Ben found his shadow

I guess it's officially summer because Ben found his shadow last night. He was in the middle of a meltdown because we wouldn't let him sleep with Rubber Ducky after he wasn't listening very well. We just wanted him to say "Sorry", first to mommy, but we would have settled with him apologizing to Rubber Ducky. He stood his ground and so did we. He ended up saying sorry this morning, so we're cool.

Still, it was hard to be a responsible parent when he does stuff like this:

Ben Hopping

Last night we caught Ben doing this and figured out that he was trying to jump off of both feet. We think he thinks he has to push off of the ground with his hands to do it. It's hilarious watching him try to figure it out.

I love you

Pizza, Bunny Foo Foo Cookies, and One More Time

Ben finishing his dinner tonight...


One more time...

Poker Table Day 6-Officially a Table Now

Today, I upholstered the middle of the playing surface.

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I also installed the legs and support beams.

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While it’s not a playable poker table just yet, it is technically a table now.

Up next: Upholstering the race track (can be seen in the background of the last two pictures), then fun with Plexiglas and rope lights.

Poker Table Day 5–Upholstering the Rail

Today I decided to try my hand at upholstering, and I’m not going to quit my day job. For what I’m doing, it ended up looking pretty good, but like most projects of mine, there are slight imperfections that I’ll definitely know about.

I started out getting the foam all cut out so it can attach to the rail.

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Then I glued it to the wooden part of the rail.

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Then I used the kitchen knife to cut it so it overlapped a bit.

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Then it was time to put the cloth over the padding. I put the padding and the wooden part on top of the micro suede. The fabric was barely wide enough.

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I did the outside first, and probably went through 1000 staples.

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Here’s the outside finished.

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Then I did the inside, which I didn’t take pictures of in progress. I started by cutting a line in the middle of the cloth from end to end. Then I cut toward the straight sides, and on the curves from the center to the outer part of the curves. Another 1000 staples later, it looked like this.

Up next: installing the legs, upholstering the playing service and race track, painting the Plexiglas and installing the rope light.

Poker Table Day 4–Cup Holders Cut and Upholstery Starting

I didn’t get a lot of in-progress shots, but here’s the state of my table so far.

I ripped the hardboard into 15/16” strips to act as a hard edge to the playing surface and racetrack. This avoids a “v” where the upholstered pieces come together. Just look at the gap between your couch cushions to see what I mean. I didn’t want that gap between these parts of the table because cards or chips might catch there.

I put the hardboard on the playing surface with brad nails. In hindsight, I should have probably bought shorter nails, because some of them shot out the bottom of the playing surface. There are going to be staples galore down there later, so it probably doesn’t matter.

I adhered the foam to the playing surface using the spray glue, then cut the foam out using a kitchen electric knife. Here I’ve reassembled the playing surface and racetrack to make sure that I have room for the hard edge on the inside of the racetrack. I think I do.

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It’s getting close.

Up next: upholstering the playing surface, installing the hard edge and upholstering the racetrack (both edges).

Yet to come: upholstering the rail, installing the rope light and Plexiglas, final assembly.

Poker Table Day 3-More rail work, snow breaks, and starting the playing surface

The third day was a lot like the 2nd, but I had a lot more time thanks to the snow. That’s a snow drift up to our window. We got 18 inches but it was 4 feet in some places. It was my first “snow day” from work in about 4 years.

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Since the rail was designed to be basically the same cut repeated, I just had to do the repetition.

Here, I have most of the cuts completed, and am ready to start gluing and screwing. But first, I drilled several holes and used long nails to align everything. Gluing and screwing is done one layer at a time, and I didn’t want to gradually get myself off track.

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Here, I’m about to screw in the last layer. Note the nail and the piloted screw hole. I found that I got a tighter fit if I clamped next to the screw I was putting in.

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Snow is also a good excuses for letting glue dry. We thought we’d be stuck in our neighborhood for weeks, but a plow came by about an hour after this picture. So, I was able to use gas powered tools today too.

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Here’s the glued rail on top of the base with the playing surface (yet to be cut) on top of the base.

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T-nuts being installed to the rail to allow it to later be installed to the base. t-nuts are used because after the rail is upholstered, I won’t have access to the nut.

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Now it’s time to cut the playing surface and racetrack. These are cut out of the same piece of wood. There is a lot of writing on the wood here because I was trying to figure out how far apart the cup holders should go so they’re equally spaced. I had to break out some geometry to figure it all out. In this picture, you can also see the t-bolts in the playing surface area.

