood will be heavy! Try using something smaller, like maybe 3/8", and reinforcing it with 2x2 or even 1x1 pieces, with 6 legs (2 at each corner, plus 2 in the middle on either side of the tv). Maybe have the center legs criss-cross in an "X" shape so players' knees don't bump into the legs all the time...?

Sounds like fun! I'm looking forward to seeing step-by-step pics of the project!

[Azhrei]

Links to some other threads (some are pretty cool!). About half are using a projector, the other half are using tvs. Doesn't really matter much, as a lot of the table structure will be the same (although a tv might have additional support since the table supports its weight, but projectors can be off to the side and use a mirror to the table surface).

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15646
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16412
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17701
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19963
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19860

It was fun to read through some of these threads.

[Bone White]

I'd make the table out of two sheets, one slightly larger hole than required, perhaps 5cm larger. Lay the two boards ontop of each other and glue them together, one with the larger hole ontop. This allows you to rest your polycarbonate sheet or acrylic (or whatever clear screen you are going to use to protect the screen) on the created lip, to allow a secure fixture without fixings, and the ability to seal the edges to keep out spillages.

A bar around the outside to stop dice rolling off the edge is a great idea, and you could lay cloth down over the boards to create a gambling table feel. Who doesn't like the sound of dice on felt? If you really felt creative you could add inset bowls with covers for rolling dice in for that unique feel. This would allow you to not have bars on the edge and use the table as... a table when you required it.

Don't forget the spring clips under the head of the table for the shotgun/broom handle/faerie wand that lets the PCs know when they're out of line, and when your word is law (Assuming you're the GM).

[Jagged]

Playsurface was the Touch Surface Kickstarter that was linked on here a little while ago. They do a small finished table, but you can also buy the components at any stage of construction. So if you wanted to incorporate their system into a table more suited to your requirements, that would be do-able.

That's what I would do, if I had the time

[JML]

Maybe someday…

ePawn Arena

[Azhrei]

ePawn has been mentioned here before. Their web site says to expect a kickstarter "soon", but I just searched and they don't have a project up yet. Or they had it up and it expired. The coolest thing about their product is the 46" diagonal playing surface!

Regarding the PlaySurface, the history on their Home page says they collected 188% of their Kickstarter goal (that's at the bottom of the page, the oldest entry) and that they've run through all of the initial funds so far (this is about a third of the way down the page). They're continuing to build and ship boards but it seems they ate up a good portion of the money in R&D and development costs. And they still don't have the software 100% working for the board that does image detection. So you get a play surface but it cannot (yet) track finger movements or otherwise act as a touch screen. Although I admit I'm not 100% clear on why they have both their "core vision" component (which is camera-based) and the Blob Board (the thing with missing software).

With all of these projects, my biggest issue is a scrolling map. When you want to scroll the map, then all of the figures on the table have to move as well. The only way around that is to go 100% digital. And if you're going 100% digital, I think the need for a touch-sensitive surface drops since other techniques are viable (mouse, trackball, etc).

Given that scrolling the map is problematic, the best tabletop will be one that can project 3d images, a'la Tony Stark's design table or the chess set in the original Star Wars movie. ("I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the wookie win." )

Still, it's fun to consider the possibilities!

[JamzTheMan]

Sweet, thanks for all the ideas and i will def take some pics.

So far, i think i am going to go wood/stain using planks vs plywood. I currently have a felt edge around my screen for the projector, and being gamers, we snack during games and it is a pita to keep clean. I literally have to run the roomba on the table every couple weeks. And plus I have a router i got for christmas i'm itching to use!

And I think i will need to go glass vs plexiglass. As some have said, it puts some heat off. It's lcd/led but still. Some report that there plexiglass fogged and warped after a couple hours. It will mostly be exposed underneath but maybe i can rig some 120mm computer fans for air flow. Not sure if i should seal the glass down or not but probably should. Will see how tight a fit it is. Maybe a rubber gasket instead.

