Having use of a CNC machine isn't fair for the rest of us, but I'm glad you have one. It really adds in the aesthetic and cool-look factor that regular woodworking doesn't allow. All of those reliefs that you cut into the sides is incredible. Great job!
this was briliant. usually when people have just taken photos throughout rather than video it's not nearly as clear what's been going on, as you were able to achieve with this. Really awesome. Thank you!
Very similar to mine, clipped corners and all! I went mostly Pine, 8'x4', with a 1 foot boarder player area, but only a 3" drop to the playing surface; yours looks about 6"-8" deep. Multi-colored track lighting lines my inner play area for Initiative and mood settings. The player storage compartments I went for was the old-school, lift- hinge, desk style, with 3 on each long side, and 4 double electrical wired outlets. I use it for our DnD group, but I can make it for poker, or any game-play really. You got a deal on the wood, but mine was about $600.00 total cost, but no nice CnC decorative trim for mine. Yours is very nice!!!! The family that plays together, stays together!!!! Enjoy for many years!!!
For the player cubbies, I think I would prefer using the removable "faceplate" as a player space instead. I'd rather have the ease of removing the top cover instead of the "faceplate". But, the current setup also allows the space to be used even when in the "closed" position. If anything, you can install a rail/pocket system right underneath each player space so each play can remove the plate and easily place them under the table in this pocket.
This is a great table! Well done, the player stations are really cool. But please revisit your leg support. The X design is great for stability for table width but those small V boards and 4 screws into the edge of the plywood will not hold for long if you are moving the table around. Maybe a 3rd vertical board under the V? Not trying to knock the design because it is an awesome and very functional game table.
We plan to revisit the legs if/when it becomes a problem. We're coming up on 2 years since we built it, and everything is working well so far. We even disassembled it from the legs, transported it to a local gallery where our makerspace was doing an exhibition and brought it back home. But so far everything is holding together without a hint than anything is amiss. We really loved this project as a learning experience. We learned how plywood should not be used, but it certainly has not been a catastrophic failure in our experience so far. We definitely wish we had done the same design in hardwood but love the stability of the X design and how it keeps all the legs out of the way!
Wow! Awesome! I wish I had the space of a dedicated game table, but I don't. Oh well. It's amazing to see all the different designs out there these days. 🤓
This is absolutely beautiful! I could never make a gaming table this complex. I love it. The only thing I would change if I were involved with the build is the legs. The style of them doesn't match, nor does the color. However I can't do any of this so I will shut my mouth now. LOL!
The issue with hinges isn't just plywood - though that makes it worse. It's screwing into the grain, just turning the playwood the other way, would have made it much stronger. You could also use a router to inset the hinges to make it a smooth connection. Cracking has a lot do do with using different woods, as they expand at different rates in different temperatures, and drilling one board width wise and the other length wise. Wood expands more along the grain. Overall cool table!
The table is amazing! How do you take off the side panels to open the extra space for each player? Are they magnetic and do you have special storage for them?😊
They are magnetic. That was somewhat difficult to pull off. You need quite strong magnets and the alignment needs to be just right. There is a v channel that connected the two legs that we store them in. You have to crawl/reach a bit to stow them but it works.
We went with magnets, but it is a rough solution. We used ones with holes in them so you could screw them in. But the ones we got were no where near strong enough. We used forstner bits to inset the magnets a bit so the faceplates fit as snug as possible. Lining everything up was tricky and while they stay in place they are very precarious, you can't bump them without them coming off. Stronger magnets might have helped but I don't think it was the perfect solution. Do a test one if you go this route before making holes in your table.
I'm currently working on a flat screen tabletop table for my D&D Game. So far I've flat screen and the frame And the program, And all that's working fine. But now I'm considering building a wooden table around the flat screen t.v. wooden frame. And after the wooden table was built, actually I was considering a way to make it look like it's made of stone, but on a much bigger scale. So Jeremy, any Idea's? This episode really helped, it gave me a few Ideas. But what do u say?
