97 Photos - Oct 27, 2006
Photo: Here we go. 1 sheet 3/4" Spruce and 1 sheet 5/8" Maple were purchased.Photo: Ok I bought a space heater. It's cold in the garage in October.Photo: This is what I thought I was going to do...things changed as we progressed.Photo: There is the nice piece of Maple Ply I bought.Photo: Marked 24" from both sides to get our first arc. This is done to both sheets of plywood.Photo: Tried the string method...was just happy to remember how to tie a nice slip knot.Photo: Then I tried attaching the pencil and drawing the arc...Not such a good method.Photo: This worked far better for drawing the arcs. Just use your center point and rotate around it with your tape measurer. These arc's don't have to be perfect...within and 1/8 of an inch I'd say you're doing just fine.Photo: Looks pretty good to me.Photo: Awww the greatest wedding gift I got ;) haha. My jigsaw.Photo: Not too bad and don't worry it doesn't have to be perfect. This edge ends up being part of your rail and gets all padded up anyway.Photo: Finished cutting the spruce sheet (table base)Photo: Photo: Laid the good sheet of maple on the horses and laid the sheet of spruce on it. Figured I'd just trace it out and make my cut.Photo: Well this didn't work out so well. I did a double check and notice it was out by almost a 1/4" so I decided to go back and mark the arcs off again with the nail at 24" etc. Just like the sheet of spruce.Photo: Photo: Photo: SInce spruce comes as 48"x96" exactly and maple is oversized by one inch both ways I decided I'd use a factory edge on two sides.Photo: Photo: Photo: I attached my fence to my circular saw and removed 1" from the sheet of maplePhoto: Then I used the jigsaw with a finer blade to make the cuts around the sheet of maplePhoto: Marking out a 2" cut on the sheet of maple. This piece will be attached to the bottom of the rail and will slip right back to where you cut it to make the rail fit snuggly on your table.Photo: Photo: Here is the 18 TPI jigsaw blade I used. Seemed to start out OK but got harder to push through the sheet towards the end. I ended up using 2 blades to make the fine cuts.Photo: Here is how I started the cut for the 2" ring on the maple. I drilled the holes on the ring side I was cutting out because the other side becomes the race track for the table. But later I figured out that the first inch of the race track side gets covered by the rail anyway so it didn't matter.Photo: Here is the 2" maple ring that attaches to the rail which is made from the spruce sheet.Photo: Photo: Here I've cut out the 3" rail ring from the spruce board. Your rail can range in size from 3 - 6" in width. I went with 3 so that I could show more of the race track.Photo: Just a view of the table base with the sheet of maple on top...nothing has been fastened yet.Photo: Photo: Here I'm trying to figure out how everything fits together. I found out at this point that an inch of my race track gets covered by the rail...and probably a bit more after the rail is padded. This led me to increase the size of the race track by another inch.Photo: Photo: Time to glue the rail piece to the 2" ring piece cut from the maple sheet.Photo: Here it is all glued up with clamps on it. I found that I had to quickly add a few screws to fasten the 2" ring to the rail so that the outside edges of the two rings matched up as close as possible.Photo: Photo: 1.25" screws worked great for fastening the rail to the 2" ring.Photo: And durning the making of the table my house almost burnt to the ground. While I was working I could smell that awful electrical burning smell. Sure enough it looks like two wires were arcing and melted the side of my outlet.Photo: Bad picture I know...but I was in the dark since at this point all the lights in the garage had gone out. BTW my house is only 2 years old. I have great concerns about the quality found in new homes these days in the current market in Alberta.Photo: That's it for now. I replaced the outlet and things are working good. I fitted my rail to my poker table and it fits nice and snug. Next step is to stain the race track and wait for the rest of my supplies to come in. Should be here next week.Photo: How I hope the table will look when it's done.Photo: Supplies finally arrived. Here are the two sheets of foam. 1" and 1/4"Photo: 10 Jumbo cupholdersPhoto: Here is my fabric. The speed cloth is royal blue and I got carbon fiber whisper vinyl for the railPhoto: Here I have the base upside down and on the other side is the race track. I screwed the base to the race trackPhoto: Had to be careful not to sink the screws too deep or else they will pop out the top of the race track. Although this close the the edge think the rail would cover any accidentsPhoto: Here is the base flipped over with the race track. Next step for this piece is to cut the cupholder holes and then stain the race trackPhoto: I moved things to the basement now it's too cold out in the garage.Photo: Sliding the middle piece that will have the royal blue speed cloth into position. Have to add some hardware to this piece to attach it to the basePhoto: Fits like a glove.Photo: Here is the hardware I am using to attach the center felt area to the base. T-nuts, washers and screwsPhoto: I used a 3/4" spade bit to counter sink the t-nuts in the face of the felt area.Photo: here is one of the t-nuts counter sunk into the table.Photo: I covered all the t-nuts with a strip of duct tape to try to smooth out any