folding war gaming table?

[nickson71]

Hi all

I've been asked to make a portable light weight folding gaming table

This table is for war games such as warhammer etc and needs to be 6 by 4foot folding in half for storage

I was thinking of using a thin ply and making 2 torsion boxes 4x3 foot that could be hinged together to make the table top and then get some screw in legs

my first question is what thickness ply should I use to make sure that there is no flexing of the top if someone leans on it and what sort of spacing should the internal sections have?

second question is ply the best idea or are there any better materials that I could use to make this

Thanks

Ian

 

[stevebuk]

you are going to need 3/4 inch ply at least i would say, having seen these tables. They also put hills , tanks, trees and assorted shrubbery on there. If you make it like two halves of a ping pong table, an outer frame of 2x1inch, should suffice.
i paint warhammer model soldiers.

 

[DomValente]

I bow to Steves knowledge of war games, but, and I may be wrong, a torsion box properly made with a skin of hardboard would probably be lighter or at least as light as 3/4 ply, it would be as rigid and if you screwed the hardboard on it could be changed if you paint it .
Just a thought.

Dom

 

[Kane]

Another warhammer fan here - to make it really classy try to come up with sort of shelf or tray off the playing area to hold miniatures/dice/templates/rulebooks etc

 

[PowerTool]

Also spent far too much time playing 40k,BFG,Necromunda,Warhammer Quest,Bloodbowl etc.,and making tables,scenery,and painting thousands of miniatures

like this sort of thing.

For a lightweight portable table,I agree with Dom - hardboard and a good framework.
For something more permanent,12mm MDF is fine,if supported every 2 feet - this is on MDF,but with a little more scenery added (made mainly from styrofoam insulation)

Table is 8' x 4' with interchangeable 4' x 2' sections.

Andrew

 

[engineer one]

technically a torsion box table needs only 6mm facings and 12inch spacings of the internal supports. anything more and you may as well make it out of a solid section. check out the american magazine woodworkers journal web site, a recent issue had details of a torsion box.

as for the underneath, having only today opened and operated a couple of
trestle tables i suggest that the old fashioned way of having foldup
strengtheners with hinges and a removeable hinge pin is the easy way to go.

paul :wink:

 

[Kane]

There's a couple of videos on the Wood Whisperer site showing his version of a torsion table - it'd be over engineered for gaming but you'll get a good idea of the technique .....

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/?p=196

 

[AndyBoyd]

I saw one made the other day like this, it was done using IKEA veneered table tops (which are torsion boxes with a paper inner and wood blocks where the legs screw in and a wooden frame).

This guy built if for a portable model railway system and was very nice, hinged and even room between when folded to store the legs (trestles)

Those IKEA table tops as well as being light are also very very cheap.

There seems to be also a choice of veneers (beech Ash and Walnut as far as I remember)

Just a thought,