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Hi All,

(Hope this fits in this section...)

I want to build a gaming table as currently we have to play on the floor as the table is not big enough and it proper kills our knees!

Now I have had the idea of building a 6x4 (Standard size?) Gaming table. Split in to 2x2 Tiles.
My plan is to make it out of MDF, and use reasonably chunky dowels to slot it together to stop it moving during a game. Obviously I can expand by getting more tiles.

Now, my query is... for those of you who have done this, where did you buy the materials? It sounds daft I know, but I was checking B&Q and it seems the best shout. They do an almost perfect sized board of MDF that is:
2440mm x 1220mm x 18mm. Now I say almost, as:

6ft = 1828.8mm
4ft = 1219.2mm

The board is 0.8mm deeper and im pretty sure I will lose more than that due to the width of the blade they use to cut them wood! I can't find any boards that are wider than 1220mm though, so that means I can only get 1 true 2x2 tile when I should have got 2. What would you guys suggest, or where did you get yours from? Any idea how much I am going to lose due to the saw they cut with? (B&Q cutting service)

Regards,

You will only get one perfect 2' tile out of it. Their cutting staff are usually poorly trained / motivated. Make sure you tell them you need it exact and measure it on the spot. If it's wrong, don't accept it.

I suggest also making a number of 1' wide / square tiles to mix things up, and use the excess material from the 2' cuts.

Yeah I was planning on keeping the "off-cuts" to make hills with and various other bits. 1x1 tiles could be interesting that's a good shout.

So in other words I need 2 of the boards, which means im going to be paying double. FFS. there must be another way?

Yeah, make your board metric; 600x600mm rather than 2'. Downside is that it wouldn't be 'compatible' with a GW Realm of Battle board (those are bang on 2'). Upside is using board borders to guess ranges isn't right.

winterdyne wrote:Yeah, make your board metric; 600x600mm rather than 2'. Downside is that it wouldn't be 'compatible' with a GW Realm of Battle board (those are bang on 2'). Upside is using board borders to guess ranges isn't right.

Thats not a bad crack... might have to think about that, just would have been nice to keep it in the same measuring system, but deffo a good idea...

Oh yeah, you can also get blue foam in 600mm squares, which becomes convenient for terrain.

As you don't have a table that is big enough, how do you plan on supporting the tiles? Framework?

Avoid B&Q, go to your local timber merchant, Purely because of the price. I buy 25mm MDF for around £20 - £25

And no matter where you go you will always have to account for the width of the blade.

the blades on the saws are 4mm .
dont ask for it to be cut into 8pc's as the last two will be alot smaller get them to cut it 600mmx600mm like others have said tbh if the missing quater of a inch on each board bothers you then get a few strips of 10mmx18mm strip wood and fix these to the edge .

regards ex B&Q timber saw trainer lol

i got my board from B&Q and the dude cut it there for me but ii did get an 8 by 4 board for apocolypse ad it wasnt that much more expensive

Take a tape measure with you the next time you go shopping for MDF. Here in the states, the 4' x 8' MDF sheets are actually oversized by 1" in each direction, meaning that they are 49" x 97". This means that you can get eight perfect 2' x 2' squares from one sheet with little waste.

Another option you might look for is MDF countertop blank, which is designed to be a substrate for laminate. These blanks are usually 25" wide and up to 12" long, plus a bit extra. Usually, countertop blank is made from particle board, but you might be able to find it in MDF.

If your current table is to small to play on thne it is 2 smal to support the tiles aswell. This means you need to make a frame work of some sort, build the "waist" into the fram to make up for the blade cuts if needed, or use flat moulding and fram each tile to make up the diff.

winterdyne wrote:Oh yeah, you can also get blue foam in 600mm squares, which becomes convenient for terrain.

Thinking I might mount some blue foam on to the tiles so I could make a dried river bed on some tiles. Good shout.

CURNOW wrote:the blades on the saws are 4mm .
dont ask for it to be cut into 8pc's as the last two will be alot smaller get them to cut it 600mmx600mm like others have said tbh if the missing quater of a inch on each board bothers you then get a few strips of 10mmx18mm strip wood and fix these to the edge .

regards ex B&Q timber saw trainer lol

lol!

Very true, I already decided that I will ask them to cut exact tiles rather than cut it in to X pieces. Good plan. Think 600 x 600 is probably the best option at this stage. Cheers for the measurement btw.

St.Jimmy.1986 wrote:Avoid B&Q, go to your local timber merchant, Purely because of the price. I buy 25mm MDF for around £20 - £25

And no matter where you go you will always have to account for the width of the blade.

We have a Travis Perkins and Covers locally, looked online and neither list their prices. Might try them before going back to B&Q, but its £17 for the board I'm looking at.

Waethion wrote:As you don't have a table that is big enough, how do you plan on supporting the tiles? Framework?

drglnc wrote:If your current table is to small to play on thne it is 2 smal to support the tiles aswell. This means you need to make a frame work of some sort, build the "waist" into the fram to make up for the blade cuts if needed, or use flat moulding and fram each tile to make up the diff.

Very good points, something I have been considering carefully!
I have measured my table and if I lay the tiles on top there will be about 16cm overhang on each edge. So 2/3rds of each tile is over the table. I'm thinking of piecing them together with quiet long dowels. (Will get some dowel rods and cut them to size. (Think about 7cm into each tile) That should be enough to keep them together.

