Over the course of our hobby, I'm sure we've all considered utilising a cheap, common wallpaper pasting table for gaming. The thought has crossed my mind several times over the years but I've always discarded the idea, the tables are too long and narrow and pretty unstable but I had a brainwave a week or so ago, now I'm not sure if anybody else has had the same thought or even already built a table like this but it's a fresh idea to me so have look at what I've been up to.
I'm sure many of you share my problem of having too little space for a real gaming set up, especially a permanent table with any thickness for landscaping. As I mentioned, I used a pasting table but anyone with a solid set of woodworking skills could adapt the idea to make a board with different dimensions. I however have fairly rudimentary woodworking skills and an old pasting table otherwise gathering dust. My intention is to cover the table in cobbles/paving to use for VSF and dungeon crawls but I should think it'd work well with grass or hills or whatever you like.
The idea is to actually build the board on the inside of the table, thus protecting it once it's folded away also I'm changing the edge that the table folds along making a nice square surface, it's hard to explain so I hope I make sense, here come the pictures.
Here's what I did so far......
Take one ordinary pasting table.
It opens like this, pretty useless....
Still, open it flat and carfully remove the legs.
Now remove the hinges.
Now turn the halves 90deg and put the hinges on, this time on the other edge (I drilled guide holes using the hinge as a template).
Next take the legs and cut them down to fit the inside width to use as braces (the fibreboard surface is pretty flimsy!)
Now with white glue underneath and screws in each end through the frame, fix the bracing.
I found some more wood to brace with in the shed and used the off cuts of the legs to make cross bracing. Make sure your extra braces are the same thickness as the legs or it will cause problems later!! (as I found out)
Next using guide holes drilled from the other side I used little screws to fix the bracing securely to the board. There's no real depth to the fibreboard for countersinking so the next step is pretty essential.
I got two cheap foamed sleeping mats for camping and glued them to the board. This covers the screwheads and protects the board. It'll also protect the board from slipping off of where ever you lay it.
Here's it finished, the edges were fixed down with superglue.
And here it is folded again.
And weighted with heavy books to help the gluing (I actually added more and distributed them more evenly).
Next comes the infill, I used really cheap polystyrene packing sheets to build the bilk of the board. Some areas have been left shallow as I want to add scenic elements below the regular playing surface, you could carve a river or trenches or whatever you like (allowing for bracing).
Next the surface layers of blue styrofoam are built up. If you plan better you might only need one layer.
I forgot to photograph between stages here but in the picture I have used a plane, chisels and belt sander to reduce the height of the two lengths of wood that form the internal section of the frame. When I add the next layer of styrofoam they should be fairly flush with the playing surface, only needing a little work to disguise (that's the plan at least!)
For added stability at the edges I've inserted short lengths of cut down cocktail stick, the theory is that they should help reduce the compression that could occur from knocks or leaning players!
Here's where I am now, all surfaces ready to receive the next layer of styrofoam (I'm actually waiting for more styrofoam glue to arrive!) The plan is to make a collapsed basement and sewer into the two larger open areas and leave the others paved to recieve senic inserts, whether they be just steps or objectives.
Thanks for reading, I hope to see more tables like this appear in due course. I will post an update once the glue arrives amd I've had time to work on it more.
23 March 2010, 04:12:48 PM