Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

K, so I want to build a 4'x6' gaming table to keep in my home when friends come by to play. The thing is though, I live in an apartment, so space is highly limited, so my idea is to make a 'modular' gaming table / coffee table for my living room. Sure it'd be large, and, no, it would not come apart.

The big thing about this gaming table is that rather than having square blocks of terrain to heft around, I would instead cover the table in a triangular grid of small but powerful magnets, spaced about 2-3 inches apart from each other. The removable terrain would hold either properly aligned magnets or iron discs on their bottoms in the same accompanying grid pattern so that a piece of terrain could be placed anywhere on the board in multiple angles without being demolished by a table bump.

Imagine a magnet at each of the vertices in the below image. Not to scale...


My question for you is if this is a good idea? Would this adversely affect magnetized models depending on the strength of the magnets? I know it would require an immense quantity of magnets (but that's what magnet4less.com is for).

My only concern would be that your terrain would not be able to be placed by eachother. The polarization of the magnets would repel themselves away from each other and generally cause a mess. Try magnetic sheeting instead? Might be more expensive, but I don't think by much. A sign shop could probably make custom sizes for you relatively inexpensively, and you could then just attach nails or washers to the undersides of your terrain. I dunno, its late but that's the best I can think of ATM.

Most terrain wouldn't be that close together. As I said before, the nearest the magnets would come to each other is 2-3 inches, and most of my terrain wouldn't be individual pieces for each magnet, but rather small or large platforms holding more detailed pieces of terrain. For example, I could have a piece of terrain for a tree, a grove of trees, a small ruin, or even a large hill, several large hills, or terraces (extend the idea to several levels.

in theory it could work, but it would require a lot of effort to do but would be pretty cool if you could do it, if you ever end up doing it, please post the work as it could be a really nifty creation *thinks of a battle ground as a triangle shape* hmm.

Of course I'll post pics, I might even make it my first P&M blog. The magnets are already in the mail (1/4" diameter, 1/8" thick N42 neodymium disc magnets, magnetized through the 1/8" thickness). It'll be slow progress because I can't dedicate all my time to it, but I'll even post my successes and failures in building the actual terrain to go on it.

Dear lord, if you're magnetizing your coffee table you will have to tell people not to put their wallets, watches etc on it! You could put up some EM radiation warning signs

Yeah dude, I'd peg it.

Pegs is wot we used before magnits was invented.

Sure your table would be full of 10mm holes, but it'd look cool and wouldn't stop it functioning as a table.

Tek wrote:Yeah dude, I'd peg it.

Pegs is wot we used before magnits was invented.

Sure your table would be full of 10mm holes, but it'd look cool and wouldn't stop it functioning as a table.

And you could easily make a hardboard surface with a couple of pegs to block the holes for normal use.

What about putting a thin layer of metal sheet on the table and magnets just in the terrain pieces? You might want bigger magnets on the terrain to hold solid, but you wouldn't need to worry on any of the above concerns.

Or, sticky rubber slip-free rubber bottoms on the terrain.

Not so keen on the slip-free stuff, doesn't work quite as well.

Interesting idea on the pegs though... only problem is drilling all the holes and procuring pegs that are all the sames size and short length, while hoping they won't fray and deteriorate if made of wood. Metal pegs would work though.

So would a layer of sheet metal though, though. Still, with the terrain pieces having metal, it would be magnetic where the pieces are...

I may have to tinker around with these various ideas

Just be careful the size and thickness of the terrain. I tried something with magnets before where I wanted removable turrets and battle damaged sections of a wall. Problem was the magnets were strong enough some of the cardboard areas tore when trying to pull them apart.

@promethean
These are the magnets in question.

A table with spaced magnets could interfere with placing metal models depending on the strength of the magnets (and if the magnets aren't powerful, then they wouldn't be able to hold a large piece of terrain). Metal models near a magnet could be moved slightly by the magnet into a position you didn't want.

Also, I know a lot of people that put magnets in their bases for ease of transportation. That would royally screw those miniatures, especially if the polarization of the miniature's magnet didn't line up properly with the polarization of the table. You'd have miniatures that would want to fall over at worst, models being moved slightly at best. Of course, if its just for you and your buddies, then you can just not use magnets or metal miniatures, but it would suck if you made some new friends who had their stuff magnetized.

I hate to be a naysayer, but it seems like too many problems for little gain. Does your stuff really fall over that easily? If you really wanted to do magnets, I'd go with a metal surface and put magnets on the terrain. That would make the guys with magnets in their models extra happy too.

1/4" magnets will be pretty strong, maybe too strong. If you want modular, why not just go with a geohex pattern? It would certainly be simpler. Putting down that many tiles to play a game would be a pain in the ass, and with tris that small, you're terrain is going to be pretty bland in order for everything to line up and look natural.

Sir Crispy wrote:A table with spaced magnets could interfere with placing metal models depending on the strength of the magnets (and if the magnets aren't powerful, then they wouldn't be able to hold a large piece of terrain). Metal models near a magnet could be moved slightly by the magnet into a position you didn't want.

Also, I know a lot of people that put magnets in their bases for ease of transportation. That would royally screw those miniatures, especially if the polarization of the miniature's magnet didn't line up properly with the polarization of the table. You'd have miniatures that would want to fall over at worst, models being moved slightly at best. Of course, if its just for you and your buddies, then you can just not use magnets or metal miniatures, but it would suck if you made some new friends who had their stuff magnetized.

I hate to be a naysayer, but it seems like too many problems for little gain. Does your stuff really fall over that easily? If you really wanted to do magnets, I'd go with a metal surface and put magnets on the terrain. That would make the guys with magnets in their models extra happy too.

You're right on most of what you say. But metal miniatures aren't magnetic (not gw ones at least, I checked). I just worry about the magnetized ones.
At this juncture, I'm thinking my best line of action is to get large pieces of sheet metal and employ short steel dowels. Then magnetize whatever can't just plug into the board with the rods. I'll let you guys know my progress as soon as I get started, I gotta run to Home Depot now.