A Board Gamers Table...

[James Combs]

...for my Son. Made this as a Christmas present this past Christmas for my Son. He and is family and friends get together quite often and play hours long board games. We were visiting together this past fall and he was telling me about gaming tables and asked if I could convert his dinning room table to one. I suggested that why bother, I could custom make you one complete and you would still have the dining table. I also suggested that now that he is an empty-nester that he could turn the extra bedroom into a gaming room and that was all it took. Here is the results. The finished table photos were taken in his converted bedroom.

The table is made from nearly 90% reclaimed/repurposed materials. Exposed Oak is old KY horse-farm black fencing, structural plywood is from shipping crates, legs are from a Habitat for Humanity sales outlet. New materials are the felt, felt-foam and the 1/4"plywood backing for the foam plus of course fasteners.

Finish is one coat each of minwax Golden Oak and Red Oak stain. The combo made everything pretty much the same color, there was White Oak, Red Oak as well as Poplar wood visible in the table. The horse farms tend to use whichever one of the three they can get. Final finish was 3 coats of Minwax brush on semi-gloss poly. Assembly was mostly pocket screws and glue.

The vault depth is about 4" from the felt to the top of the side rails.
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There are four leaves that cover the vault/gaming area and convert it to a more or less standard dining table, although it is about 2" higher than standard.
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One of the leaves can be turned over to reveal a chess/checker board.
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The legs were extended by about two inches to accommodate leaf storage under the table. The 2nd pic was taken before the extensions were added.
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Under each corner next to the leg is a 115vac convenience outlet with a double usb charger port. I was testing it here by charging my phone.
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There is an accessory rail(more of a slot) around all four sides to hold cup-holders, game piece temp storage, and mini desks, or anything else that might be needed for a game.
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Thanks for looking and I appreciate all C&Cs.

Edit: Credits: The design features are similar to the Geeknson Dennis game table except for not having lights. I opted for USB charging ports instead.

[Jim Becker]

Nice setup! And you could do some other games on other leaves, I suspect, too...

[Yonak Hawkins]

James, that is really cool .. really well thought out. Did you also make the chess pieces ? I wish I had a family that likes to play games like that.

[Yonak Hawkins]

..And you could do some other games on other leaves, I suspect, too...

Yeah. Backgammon and Parcheesi would be neat.

[Bill Carey]

Very nice James. A great plan we'll executed. Terrific that it's all reclaimed.

[James Combs]

Nice setup! And you could do some other games on other leaves, I suspect, too...

Thanks Jim, was going to have some other game on one more leaf but my Son prefered having the underside plain. He uses the underside of the other three leaves as more or less a workbench. The underside is not nearly as nice as the top, the reclaimed plywood it is made from was a Cherry veneered sheet and has a lot of nicks and scratches so it doesn't bother him to work on it. He does a lot of painting of the miniature pieces associated with his games. For example, most of these are around an inch or so tall.
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James, that is really cool .. really well thought out. Did you also make the chess pieces ? I wish I had a family that likes to play games like that.

Not really into gaming myself but when we found the Geeknson Dennis he indicated that He really like it so I basically built what I saw.

Yeah. Backgammon and Parcheesi would be neat.

Thanks Yonak, As I mentioned above I was planning on another game on a different leaf and was considering Chinese checkers but it didn't make the cut. :-)

Very nice James. A great plan we'll executed. Terrific that it's all reclaimed.

Thanks Bill, appreciate the look and comments.

[steve Vandelinde]

What kind of hardware did you use for the removable legs? Were they sturdy? Were you happy with the hardware?

[James Combs]

What kind of hardware did you use for the removable legs? Were they sturdy? Were you happy with the hardware?

Hi Steve, thanks for the questions.
The legs are kind of a hybrid thing. They are actually three parts. The very top looks like the type with an inside metal clamp over a stud in the leg wedging into the corner of the table skirts but it is actually part of the table, that is it is glued and pocket screwed to the upper perimeter boards and the skirts of the table. A 3/8-16 stud is screwed into it's bottom center and the rest of the leg screws onto the stud. These pics should explain it better then words. I am also showing my original prototype/mock-up of one corner that I used to verify the design and pocket screw drive clearances.

This is the corner prototype.
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I used it to to also get proper leg length, though as it turned out I had to add a 2" foot to the bottom of the legs.
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Detail of the stud and t-nut used to fasten the leg to the upper "stub". I purposely used the three screw t-nut for it's weakness, if the gaming crew gets rowdy I would rather see the nut pull out than a leg or worse, side skirt, breakaway. As it turns out my son has already had to repair one t-nut pull out.
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Here I am turning the stub bottom to match the upper end of the leg after installation of the stud and t-nut.
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After turning I permanently mounted the stubs to the ends of the top end-rails with glue and pocket screws. Then the side-rails were butt jointed with glue and pocket screws to the end-rails.
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The inside skirt is glued and pocket screwed every 6inches to the upper rail and at each end, to each other, but the outside skirt is only pocket screwed every 6 inches to the upper rail and the leg stubs at each end. No glue, I wanted to be able to replace the outside skirt if it were to be damaged from someone leaning on a cup-holder or accessory in the accessory rail. The pocket screws in the ends into the leg stub are the longest ones I could find. I believe that the long screws and three pocket screws with glue through the stub into the top rail is more than adequate to hold the stub permanently in place. This pic shows the pocket for that long screw plus some cut out work for the USP port receptacle. Side skirt is shown but there is another screw 90deg clockwise for the end skirt.
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I tend to be wordy but your questions should be answered.