I super love the craft and think this video is highly underrated and watched, id argue its even better then a lot of other videos I've seen on the same or similar topic, even though this is more of a voice over with pictures, which would've liked some in action creating but the voice overs fine. absolutely love your skill too, shows that you know a lot about woodworking or the craft, and something you don't see or hear too much with other videos with similar topics. My only gripe, as you've also said, are the plywood's. Wasn't the best choice and wouldn't do that myself, but you live and learn and I love that part about your video. id also would've predrilled all the screw holes but that's more of a preference then something that's absolutely best to do. Keep up the video and again, absolutely love it, hope you do some more.
Thanks for your kind words. We did pre-drill all our holes but I don't think we mentioned that at all in the video. I wish we had thought to actually video some of the build. The video was a complete afterthought and did the best I could with the limited photos we had taken. I hope to do some more videos in the future but that is a skill unto itself.
Just a suggestion for anyone wanting t make one of these make sure your face plates fit under the tables edge this will prevent numerous issues when leaning on the table like, pinched skin, accidental opening etc.
I believe the height difference is about 6 3/4". So yes, it is quite a bit higher, but great to use for standing games. When seated the player stations are at the lower level. So you have to look down into the vault a bit. But the 4'x7' size table kind of meant you'd have to stand and lean over to move much in the center anyways.
You can look through the build process with links to files here: www.instructables.com/Gaming-Table-1/ The faceplate panels aren't included as many of those were paid files and I didn't have the rights to share my modified versions. All the other files are there as Tinkercad links, but you can make yourself a copy of those and save what you need as an STL. I wanted to give people access to Tinkercad versions so they could modify for their needs. Good luck with your build!
Very cool project. Making one similar with solid materials. Would you be willing to share the cutting angles and dimensions of the fold out hinged shelf. We will be doing this by hand without CNC benefits :-) thank you
So the piece that makes the 2nd half of the fold out desk is 20" by 6.5" We maybe would have made them a little wider. On the short ends those were 25" wide which gave the DM more space. So I would say do the width what you have space for. The hinges get a bit complicated. You'll need to cut a rectangle that is almost exactly the height of the inside rail that makes your vault. For us that was 5" but add a little for the kerf of the blade you are using. The angle of the cut does not matter too much. What really matters is that one side of your cut is exactly halfway up the rectangle. So in our case 2.5". Then just mark the other end at something like 3.5"-4" and cut. As long as the one side is exactly in the middle the rest is just aesthetics for how you want it to look. The more exactly in the middle the better everything will line up when it is closed and open. Depending on the hinges you choose you may have to chisel out a little for it to fit flush again. Best of luck with your build.
It's actually for a very practical purpose. The chairs we have for this table are way oversized. We couldn't do a typical 4 post, one in each corner design. On top of that we knew we needed it on casters to be able to move it regularly. We use that space for a number of different things and that table is constantly shuffled around. What's worse than stubbing your toe on a table leg? Scraping up your whole foot on a caster locking mechanism. So we had to make sure the legs were tucked well under the table. The X design with a runner works extremely well for stability. So while it looks very silly on it's own you can't even see the legs when the chairs are around the table and no busted toes or knees so far.
So you have a woodworking CNC...but you didn't know (in the case of your hinges) to put screws in between the layers of plywood?!?! Those are laminated layers of wood...and by putting a screw in between those layers you are delaminating the plywood. You wonder why you got tear out?! Screws in plywood are perfectly fine as long as the screws are able to bite into the layers from the other (90°) direction. Boggles the mind!!
having a CNC or not doesn't play into the knowledge of plywood AT ALL. Yes, screwing directly into the plywood laminated layers is a terrible idea without predrilled holes, but that same thing applies to a lot of wood. The type of wood, the grains, and where/how you're nailing/screwing plays a big part in the splitting of the wood, plywood doubles depending on which side, purely because its glued, screwing into ANY wood that's prone to splitting isn't a good idea, no matter the angle you're doing it at. They said nothing in the video about being clueless about the plywood, and even went above to tell others not to do the same, as it caused them a lot of problems. These people have amazing know how of woodworking and just from this video id trust them on ANY project they'd be doing in the future. Which boggles MY mind on how lack luster you seem to be about pinpointing these details out.
