Thread: How Strong does this need to be?

P.S.
Someone else (whos instructions I am following as well) made his under octagon from wood instead of MDF
heres a pic of what he did...
http://rattlhed.home.comcast.net/poker/
(click on ASSEMBLY PAGE 3)

It looks like a pain in the butt... joining the wood like that.
Is there real benefit to doing it that way as opposed to that MDF stuff?
Can I find wood large enough to avoid joining pieces in the way he did?

MDF stands for medium density fibreboard. MDF is easy to work with, flat, cheap and available at just about any timber supplier. It is usually sold in 8' by 4' (if my imperial measurements are correct) sheets.

MDF sounds like the right stuff for the job. If you can't see it or it is going to be painted then MDF has a lot going for it.

MDF or similar would be ideal in my opinion - ply, even simple particle board, depending on what you intend to cover it with would be fine too .... if you are covering it in baise or felt then all will be well!

BTW and FWIW I don't much like the pedestal....

what is FWIW?

Really? you dont like it?
Im open to ideas, how would you handle it?

Whatever it is, I would like it to be as nice as possible while still being cheap as possible :confused:

It is going to sit in my living room, which is decorated pretty nice. I just dont want it to bring down the feel of that room.

Look forward to hearing back from you.
-SeFu

FWIW = "for what it's worth" I would comment but the link doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

Don’t want to offend anyone and I feel the design is a good idea, just don’t much like the final product for the following reasons:

(please forgive the terminology that follows)



1. the trays seem too deep to me.... I feel all it would need is to be say a 5mm bevelled step - this would still delineate the two spaces, but make the edge nicer and less "harsh".

2. the pedestal looks "chunky" to me..... I didn’t read the site in detail but is the pedestal meant to raise and lower? That would make sense then ... but if not ....

What I feel would look great would be four 70mms quare legs fixed where each corner of the existing "box" pedestal is now (so: around 250mm apart) - they could even be made from 50-60mm thick by 120mm wide stock and be cut into a curved taper, the wide section at the bottom and curving in toward the top (they could also splay outward near the top (above the sight line) to give greater fixing area .... (probably hard to picture, but I feel strongly this or square legs would look better than the existing design and use less timber and be easier to make)

3. the edge formed by the bottom plate (the one on the floor) could do with a bevel or rounded/softened edge too to relieve the harshness of the transition. It would also look better round I think.

4. The edge of the table itself is too thick ... it could easily be a rounded and chamfered edge (very hard to describe, but easy to do) which would lighten (visually) the table considerably

I say all this because you said “living room” – if it was to go into a converted garage or basement, it would be ok – but to be on display, I feel these and some other refinements would help it a lot.

Again – no offence to anyone

very average pics to follow

apologies for my horrendous drawing skills - these are some of the ideas mentioned above .... again, I don't wanna say these are great ideas - just alternatives that may be useful to think about

this one is obviously half the idea - where two would be made and interlocked, then fixed top and bottom .... this could then be shaped if required to give it more style.....

oh wow
thank you for the advice seriph... I totally agree with you on what you said pretty much down the list

I should have clarified what I was taking from those designs and what I was leaving.

The cut out area those tables have... I guess for chips... I am not doing. I did cut out the area for cup holders, but I decided to leave the rest of the table area flat.

Your right on about the edges... I decided to change that to a routered edge with a second piece of wood an inch in at 90 degrees going down... hard for me to explain since im not a woodworker, but ill post a pic of it as soon as i can find my camera cord.

and as for the pedestal... in one of those sites, the guy made a sort of squared pedestal from boards which was kind of neat but like you said, for a living room, I think having a nice pre-made pedestal is kind of important.

Im looking into finding some nice legs as you mentioned, but i really would like the extra foot room that you get from pedestals... not sure ill get that though

hang on ill post a pic of where i am so far... hopefully you guys will get an idea of where i am going and what im taking from those instructions and what im not.

again i cant thank you guys enough for the help/tips/ideas you have offered me

-SeFu

OK heres the pics

Front View:
you can see that I kept the cup holder area... but the table space I left flat. I figured that would make it more diverse... rather than locking the people in to using it as a chip holder.
Not to mention, Im sure players will want to lean their elbows on the table from time to time. If that square chip area is cut into it, there wouldnt be much area for anything like resting elbows and whatnot.

Side View:
Here you can see the table edge... I really like the drawing above but unfortunately its too late for me to change it

Also you can see the biscuit cuts made... I plan on making the last cuts tomorrow and hopefully will begin joining together the outer octagon...

So what do u think of it so far?
any tips?
please dont worry about offending me. Im here for help and to learn.

-SeFu

hi again

yup, creation of that` added shadow line under the top is far better than the guy's original - still looks like a very deep rail though ..... make sure it isnt something that will intefere with knees/thighs....lookslike you made a bit of added work for yourself with those glue runs .... modified PVA glue is what that looks like - if it is, it's very easy to wipe with a wet cloth as soon as it's applied .... a "pain in the proverbial" when dry - good idea losing the chip-trays .... for a dedicated poker table I guess they make sense, but I was thinking more on the "living room" idea and wondering if you could make a routed edge inside the cup holders, then some inserts you could leave in situ when not in use ..... put a tablecloth over it and presto: an extra dining space when the relo's (aussie for relatives and their respective hangers-on) visit etc. with no unusual hollows under the cloth. ....

BTW tables are usually 720mm aprox high .... in old-speak that's about 28 inches I think .... so make sure those legs (the human ones, not the wooden ones) fit comfortably under it.

look forward to seeing it progress! have fun!

The occasional spilt beer wouldn't be too good for MDF. Real timber or MDO would be a better option.

Adrian, I was thinking about that myself... It seems kinda like that wouldnt be the best choice

I think ill weigh the differences when i see the price difference later this afternoon.


seriph1,
I hope that rail isnt too deep :eek: it would be a real pain in the rump to fix that now I think... im not very handy with woodwork... this is my first project.
I hope it works

I dont know what kind of glue that is... the guy at a woodworking shop on base told me that it wasnt a good idea to wipe off glue with a wet rag. He said that it weakened the bond. I was kind of skeptical of that but I figured he knew much more about this stuff than I so I better go with it.

I just glued the table (outer octagon) together before I came and checked these forums and after reading your post i grabbed a rag and wiped off the excess lol... less sanding.

Ill snap a pic of the current progress right now.
Theres a problem Ive run into and maybe you, or someone, could give me a tip on fixing it.

Pics to come in a second.

pics

overall table

and two pics of slits that are on the table in a couple places that i dont know how to fix
on the rail, a few of them i guess arent 90 degrees and so they didnt line up perfectly.

im not sure how to fix that since i couldnt get any sort of pressure on it to force them together with glue... so i basically started sanding them down to look better
any idea on how to fix those?

the other slit shows a slight gap on some of the edges... any idea on how to fix those?

thanks for the help!
-SeFu