Poker Table Day 2–Cutting the Rail

Now that I have purchased everything, it’s time to start.

The first thing I want to do is cut out the pieces of the rail.  The rail is going to be made up of 4 sheets of 3/4'” MDF and 1 sheet of 1/2”.  I initially only wanted it to be 3 sheets of 3/4, but later realized I needed a 4th.  I made the 4th layer out of scrap, but it turned out well.

First I made a “Trammel” to guide my jig saw around the curves.

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Then I realized that the blade I was using was too dull, and that allowed the blade to angle a bit as I went around the curve.  I went to a rougher blade and that made it better.  In hindsight, it would have probably been better to use a router for this part, but for a first table it turned out OK.

Here’s the outer cut of the base.  Next I did the first layer of the rail, which required a similar outer cut followed by an inner cut.  This required my saw guide.

Below, you can see the groove left by the cut from the circular saw (and all of the dust).  Here, I’m about to cut the inner curved part of the rail.

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As you can see, it’s not a perfect science (at least not for me), but I’m expecting the upholstery to cover up any flaws.

Watch where you’re cutting dummy…

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Here’s the progress at the end of day 1.  Can you see where this is going?

Poker Table Day 1–Buying stuff

I’ve been wanting to start and host a neighborhood poker game for a while now, so I started looking at buying a poker table online. I found a few that looked good enough for around $200, but I wasn’t happy with the $100 shipping charges. So, I started to look into building one myself for that price.

I was pretty sure that I could just take one of those long folding party tables, put a sheet of plywood on it, upholster it with foam and felt, and call it a day. Then I decided I wanted the padded rail, so I started looking for tips on how to do that. I eventually found a site apply named “buildyourownpokertables.com”. It had all sorts of free plans in it and a gallery of what people have done. I’m glad I’ve learned from others. I was also inspired by some. This table inspired the theme of my table. I’m a fan of teams (guess which I pick), I could do something like that. I found that one early in January, and thought about it for a couple of weeks.

I liked the “racetrack” with the cup holders, I wasn’t sure about my ability to do woodwork that would be exposed. I wanted something that was completely covered, so I set out looking for examples of people that had done upholstered racetracks. I ended up being truly inspired by this one.

Now that I have my theme and the basic look, it’s time to strart buying. Let’s see if I can stay on budget. [spoiler: no!]

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Here’s what is required for the project.

Sheets of MDF “wood”. I’m not sure it’s really technically wood, but it’s flat and pretty strong. It’s going to take 3 3/4 sheets and 1 1/2 sheet. Look at the build your own poker table for why. I had to have Home depot cut them down so they would fit in the car. They ended up being 46” wide by 7’ long. Still a decent size of a table. It also made it possible for me to get them downstairs, which is a problem given the 180 degree turn in our basement stairs.

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Miscellaneous hardware from the hardware store. Some are from ace, some from home depot.

Starting from the lower left, we have:

• T-nuts, to attach the upholstered parts to other parts of the table
• Various bolts and washers
• A cutting guide for the jig saw (already purchased) and circular saw (already purchased)
• Angle bars to go on the bottom of the table to avoid it eventually sagging
• Spray on glue, fabric paint, and a brush (from JoAnn Fabrics)
• Folding table legs
• Staples for the upholstery
• A drill bit to allow washers to sit flush
• Handles for carrying
• A hole saw
• 8' x 4' sheet of hardboard
• Plexiglas, cutter, rope light, and drywall corner protector (none are pictured)

I also needed, but already had:

• Drill
• Clamps
• Saw horses
• Shop vac

Total cost at hardware stores: $392. Budget blown already, and I don’t even have fabric.

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Foam. This ended up being one of the most expensive parts of the project. I bought 2 sheets of 2” high density foam and 2 sheets of 1/2” from JoAnn fabrics. $212. Ouch. Should have waited for a coupon.

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Fabric for the playing surface (navy moleskin), for the racetrack (yellow vinyl), and for the rail (navy micro suede). Guess the theme yet?

$110 more at Joann Fabrics.

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10 cup holders from a local boating store. $64.

Total cost: $777.13. Jen, I love you.

I was exhausted after day one of shopping and carrying everything downstairs.

Ben's Joke

Ben got me last night during his bath, and he found it really funny.

Talking

Ben is starting to build up his vocabulary. As of now, he can say: mama, dada, mommy, daddy, baby, uh oh, on, off, *state sucks, crash, splash, ball, more, icky, and his latest:


*He says it with his eyes.