I have access to a CNC at a maker space, I don't own it nor half the tools I needed to build the table. And luckily the screws did bite fine, no delamination yet, they just pulled a bit.
@@elementkingaming1947...A woodworking CNC is an advanced woodworking tool. A beginner woodworker would never have a woodworking CNC in their tool arsenal. Working with simple two-by-fours and plywood are the typical starting-point of most woodworkers. Having an understanding of what plywood is, its pros and cons, its strengths and weaknesses and how it's constructed is woodworking 101.
@@VickiS...I never said anything about simply having access to a woodworking CNC, did I Vicki?!? A beginner woodworker will not go out and buy a woodworking CNC before learning the basics of woodworking. That includes the basics of plywood.
Having use of a CNC machine isn't fair for the rest of us, but I'm glad you have one. It really adds in the aesthetic and cool-look factor that regular woodworking doesn't allow. All of those reliefs that you cut into the sides is incredible. Great job!
this was briliant. usually when people have just taken photos throughout rather than video it's not nearly as clear what's been going on, as you were able to achieve with this. Really awesome. Thank you!
I had plans for my own table. Picked up some inspiration here, thank you for sharing!
Now all that I need is a garage, woodwork shop , got it 😂❤
Very similar to mine, clipped corners and all! I went mostly Pine, 8'x4', with a 1 foot boarder player area, but only a 3" drop to the playing surface; yours looks about 6"-8" deep. Multi-colored track lighting lines my inner play area for Initiative and mood settings. The player storage compartments I went for was the old-school, lift- hinge, desk style, with 3 on each long side, and 4 double electrical wired outlets. I use it for our DnD group, but I can make it for poker, or any game-play really. You got a deal on the wood, but mine was about $600.00 total cost, but no nice CnC decorative trim for mine.
Yours is very nice!!!! The family that plays together, stays together!!!! Enjoy for many years!!!
The best gaming table I have seen, well done!
Impressive build, thanks for sharing!
Nicely done, love the detail on the sides, looks very professional.
For the player cubbies, I think I would prefer using the removable "faceplate" as a player space instead. I'd rather have the ease of removing the top cover instead of the "faceplate". But, the current setup also allows the space to be used even when in the "closed" position.
If anything, you can install a rail/pocket system right underneath each player space so each play can remove the plate and easily place them under the table in this pocket.
Extremely well done.
Absolutely amazing!
This is a great table! Well done, the player stations are really cool.
But please revisit your leg support. The X design is great for stability for table width but those small V boards and 4 screws into the edge of the plywood will not hold for long if you are moving the table around. Maybe a 3rd vertical board under the V?
Not trying to knock the design because it is an awesome and very functional game table.
We plan to revisit the legs if/when it becomes a problem. We're coming up on 2 years since we built it, and everything is working well so far. We even disassembled it from the legs, transported it to a local gallery where our makerspace was doing an exhibition and brought it back home. But so far everything is holding together without a hint than anything is amiss. We really loved this project as a learning experience. We learned how plywood should not be used, but it certainly has not been a catastrophic failure in our experience so far. We definitely wish we had done the same design in hardwood but love the stability of the X design and how it keeps all the legs out of the way!
Nicely done! Good job!
Looks amazing!
Wow, congratulations. Nice job. I love it
Amazing video! What do you line the board with?
We bought a custom-sized neoprene mat off Etsy.
