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.

Hello,

I lack carpentry skills and need some help. I have a 5'x3' dinning room table. I would like to get some panels that I can put on top of it to turn it into a 6'x4' surface. I was thinking of getting 3 panels of MDF that were cut to be 4'x2'. This way I could easily store them when not in use. I also don't want the boards to scratch or hurt my table. I don't know what type of MDF to get, how thick it should be, or if I need to do anything else with it. I am hoping that someone here has experience with a project like this. Thanks.

"I don't want it to harm my table" can be done a variety of ways, but perhaps the simplest is to get some fairly sturdy cloth from a nearby store (felt or a felt like substance. I think artificial leather covering is a cheap and easy way to go, by the yard or meter purchase and glue it down -- go into a larger sewing store and explain what you intend, they will help you pick out a material.
You can attach it to the wood you get very easily with simply spraying that down with crafter glue (a spray on can of it will do) and unroll it onto the bottom of the board.

You might consider artificial leather for the bottom and top as well -- its not TOO expensive and will protect a table well. The top, really, you could get away with just painting nicely and drop your mat on it.

To make the whole thing both light, and strong, I would NOT recommend making it out of MDF, which is not the ruggedest material, nor the lightest for its strength. A thinner plywood (about a cm thick) layered with felt on one side and fake leather on the other would probably do you better than a half inch or thicker MDF. Also, many, if not most, MDF handle water damage poorly, and crumble/swell/distort from it.
Plywood will take being manhandled better -- MDF boards that get picked up and put down in a bundle often end up with little dented ends.
Simplest job.
Spray one side of each board with black paint, and the bottom side with sprayon glue. Place the fake leather material's bonding side across the board, press it in place with the other boards and some books, and then (later) cut the edges so you can wrap them up around the edge of the board. Glue those as well, and then once that is good and dry, cut the board with a razor knife to make the edge wrap smooth. This is the "easy" method, and owuld give you 3 boards you could put on the table (albeit not connected) and just try not to knock them. Since they are floating loose, I would go with a thicker plywood to make this, so that they have a bit more resistance to being bumped. You could also doubleside the leather fake material on it, and turn the edge down so that there is not a "rim" effect at the top. That might be better.

A more expensive and effort laden version can be done with hinges so that instead of 3 separated boards on your table, you have 1 big board that folds out. There are two critical things the hinges can't do, though. They can't rip up oyur table below, and they can't protrude so much into space above that the board displeases you.

For a gaming surface, you can make use fo the extra surface area under the table (you have about 5 inches of working room on either side of the table down there) to strategically place a pair of 180 fold capable below the table hinges betwen board A and board B (allowing you to backfold the A board UNDER the center B board) .. and I would probably use some scraps of fake leather and a bit of glue to build a bumper between them and the table, so when you drop it in place, the hinges don't scrape the sides, ever. Once that is done...put a rather broader hinge called a piano style hinge on the other side sacross the entire top length from board B to board C (allowing you to more securely fold the C board on TOP of the B board. Now your fake pleather covered board can be taken and quickly folded down to 1 board of triple thickness or opened to 3 boards across the table, emplaced with no danger of scratching. You can use very very short screws to secure a piano hinge all along its length, without putting TOO much effort into this project, or too advanced of woodworking, you can even cheat a bit and build up the fake leather surface beside the hinge by covering the whole thing with a second pleather layer. So that the hinge's "bump" is somewhat diminished. A real woodworking project would be to slowly rasp the wood down till it was even with the hinge in place, but that's a bit of a pain and not really necessary here. Also, some hinges do exist that greatly diminish the bump up top by being screwed in below the surface of the wood, but I think those cost more money and we are getting too cute. Just .. just hinge it.

This gives you a 3 layers of 24x48 inch plywood as a "brick" to move around. I really think even a 1/4 inch would probably work) that you can pull out of the closet (I would use a sleeping bag liner or similar cover to keep it save and clean) and unfold into position.

Think hard about how likely you are to bump the tabletop hard during play. IF your answer is "none of my friends would do that" then thinner is probably ok, but if they are clumsy as hell, then the fake leather layer to tabletop surface will act as a friction buffer better the more weight is pushing down. Ie, consdier 1/2 inch plyboards rather than 1/4.

A good hardware store has old guys in it. Accept no substitutes! Those old guys probably built a table top just like this for Thomas Edison when he played wargames in 1908. They will appreciate your project and you can explain what you wish to accomplish, they will probably get you some fairly optimal hinges and even perhaps tips for how to drill six holes in the boards so that when its all folded up, you can run a simple clothesline rope through 2 holes at the top and have it bundled secure.

There are materials costs to this project. fake leather is probably 20 bucks a yard for 54 inches wide, so you are looking at
can of glue
razer knife
60 bucks of fake leather for bottom side
black paint spray (or pick a color) for top side
a chopped up 4x8 foot pre-sanded plywood sheet, pick a nice one. probably 40 dollars + cutting fees to slice it into 2x4, 2x4, 2x4.

second plywood over mdf (or other material) as base

yet instead of fake leather I suggest to use soft/ carpet tiles (like used for kids/babies to play on) for the bottom side

That's a good idea! -- it may however tend to slip on a table a bit. This is easily fixed with something used in the futon industry -- an anti-slip (rather large) loose rubber mesh that you put under futon cushions when they are in chair form. It wouldn't be hard to stick one in between the board and the table to reduce slippage.