Construction Phase Complete

With great pride and a sense of relief, I can now say that the construction phase of the project is now 100% complete.

The first thing that needed to be done was insert all the technology into the table and wire everything together.  In the last post, I routered out the spaces for all the antennas at each player position, the flop, the "brain", and channels for all the wires to travel in.  Here's the base without the tech:

So the process of getting the tech into their little homes called for a modification.  In the design build provided with them, it says to use vinyl tape (like weatherstripping) to give each antenna a pad to sit on.  That's it.  I'm assuming that since it also instructs you to permanently screw the base to the playing surface that they aren't afraid of everything moving around.  We, on the other hand, need something to actually secure these in their spots, since it will inevitably be transported on its side, and the playing surface will not be permanently attached on top.  So we used some "industrial" Velcro, which will also be a bit more "forward thinking" if a redesign is necessary.

A healthy dose of patience is all that's required to situate the tech.  I recommend those of you that are trying this for yourself, start with the "brain", since that's where all your wires will be terminating.

Here is a shot of the "brain".  The top side is where the power cable is connected, as well as the USB out. On both the left and right sides, you can see the USB in's for the cameras (it supports 4).  And if you look closely, you can see that I've already connected all the antennas in this picture.  The wire used terminates in a button-style connector.  Its the same that is used for wi-fi cards in your laptop.  It takes a soft, patient hand to connect these little guys, so take your time.  The gold dots along the bottom-left, bottom, and bottom-right are the 11 button-ends connected to the brain (9 player antennas, the flop antenna, the muck antenna).  And here's everything installed:

Also on the list of final items, the rail needed a rounded edge on the top.  Even with 1/2" of foam over it, I've read many posts about how others had wished they had done that, and that you could still feel an "edge" on the rail.  Relatively simple process with a router and a round-over bit. Done.

I also had to figure out the "knock down" aspects of the table.  These being the things that make the table portable, and easily disassembled and reassembled.  Since this table is intended for location filming almost exclusively, this was a pretty important aspect of the build.  In addition, Andrew at videopokertable.net didn't have ANY mention of something like that.  Most poker tables that are built by a non-professional are like pieces of furniture.  You build it and keep it where its built, for the most part.  We needed to have something that was very portable.

Obviously the legs would be the first thing that would get in the way of portability.  The obvious choice is to grab some of those folding legs that most people use, that look like a banquet table.  I never liked the look and especially didn't like the quality of that type.  Plus I hate sitting at poker tables, (hopefully) for hours, that have "knee-knockers", and those banquet table legs are always in the way.

So I knew I wanted some type of pedestal leg for the table.  You could go the expensive route and get one of those double-pedestal style with a foot rail, like most card rooms have.  But I really don't see the point in paying so much (usually those go for over $300) for something that really won't be seen that much, if at all.  So a quick visit to restaurantdepot.com and I found some great products for very good prices.  Here's what we went with, one on each end of the table:

Is a very basic design used on restaurant tables, so we know that it'll hold up.  And to make it portable, we would be installing threaded inserts to the base of the table, and using a bolt with a knob to secure the legs to the table.  This is the same system we are using to keep the many layers of the table (base, playing surface and rail) together, but easily disassembled for transport.  These can be picked up at any wordworking store like Rockler or Woodcraft.  Here's a pic:

[I guess I should also say that we were looking at t-nuts too.  Very similar, t-nuts are hammered into the drilled hole, rather than screwed it.  Since the rail might get a bit of torque in the up/down direction, we felt that the threaded insert would be a bit stronger, possibly overkill.]

So the brass part goes into a drilled out hole in the base.  It has threads on the inside that will take the bolt with a handle on it.  Once installed, line up the pedestal legs holes to the threaded inserts, insert the bolt and use the handle to tighten it down.  The same is used for the rail, for easy assembly/disassembly.

That completed the last of the construction phase.  So with a little more time left, I hopped into upholstery.  Never really having done much upholstery, I started with the playing surface, since it was a simpler process than the rail.  There are some great tutorials in the ScottKeen.com forums for all of this, since everyone who builds a poker table, tech or no tech, must upholster it.  I highly recommend them.  About 60 minutes and 400 staples later, we had a playing surface:

Some pointers for the home audience... Do everything in halves.  When you spray the foam and wood with adhesive (and then the fabric and foam), just lay everything out at once, then fold over half of it.  That way if you just fold it over, you dont have to take it off and put it back on.  It also helps a lot if you bought a pattern to your material, like the speed cloth I used, and need to keep it straight.  Make absolutely sure you get the pattern straight or you'll notice it every time you look at the table!  

Another pointer: if you don't have a compressor and pneumatic stapler, buy a DeWalt manual.  Electric staplers won't have enough juice to sink the staple all the way in, leaving you with 400 partially seated staples you have to hammer in.  And most cheap manual staplers (like Arrow or even Stanley) are the same.  The DeWalt manual is fantastic.  I didn't have use a hammer once!

But I did forget to wear my gloves when stapling and got some killer blisters:

Next Up: foaming and upholstering the rail.