Wow! Awesome! I wish I had the space of a dedicated game table, but I don't. Oh well. It's amazing to see all the different designs out there these days. 🤓
This is absolutely beautiful! I could never make a gaming table this complex. I love it. The only thing I would change if I were involved with the build is the legs. The style of them doesn't match, nor does the color. However I can't do any of this so I will shut my mouth now. LOL!
The issue with hinges isn't just plywood - though that makes it worse. It's screwing into the grain, just turning the playwood the other way, would have made it much stronger.
You could also use a router to inset the hinges to make it a smooth connection.
Cracking has a lot do do with using different woods, as they expand at different rates in different temperatures, and drilling one board width wise and the other length wise. Wood expands more along the grain.
Overall cool table!
I'm not sure what you mean by turning the plywood the other way. Plywood layers alternate orientation. Am I misunderstanding what you mean?
Awesome job.
Outstanding!
The table is amazing! How do you take off the side panels to open the extra space for each player? Are they magnetic and do you have special storage for them?😊
They are magnetic. That was somewhat difficult to pull off. You need quite strong magnets and the alignment needs to be just right. There is a v channel that connected the two legs that we store them in. You have to crawl/reach a bit to stow them but it works.
Did you ever figure out a permanent way to afix the faceplates? Im working on one myself and im stuck there
We went with magnets, but it is a rough solution. We used ones with holes in them so you could screw them in. But the ones we got were no where near strong enough. We used forstner bits to inset the magnets a bit so the faceplates fit as snug as possible. Lining everything up was tricky and while they stay in place they are very precarious, you can't bump them without them coming off. Stronger magnets might have helped but I don't think it was the perfect solution. Do a test one if you go this route before making holes in your table.
I'm currently working on a flat screen tabletop table for my D&D Game. So far I've flat screen and the frame And the program, And all that's working fine. But now I'm considering building a wooden table around the flat screen t.v. wooden frame. And after the wooden table was built, actually I was considering a way to make it look like it's made of stone, but on a much bigger scale. So Jeremy, any Idea's? This episode really helped, it gave me a few Ideas. But what do u say?
Aside from painting you could maybe try using stone tile? That would get pretty heavy though. FYI, name is not Jeremy...
I super love the craft and think this video is highly underrated and watched, id argue its even better then a lot of other videos I've seen on the same or similar topic, even though this is more of a voice over with pictures, which would've liked some in action creating but the voice overs fine. absolutely love your skill too, shows that you know a lot about woodworking or the craft, and something you don't see or hear too much with other videos with similar topics. My only gripe, as you've also said, are the plywood's. Wasn't the best choice and wouldn't do that myself, but you live and learn and I love that part about your video. id also would've predrilled all the screw holes but that's more of a preference then something that's absolutely best to do. Keep up the video and again, absolutely love it, hope you do some more.
Thanks for your kind words. We did pre-drill all our holes but I don't think we mentioned that at all in the video. I wish we had thought to actually video some of the build. The video was a complete afterthought and did the best I could with the limited photos we had taken. I hope to do some more videos in the future but that is a skill unto itself.
@VickiS how many people does this fit shoulder to shoulder
Just a suggestion for anyone wanting t make one of these make sure your face plates fit under the tables edge this will prevent numerous issues when leaning on the table like, pinched skin, accidental opening etc.
hello simple question what is the height between the base (first plywood) and the top of the table it still looks very high doesn't it?
I believe the height difference is about 6 3/4". So yes, it is quite a bit higher, but great to use for standing games. When seated the player stations are at the lower level. So you have to look down into the vault a bit. But the 4'x7' size table kind of meant you'd have to stand and lean over to move much in the center anyways.
very cool
thanks for the video :D
Plywood should be flatfaced when you screw in. stack the blocks flat, not on edge and you should be good.
Would you happen to have these files available anywhere? I would love to make a table similar but lack design experience.
You can look through the build process with links to files here: www.instructables.com/Gaming-Table-1/ The faceplate panels aren't included as many of those were paid files and I didn't have the rights to share my modified versions. All the other files are there as Tinkercad links, but you can make yourself a copy of those and save what you need as an STL. I wanted to give people access to Tinkercad versions so they could modify for their needs. Good luck with your build!