I Just have do idea if i need to go tempered or not and how thick? We are talking 26x48 floating over the screen (not resting on anything). But tempered glass is looking around 200$

[Bone White]

I Just have do idea if i need to go tempered or not and how thick? We are talking 26x48 floating over the screen (not resting on anything). But tempered glass is looking around 200$

IF you bear the "prototype" nature of your material use into effect, it should be reasonably easy to replace the screen if you do get problems. Start off with a standard glazed sheet, but maybe laminate it with clear plastic incase it gets damaged to stop it breaking the screen at the same time.

[JamzTheMan]

That's a great idea. I definitely plan on keeping it removable (ie just sits in a grove). I think that's also just called safety glass to, so I'll inquire about it at my local glass shop. If there's a big difference, I'll look into laminating it my self (just worried about getting dust/air pockets on it). And if I do it myself, put it on the bottom you think?

I feel like I'm blazing a trail here lol, but at less than 500$ for a 50" 1080p tv, it's way cheaper than a short throw projector that only does 1080i (I paid $1000 for the projector a few years ago and developed white dots within 2 years and again after factory repair 11 months later).


To bad these things are more than the TV...maybe a touch mod update in a few years... http://peauproductions.com/store/index. ... cts_id=443

[Bone White]

Safety glass has purposely made imperfections in it, ensuring it shatters into cubes, and is also laminated. Car windscreens are the best example of this. Laminated glass just has a sheet of plastic over one or both sides, preventing the shards from going too far on a minor-moderate impact, but they still break into sharp slivers. Laminated glass won't help if a huge force hits the sheet, because the glass will tear through the laminate with the added force, but it is a lot cheaper. Reinforced glass is incredibly tough and durable, used in shop windows a lot. My grandfather's shop window has to be almost half an inch think, but bricks and baseball bats bounce right off, despite it being a single sheet over 10 feet wide and 8 feet high.

The only laminated glass I've ever used has been home made, using a sheet of clear adhesive plastic and the glass from a large picture frame (cheapest way to buy thin glass). The larger the lip, the smaller the hole, and the thicker the glass all contribute to strength of the glass in your table. The laminate would only be there to stop shards(and the object which broke the glass) from hitting your screen from a moderate impact. I'm thinking things like the lampshade falling off the light above it, or someone tripping and dropping what they were carrying on it e.g. a liquid filled mug.

I would definitely recommend sealing the edge of the glass though if you want it removable that will be difficult: to protect form liquid spillages.

[SpecialK]

I considered the whole gaming table idea as well. Then I moved on to a projector and screen with virtual minis and the smoothboard IR pen. The latter was too cumbersome, and a simple keyboard and mouse was much better. I already had a theater, so I just converted it to accommodate a Maptool game:

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php ... 34#p228834

[JML]

With all of these projects, my biggest issue is a scrolling map. When you want to scroll the map, then all of the figures on the table have to move as well. The only way around that is to go 100% digital. And if you're going 100% digital, I think the need for a touch-sensitive surface drops since other techniques are viable (mouse, trackball, etc).

Good point. Didn't think of it.

[Jagged]

With all of these projects, my biggest issue is a scrolling map. When you want to scroll the map, then all of the figures on the table have to move as well. The only way around that is to go 100% digital. And if you're going 100% digital, I think the need for a touch-sensitive surface drops since other techniques are viable (mouse, trackball, etc).

With this in mind it would be a nice feature if future versions of Maptool could be locked at a given zoom. Maybe allow zooming out, so you could scroll the map, but snap back when released.

When it comes to the miniatures, the approach I would take if I was using Playsurface would be to place the identifying stickers on the bottom of the figures and just use them to move the tokens.

[JamzTheMan]

Ya, we used mini's on our projected table for about 2 minutes. Just not worth the effort.

The only point for "touch" interface is to allow others to move tokens. Mouse/Keyboard works ok but it does usually saddle a single person to move everyones tokens. With a touch it would allow others to freely touch there token and move it. Although it's not worth 600$ to do it lol

Just found a Kinect SDK though that gives you touch controls, and since mine is gathering dust, may give it a try!