I decided a short while ago that I would build a poker table. For those of you who are researching this very prospect, you'll surely know by now that there is a superfluity of information on the subject. Early on in my web investigations, I ended up at the following site: http://www.homepokertourney.com/tables_build.htm.
If you've been to the site you know that there are many wonderful tables out there, and the builders have been very open in their construction methods. In addition, the discussions at this forum are particularly useful, especially concerning the details: http://www.scottkeen.com/forum/. These sites gave me the push to actually build a table.
I decided on the table I built based on a few criteria...
| Constraint | Reason | Outcome |
| Cost-effective design. | I'm a graduate student. | No racetrack, and a simple rail. |
| Space-saving is a must. | Apartment-living, baby. | Smaller than 'official-size' & folding legs |
| Can seat for 8 comfortably. | Bigger pots, higher drama :) | 72" x 42" rounded oval = 192" circumference = 24" x 8 (perfect) |
| Can be carried by one person. | Friends seem to vanish when heavy lifting is involved... | The size is manageable, let's stick to one sheet of ply, and install handles. |
| Can be built quickly. | I only have limited access to the parental workshop, so let's make the most of it. | I spent one Friday evening, and part of Saturday morning, and it was done. |
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| Item | Store | Price (CAD) | Notes | |||
| Raw materials | ||||||
| 3/4" Plywood (4 x 8) | Home Depot | $35 | I think it was spruce. It smells a bit like wood. | |||
| 8mm (~1/3") Eco-Foam | Home Depot | $20 | Closed-cell foam underlay for carpets. Found in the flooring section. It's a little stiffer than you might enjoy, but it recovers well, and it's slightly thicker than Volara. | |||
| Blue Velveteen | Fabricland | $10 | 2.5 meters at $4 per. A huge discount as compared to regular price ($13/m). No, I didn't seduce the salesperson to get that price. | |||
| 1" Pipe insulation | Home Depot | $6 | 3 x 6' segments. The kind I bought came with adhesive on the cut seam, so it was very easy to stick to the surface once in place. | |||
| Folding table legs | Donated | $0 | Taken from an old table in my family's garage. I think I informed them... | |||
| Consumables | ||||||
| Arrow T50 1/4" staples | Donated | $0 | From a mysterious shelf in my Dad's workshop. | |||
| Elmer's Spray Adhesive | Home Depot | $5 | Yes, the elephant makes spray glue too. Much cheaper than the 3M stuff (which goes for $12, incidentally). When I was young, I thought that Elmer's glue was made from elephants. I know better now, usually. | |||
| Tools of the trade | ||||||
| Jigsaw | Can cause serious injury or death. | |||||
| Palm sander | Can cause serious injury, death, and hand cramps. | |||||
| Electric stapler | Can cause serious injury, death, hand cramps, and it will likely make you see how far you really can fire staples, and whether they'll stick in anything. | |||||
I'm not really going to give all my construction details, because the basics are summarized very well on other sites. That's what I went by, at any rate. This site was particularly useful: http://www.healyworks.com/poker/pokertable.html.
One day, I will remove the pipe insulation, and build a padded rail out of wood & vinyl, but for now I'm quite happy with the table, and it satisfied all my aforementioned constraints.
Total cost: CAD$76
Total time: 3 hours + overnight (glue drying) + 2 hours = 5 hours + 1 overnight.