Very cool project. Making one similar with solid materials. Would you be willing to share the cutting angles and dimensions of the fold out hinged shelf. We will be doing this by hand without CNC benefits :-) thank you
So the piece that makes the 2nd half of the fold out desk is 20" by 6.5" We maybe would have made them a little wider. On the short ends those were 25" wide which gave the DM more space. So I would say do the width what you have space for. The hinges get a bit complicated. You'll need to cut a rectangle that is almost exactly the height of the inside rail that makes your vault. For us that was 5" but add a little for the kerf of the blade you are using. The angle of the cut does not matter too much. What really matters is that one side of your cut is exactly halfway up the rectangle. So in our case 2.5". Then just mark the other end at something like 3.5"-4" and cut. As long as the one side is exactly in the middle the rest is just aesthetics for how you want it to look. The more exactly in the middle the better everything will line up when it is closed and open. Depending on the hinges you choose you may have to chisel out a little for it to fit flush again. Best of luck with your build.
how much did yal spend on this?
Somewhere in the $200 region, but the main wood we used was pretty much free from a friend. So just plywood and hardware.
Why’d your table skip leg day?
It's actually for a very practical purpose. The chairs we have for this table are way oversized. We couldn't do a typical 4 post, one in each corner design. On top of that we knew we needed it on casters to be able to move it regularly. We use that space for a number of different things and that table is constantly shuffled around. What's worse than stubbing your toe on a table leg? Scraping up your whole foot on a caster locking mechanism. So we had to make sure the legs were tucked well under the table. The X design with a runner works extremely well for stability. So while it looks very silly on it's own you can't even see the legs when the chairs are around the table and no busted toes or knees so far.
@@tworoads nice! Always better to have practical design choices instead of ice packs on hand
this comment made me laugh so much!
No cheeseplate compartments or rum fountains?
Ew screws in the plane of the grain
So you have a woodworking CNC...but you didn't know (in the case of your hinges) to put screws in between the layers of plywood?!?!
Those are laminated layers of wood...and by putting a screw in between those layers you are delaminating the plywood. You wonder why you got tear out?! Screws in plywood are perfectly fine as long as the screws are able to bite into the layers from the other (90°) direction.
Boggles the mind!!
having a CNC or not doesn't play into the knowledge of plywood AT ALL. Yes, screwing directly into the plywood laminated layers is a terrible idea without predrilled holes, but that same thing applies to a lot of wood. The type of wood, the grains, and where/how you're nailing/screwing plays a big part in the splitting of the wood, plywood doubles depending on which side, purely because its glued, screwing into ANY wood that's prone to splitting isn't a good idea, no matter the angle you're doing it at. They said nothing in the video about being clueless about the plywood, and even went above to tell others not to do the same, as it caused them a lot of problems. These people have amazing know how of woodworking and just from this video id trust them on ANY project they'd be doing in the future. Which boggles MY mind on how lack luster you seem to be about pinpointing these details out.
I have access to a CNC at a maker space, I don't own it nor half the tools I needed to build the table. And luckily the screws did bite fine, no delamination yet, they just pulled a bit.
@@elementkingaming1947...A woodworking CNC is an advanced woodworking tool. A beginner woodworker would never have a woodworking CNC in their tool arsenal. Working with simple two-by-fours and plywood are the typical starting-point of most woodworkers. Having an understanding of what plywood is, its pros and cons, its strengths and weaknesses and how it's constructed is woodworking 101.
@@VickiS...I never said anything about simply having access to a woodworking CNC, did I Vicki?!?
A beginner woodworker will not go out and buy a woodworking CNC before learning the basics of woodworking. That includes the basics of plywood.
@@TheKiltedKraut yea I know exactly what a woodworking CNC is... Did you even see my reply? Or are you just a goldfish?