imperfections i may have caused. This way hopefully nothing shows through the 1/4" foam and fabric.Photo: Photo: Foam time. Here I'm starting to measure out the foam for the rail. I measured the thickness of the wood and added 1/4" to each measurement since the foam won't wrap tight.Photo: Here is my dog helping out. He's a good motivator.Photo: trimming is all done. Now time to glue the 1" foam to the railPhoto: here is the rail right side up now. I traced the outline of the rail on the foam and gave myself reference points to line it up again when I glue it down.Photo: Here is the spray adhesive I bought. Worked fairly well but goes all over the place.Photo: Foaming up the felt area. I trimed the foam down before glueing it to the wood.Photo: Here is the foam glued on with some weight on it to keep it nice and flat. However with that being said when I checked back an hour later it had bubbled up in some spots. I think the adhesive caused my foam to shrink a caused it to wrinkle up a bit. I was able to smooth it out though.Photo: Here I have roughly cut around the edge of the felt area. I don't want any foam wrapping around the felt area since there isn't enough room between it and the race track. I went over the edges with a razo after to smooth them out.Photo: Here we go. This is probably one of the most important tasks. Covering up the rail with the vinyl. I used A LOT of staples here. Start stapling at the beginning of your arc and the move to the other end of the arc. Pull the material towards the spot you just stapled and get it all bunched up on the underside. It's a good idea to feel around on the top of the rail and make sure you don't have any problems with bunching.Photo: Close up of the arc. Like I said A LOT of staples. Pull those corners nice and tight. You have to make sure your foam is wrapping around the edge of the rail.Photo: Ahhh the easy part down the sides. Well actually this wasn't that easy since there is not a lot of material to work with. Again pull it nice and tight as you go. When you get close to the arc opposite of where you started be careful. You could have some bunching. Check that last 3 - 5" before stapling.Photo: Outside is all done. TIme to staple the inside. If we did the outside good it will make the inside that much easier. First I cut away all the excess I don't need. I left myself a 4" buffer. Also just cut a rectangle out that goes from the beginning of each arc.Photo: Here is how I divided up the pie to achieve the arc on the inside.Photo: DON'T CUT TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE!!! I left myself 4" from the inside edge and trimmed further as I started attaching the fabric.Photo: Here it is. The first inside edge is done. Don't worry all that excess will get trimmed off.Photo: Rail is done and trimmed up.Photo: Here it is. It turned out really good.Photo: Time to put the speed cloth down. This was quite easy. Just pull it tight and keep the corners from wrinkling.Photo: My helperPhoto: SweetPhoto: Lined up the legs and screwed them in. Used 3/4" screws...any longer and they'll pop through and you'll have to trim the tip of the screw off otherwise the felt insert won't sit properly.Photo: Photo: Soooo close now.Photo: Look at me thinking I'm so smart picking up a hole saw to cut my cup holders...You'll see. But hey here is the table with the railing on it. This also allowed me to see how much room I had for my cupholders. I offeset from the edge of the race track a 1/2 inch I think.Photo: Pulled out the old compass and figured out where I wanted all the cupholders for 10 spots. I redrew this circle back another 1/4" to give myself a 1/2" buffer from the edge of the racetrack.Photo: Ok so this is taking a little longer than I hoped. Going through a sheet of 5/8 and another of 3/4" takes some time. Battery life on my drill is sub par at the best of times but doing this makes things worse.Photo: Woohoo finally through.Photo: Awww for F&^Ks sake. The hole saw and the cup holders are the EXACT same size. Way to make life easier. There is no hole saw that I know of that would be 3-5/8" wide. I tried wiggling the hole saw as I went I tried everything. To no avail.Photo: Now after every hole I do I have to spend 5 - 10 minutes widening out the hole with sandpaper.Photo: Ok this is a lot of work but it's going alright I guess.Photo: During some down time (battery charging) I started prepping my racetrack for staining. You can see the shiny polished part near the inside edge of the racetrack. That's bad because the pores in the wood are sealed and won't take the stain. I have to go over the entire racetrack with sandpaper to prep the surface. This polishing of the edges is caused from running the jigsaw over the wood.Photo: Here it is with all the cupholders in place. Next I popped out all the cupholders and sanded the racetrack twice. Once with 150 grit and once with 220. Then I cleaned off the dust and used a damp cloth to wipe down the surface.Photo: Here it is. This is minutes after the stain was applied. The color will change as it dries I think. I used a piece of scrap to test the stain on. I liked it and did the table.Photo: Photo: I used a Minwax red mahogany stain.Photo: First coat of polyPhoto: More poly. FInally figured out to just drop a lot on and then run one nice smoothing stroke over it. Still ended up with some air bubbles only on one end for some reason. Oh well.Photo: There it is.Photo: Photo: Photo: Photo: That's just dust...