patmulry.com

2-7

2007-07-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

Just found out that PokerStars has added a deuce-to-seven triple draw lowball event to the World Championship of Online Poker. Cheap satellites and a $100k guaranteed payday to the winner = something I've gotta play. Now I just need to sat in...

Stretching the Wings

2007-07-16T15:09:00.001-05:00

Some people think that the only thing we do around here is build poker tables. But that's not exactly true. We were recently commissioned to build a custom conference table for a local newly-formed law firm. The table is approximately 108" x 46" and stands about 30" high. Here are a couple of photos of our work on this table:

One amazing thing about the bubinga from which this table was made was that the mill that sold us the top told us that it didn't have much figure. Ha! That photo doesn't adequately show it, but there is an unbelievable 3-D look to the wood. It was a tough project -- the top was 2 slabs each weighing about 200 pounds -- but it was very rewarding.

WSOP 2006: Day 6, 7, & 8, Part 1

2006-08-01T03:24:00.000-05:00

I think that we're talking about days 6 and 7 right now. It's been a heck of a couple of days. I think that I last blogged about day 5, which would have been Friday. But it's 1:20 a.m. in Vegas right now and I need to get to bed since days 9 and 10 will be driving-back-to-Dallas days. But the reading public needs its' update, so I'm gonna make a brief summary right now and then tomorrow night wherever I stop (hopefully in Albuquerque), I'll fill in more details.

Phil Gordon signed the Widowmaker. I met Jim McManus, nearly sold him a table, and got him to sign a new copy of Positively Fifth Street. The inscription reads "Pat - thanks for letting Rachel pose for the cover. Jim McManus" or something like that.

Ok, I'm really getting bleary eyed, so the big news is that we've got 5 new tables to build when I get back to Dallas. One stainless-top UberWidowmaker, one wood-top, stainless cupholder/stainless chiptray SemiUberWidowMaker, one Widowmaker that will be a clone of the demo table at the show, one Widowmaker without the racetrack, and one Casino Special with a custom cloth. We made a ton of connections and there will need to be a lot of follow-up with all these people, but between the 5 new ones that we sold -- and I sold the 2 casino special tables that we did for Full Contact to Daniel Negreanu's agents -- the show was a definite success.

There are a lot of stories to tell and I could stay up another hour or two typing all of them out, but I'll leave that to tomorrow so I can get some shuteye and then get driving in the morning. More as soon as I have internet access again. Cheers.

WSOP 2006: Day 5

2006-07-29T11:51:00.000-05:00

Sitting here on the morning of Day 6, it's really hard to remember everything that happened yesterday. The response to our tables has really been outstanding, we're just flooded with people all day long. I guess the best part is that we closed our first sale! It wasn't at all the table that I'd expected to be the first sale, as it was the UberWidowmaker to a guy in L.A. Unbelievable.

We have a ton of bait in the water right now, a lot of guys who have come back by the booth several times, some who have gone back to get the wives to see the tables. And some wives who have seen the tables and then dragged the husbands over. We heard a couple of times comments along the lines of "I wouldn't be upset to lose the dining room table for that." We feel like a bunch of those are going to come back as sales today and tomorrow.

A couple of interesting developments. We've got a good lead on sending 2-3 tables to a card room in London, and a French reseller is interested in buying 3-4 tables -- to begin with! Apparently there is a dearth of builders in Europe and the tables that they can get aren't as phenomenally awesome as those we build here at LSPT. Not to be too immodest, of course. :)

So, overall, the show is going well. We are beat at the end of the day, but the curative effect of the cocktail cannot be denied. After the show was done yesterday, Rachel and I headed over to Bellagio to hit the buffet there. It's pricey, but it's also probably the only buffet that I've ever been to where the value exceeds the price. We didn't stuff ourselves, but we did hit a lot of different foods. Some favorites were Kobe beef prime rib, the jumbo cocktail shrimp (of course), a potato-truffle layer cake thing (I can't imagine how they shave the potatos so thinly), excellent salmon nigiri, and a sublime chocolate/raspberry cake. We sat at the bar at the buffet because the line was much shorter and had an excellent bartender named Michael. So we talked some mixology, shared margarita recipes, that kind of thing. Like so many times, it's the service over at Bellagio that really sets it apart. For example, we asked Chin (the bar waiter) if we could have some coffee with dessert, and of course he was happy to help out. He was about to pour when he smelled the coffee and asked us if we'd like a fresh pot. Of course! But you wouldn't get even that level of thought at 99% of the places in this town, and certainly at none of the other buffets I've visited.

