Construction Phase

With all the materials in hand, I set out to get the 'construction' phase of the table done.  Now that the design phase is complete, our plan is to tackle this thing in 3 phases, from shop to live play: Construction, Testing, Upholstry.  Construction began yesterday, and while I hoped it would go smoothly enough to complete in a day, it will need another day's work (Today!).

The main table design is a basic one, taken from numerous posts over at Scott Keen's site.  If you have ANY interest in building your own poker table, with or without technology, I highly recomend that site.  I decided to go my own route (go figure) and design something myself.  But when I say "design", what I really mean is "modify", since the actual design is so simple.  As I stated in a previous post, we had the rail design done very early, so all I had to do was figure out dimensions and what materials would be needed.  Here's a refresher:

With a total size of 84"x44" I had a material list of simply 2 sheets of 4'x8' .75" plywood & 1 sheet of 4'x8' .25" ply.  The quality doesn't matter here, only strength, so I could get the "ugly" kind which tends to be a bit cheaper (the term used by the salesperson at Dunn Lumber!).

The two sheets of .75" ply would serve as (1) the base of the table, which would house all the RFID tech, and (2) the main top part of the rail.  The .25" ply would serve as the actual playing surface, sitting above the technology, and upholstered with the speed cloth.  So first things first, we need some ovals!

So the next step was learning how to make a circle jig for my router, which wasn't that tough.  Once the jig was done, I clamped a piece of .75" ply with the .25" ply.  This was done because the two pieces will sit INSIDE the rail once completed, and would need to be the EXACT same size.  So with the jig in place, a couple passes with the router and the end curves were complete.  After that, I adjusted the jig for a 2" shorter radius and cut the bottom of the rail from the very same pieces (see above photo of rail design if you're confused).  We'll get to those a little later in this post.

Next up was the part I was fearing the most: making the cut-outs for the RFID tech.  I had gone back and forth on designs, and even emailed Andrew a few times for reassurance/approval on where to place the player antennas.  We had to make a couple crucial decisions in the planning stage, which are directly reflected here.  How many players we wanted to go with was decided on 9-handed.  Also, we needed to make a decision on whether there would be a designated dealer spot or not (Andrew's designs have an option for dealer or no dealer).  The winning argument was that with so much tech, someone would be needed to "run" the table who is actually AT the table.  So we went with a dealer position.  It should not go unsaid that the fact that a deck of RFID cards cost $120 played into our decision a LOT.  I've been running a poker league, in some form or fashion, public or private, for over 12 years and I've seen how people treat cards!  I posted the layout in a previous post, but here is what we ended up going with:

This design shows the dealer at the bottom center position.  The dealer has the muck antenna in front of him so he can "fold" players cards in the system.  We also added in some space for camera mounts on either side of the dealer, as well as on either side of Player 5.  

So this needed to be translated to the plywood, so I could router out all of the antennas.  I won't go into detail about the horrific process of getting something printed that is 84" long by 44" wide, but dig around on the net for your area, and look at "architectural printing" for the best results.  And don't pay more than $30 (some places wanted over $100).

With the print-out on the wood, I cut out each spot from the paper like a template, and used a sharpie to transfer the layout to the wood:

Thankfully, exact measurments are not required if you err on the larger side of things when making the these cuts.  If its ugly, you won't see it because the playing surface will be sitting on top of it.  

So each piece needed to be routered to a depth of 1/2", so they could sit down inside the wood, just below the playing surface, which sits flush on top.  Thankfully, I had the foresight to buy a plunge router (as opposed to a fixed router, which doesn't move up and down on springs)!  I set the depth, put it in place and routered away!

Its a very slooooooow process.  Make sure you have a couple of different bits for the router.  A small one for making the outlines and wire channels, and a wider one to clear away the large areas.  I think I used a 3/8" and a 3/4" bit.

With the cuts done, all that remained was constructing the rail.  Looking back at the rail design, the rail will be a piece that will sit OVER the playing surface, with a sideways L-shaped profile.  But with proper carpentry planning skills, it was actually pretty simple.  

Back when I cut the the 4x8 sheets, I cut all 3 sheets to the OUTER dimensions of the table (84x44), and rounded the ends of all three to create the ovals.  I put aside one of the 3/4" ply, which will now serve as the top of the rail.  

Up above when I cut the playing surface to size, I talked about adjusting the circle jig to be 2" smaller,  making a second pass, and putting those "rings" aside.  Those outer "ring" that were left over from both of those becomes the bottom portion of the rail, and is already cut to size.  A huge time saver!  So grabbing that 3/4" ply with the rounded ends that I put aside, I cut out the middle to leave a 5" wide ring that serves as the top of the rail.

Here's a shot of the 3 pieces that will make up the rail

Assembling the rail is probably the easiest part of the whole construction phase.  With all 3 pieces cut to size, simply stack them up together, in reverse order (since we will be assembling it upside down).  The only part you should pay attention to at this point is the inner side of the 2 pieces that are the same size. Get those lined up (and they should line up perfectly since they were cut together), and you can "clean up" the rest.  Once they're aligned, clamp them off so they won't budge.

All that remains is drilling some pilot holes (and I recommend countersinking it too), and screwing the pieces together.  At this point, you can "clean up" any of the edges that may have not lined up perfectly.  Simply take your router and "free-hand" along any sharp points or mistakes you had in the cuts.  Don't go crazy though, since it'll eventually be covered with foam and vinyl.

With everything complete, I did a "Dry" fit:

And here it is "with the hood up"(playing surface removed):

We are now onto the remaining 2 phases: Testing & Upholstery.  The good news is that these two phases can be done simultaneously.  We can actually set up the table, connect it to the hardware and start using it and taking it for a test drive.  Stay tuned for the Hardware post....