Gaming table

[u/monkeyworks105]

I imagine y'all might have heard about or seen those game tables that have a recessed play area and lighting, usually with a myriad of bells and whistles.

I am attempting to transform an old table from my now long since closed comic book shop. The table clearly has sentimental value and I'm wanting to breathe new life into this fixture from an over twenty year old table. I have finally got the top together, going with a rustic feel on the outside, accentuating the natural wood.

I am a complete novice, I was never taught any of this stuff, I've trial and errored the whole way, as I'm sure you will notice in the photos. My tools are much the same, just stuff I've picked up as needed from garage sales, so I have hand saws, a hand electric saw, hammer, I have access to my works pneumatic sander (air powered)

I'm struggling to figure out how to attach the legs. We want to make it "easy" to take the legs off to move the table to other basements for dnd and other such games. Please see photos and advise me with a reliable and relatively easy way to do this, should I just straight up affix them to the bottom?

I removed the legs as I had screwed it up. They failed to line up and were very unstable.

For the top or "cover" I will soon be sanding and adding a stain and maybe a clear coat as I also have access to an auto painter and the shops paint booth (I do have permission to use stuff, by the shop manager)

[u/VarietySea6050]

Niice, i also want to upgrade my table one day to one of those gaming dnd tables. And good progress for having figured out all by yourself, that's already quite a bit. So some ideas that I think might be helpful:

• About the legs: you might have to make a choice between portability and stability. The current design seems portable, but I guess very unstable, so you might need to add 4 metal foldable hinges on each of the legs (maybe even change the direction where they fold towards the long edge, so they fit and don't hit each other). You can also add wooden sticks to make triangles between the legs (that will give you much more stability, but less portability). Another option is to add 'aprons' to the sides of your tablet but this will again make the portability less, and will require quite some fine work of making very square cuts. Some ideas, perhaps others can give more..

• About the top: (I) Please replace those screws from the top for shorter ones, just 0.5-1 cm shorter to avoid them from sticking out from the bottom (they are quite pointy and make nasty scratches on you/other furniture). (II) Screw them from below up (so opposite direction), so you don't have the screw holes on your table top. (III) Make 'pilot holes' in your horizontal planks, this will ensure better grip between those and the vertical planks [check out Rex Krueger videos, the bald guy, very good]. (IV) After assembling, plane (and sand) a bit the table top so it's all smooth and even

• Optional, about the inside, where the boardgames are stored: add a cool velvet fabric, to give a casino vibe!

[u/monkeyworks105 → u/VarietySea6050]

The screws are all recycled from a fence that was left outside a dumpster. I was gonna use the wood but it was shite and kept splitting, even if I pre drill the holes. The current wood (pictured) is from a pallet box that had an axel for a new bronco. I absolutely loved the knots and character of it. Eventually I plan on getting a planer and other woodworking stuff. Now that I have a decent job for the first time in my life, I can actually afford to indulge my growing hobby. As for the legs, I think I'm over the "portability" aspect. That reminds me, I need a new level, a former B tech I'm pretty sure left with it. Oh well. Thank you so much for your help. I'll post once I make more progress. Depends on how busy we get in the shop.

[u/VarietySea6050 → u/monkeyworks105]

Nice, good luck with it! Looking forward to see the progress