If that doesn't work I will be looking at getting some framing knocked up. Which is a good shout.

Dowels might keep it together, but with that much overhang any leaning on the table will probably break it. I'd go with a frame.

I don't know about home building supply companies in Great Britain, but Lowes and Home Depot in the U.S. have disclaimers that they "don't do" precision cuts. They'll cut it to within a 1/4 inch or so (7mm?) but it won't be perfect.

Yeah, I will be using pretty chunky dowels to make sure they last, but if I am in any doubt about the strength of it, I will make sure to re-inforce it. I even wondered about some really big Magnets

I don't know about home building supply companies in Great Britain, but Lowes and Home Depot in the U.S. have disclaimers that they "don't do" precision cuts. They'll cut it to within a 1/4 inch or so (7mm?) but it won't be perfect.

I have read that B&Q's tolerance is 15mm. So I will make sure to check first.

I have just rung a few of the local Timber/Builders merchants for prices and TBH, bit disappointed by the responses. I will list them incase anyone else in the UK is looking at a similar project...

Jewsons - £20+ for the sheet I specified in the first post. Not sure if they cut it, cost or even their tolerance.
Covers - £18.80 + VAT. They do provide a cutting service and its £2 per cut. The guy wasnt sure about the tolerance and just said they cut it to the size I want.
Travis Perkins - £17 + VAT. But they dont provide a cutting service.
B&Q - £17.48. Free cutting service for the first few cuts, but tolerance is 15mm I believe.

Think I may have to go for B&Q, and just stress how accurate I need the cut and maybe increase the board size by a small margin to allow for a cockup?
I know 2 people that work in B&Q, but I dont think they are trained on the saw, so I might see if I can get them to persuade the guy doing it to be as accurate as possible.

----UPDATE!----

I got hold of some 600 x 600 Tiles of Chipboard for Free

I have my doubts as to how it will hold up once I start painting it and gluing etc...

Anyone have any experience with Chipboard and what to do and not to do?

Also, in what order would you recommend I do the coats?

I want to go for a desert style board, so thinking:

Paint a medium brown on the board.
Cover the board with Sand (using PVA).
When that has dried, put a lighter brown over the board.
Add a wash?
Add a final sprinkling of sand with PVA.
Very lightly dust with a light brown/yellow.

Is that too much? Apply sand before/after paint?
What recommendations have you guys got? Also what should I use for a wash as I don't want to use GW washes on a huge board! Maybe some Extremely watered down paint? or some sort of ink?

Will chipboard warp worse than MDF?

Really hate the names that they give some of this stuff.

Is your chip board small or big chips? Some of what I have seen called chip board is also known as OSB (Oriented Strand Board). The wood chips are about the size of a poker chip to the size of a playing card and are fairly clearly visible as wood chips.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriented_strand_board

The other stuff that I have seen called chip board uses small chips - something that is bigger than the saw dust used to make MDF but you don't really see much actual wood to it. That is more commonly known as particle board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_board

OSB is fairly strong and stable. Depending on the grade it will resist warping...or it will delaminate into a million pieces once it gets wet. Same goes for particle board...though sometimes it just swells up and collapses under its own weight.

Assuming you have a grade which is compatible with water based paints and the like - warping may become an issue if you apply paint to only the one side (the drying paint will curl it up like stringing a bow). Make sure you paint all sides.

With the vast majority of these types of woods - you will want a supporting frame. They have almost no resistance to sheer forces (well - OSB can, though it will depend on the grade).

Anywho, if you are uncertain about the wood - seal it first with an oil based finish. It is less likely to cause the swelling and disintegration issues that water based paints have. Pay very close attention to the edges as this is where these woods are most vulnerable.

OK - so onto the actually finishing.

Get some textured paint...or make your own. You need to add color. You want to add sand. Do both at once and save the hassle. Goes on fast with a roller and it stays put fairly well when added during the paint stage.

If you add bare sand over anything - there is a good chance you will not like the result. Other than it having a tendancy to rub off if you look at it - it also doesn't look very much like people think it should. The beach or the desert are made up of sand which is really, really thick. Because of its optical properties, you need the thickness in order to get the colors...or you need paint. So, add all your sand early on and then paint that as you feel the need for your particular vision.

Also, keep an eye on your weights. Engineered lumber is heavy, sand is heavy, paint is heavy. When you start mixing them all - it gets really heavy, really fast. Consider how you are going to use it and how much moving you will need to do with it.

Very handy info! Thanks

I was informed its Chipboard, but it looks similar to the Particle board you listed, but seems to have slightly bigger chips that the link.
I was worried about it warping. Good tip for the sealing it, will find out what sort of grade it is. I wondered about trying to put some sort of sealant/edging around the edges to try and strengthen it. (Thick tape or something)

Advice taken on the Textured paint. :broon: Sounds alot easier.

Thanks

Feel free to chuck some more suggestions my way! Will try to get some piccies up when I get round to starting!

Particle Board is as good of a name as Chip Board - the problem ends up being that neither of them are good names. I have seen quite heated debates pop up on the internet regarding different materials and the end result actually was that people were in agreement...they just weren't actually talking about the same thing.