My brother Matt arrived late last night to help out with the remaining 3 days of the show. I think it was close to midnight when he got here from Boston, but he seems not to be feeling it too badly this morning. We put his stuff up in the room then walked down to the tournament room to check out the action. To say that the room is huge is a modest understatement. It looks like they may have close to 9 or 10,000 players in the main event by the time all the buy-in's are done for Monday (which is the last of the first 4 days). They played down last night to about 900 or 950 and were going to play until 3:00 a.m., which was the end of the 200/400 blind level with $50 antes. I think that the levels are 25/25, 25/50, 50/100, and then at 100/200 they begin a $25 ante. This year they are playing 120 minute levels, so the bust-outs aren't happening as quickly as last year.

We watched for probably 10 or 15 minutes. The game goes slowly and everybody at that point was seemingly playing very, very tight. There was a guy at the table we were watching who probably had at leastk 30k in his stack and he clearly had geared down and wouldn't be playing another hand unless it was super-premium and in position. It was funny how many guys were wearing the shades, too. So many that the non-sunglassed are probably the exception to the rule.

On the way back to the room we ran into my buddy Matt, who is the marketing manager for Full Contact Poker. His wife is best friends with Daniel Negreanu's wife, so the two of them were walking together. Thus, we met Daniel Negreanu. Very nice guy, just as chatty and loose as you see on TV. So either that's his real persona or he's just on 24/7. I suspect the former. He's a small guy -- not Freddy Deeb small -- probably 5' 5" or so and maybe 120# soaking wet. Just FYI.

Ok, I think that's about it for the recap for now. I gotta do some prep for today and then get down to the booth. Have a good day, I'll update again either late tonight or early tomorrow. I want to make lots of phone calls, but with us being on Pacific time here and everybody I want to talk to being on Eastern or Central time, I can't really call most of the time because it gets too late in the day until I get free. So hopefully the blog is keeping everyone caught up just fine. Cheers.

WSOP 2006: Day 4

2006-07-28T00:31:00.000-05:00

The recap of Day 4 is actually going to begin with further action from Day 3. After logging off last night, Rachel and I went to the Full Tilt Poker party. Outrageous. Imagine the most off-the-hook party that you've ever attended, then multiply it by several hundred percent (this would be several thousand percent for our more sedate members -- there's quite a varied crowd reading this blog). It was at the "ultra-lounge" at Ceasar's, Pure. Very cool joint. Obviously very expensive to finish-out the place.

For some, the highlight of the evening would have been the fact that as invited guests, we got to stroll past the line of onlookers, straight to the head of the line, where Rachel flashed our invite and in we were. Ha ha! Apparently on those nights when the club is not closed due to a private party, nightclubbers pay a hefty premium just as a cover charge to this place. I guess it says how much of a non-clubber I am that I can't imagine why. The place was really, really cool, very nicely appointed and there probably wasn't a drink that you could think to order that they didn't have. When was the last time you saw Johnny Walker Blue Label on the shelf in the bar? I rest my case.

It was poker celebrity beaucoup at the party. We saw most of the Full Tilters. I'll try to remember everyone we met or saw: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Howard Lederer (with whom I shared the manly polite head nod and "hi"), Phil Ivey, Clonie Gowen, Gavin Smith, Phil Gordon, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Erik Seidel, Marcel Luske, Jennifer Harmon, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Freddy Deeb. How big a gig was this? The Pussycat Dolls performed several times during the night. So pretty big. It was pretty entertaining to see Luske dancing like a eurotrash Elaine Benes to some house music, and Ferguson and his wife trying to do some close-in swing dancing alongside. I remember seeing Annie Duke just standing on the floor with her sister and mom too.

We also rubbed shoulders with Jose "Roid" Canseco. Dude is still a mountain but seemed to go to the bathroom a lot. Funny thing is that Canseco is a genuine celebrity whereas all of the poker royalty are celebs basically only inside the poker world and could, outside of that, mostly go completely unnoticed. It's such a funny thing, they all have this tremendous talent that is hugely rewarded (is that a market inefficiency?) and yet in the larger world, nearly any TV sitcom supporting actor would get more recognition at your corner Starbucks than any but the biggest of these poker studs.

Today, Gus Hansen walked by, as did T.J. Cloutier, Ferguson, and Gordon. He's Stevo-tall. There might have been others, but we were absolutely swamped all day long. We had tons of people stop by the booth, I couldn't even begin to keep count. We should have bought more of the custom chips because people loved those, but oh well. There is a lot of interest in these tables, we couldn't even keep track of how many people said something along the lines of that this was the nicest table they'd ever seen or the nicest table at the show. Which seems to have piqued the interest of the folks at Capone Poker Tables, which is just 2 booths to our right and across the aisle. Their tables look nice, but they are competitors for our least-expensive model, the casino table. There are 5 or so poker table builders at the show, or so I think. I haven't really walked the show floor completely yet just because there wasn't really any slowdown all day. It looks like all the builders have very nice tables, but they simply don't match our feature set. Nobody else has the Ultimate Cupholder and/or the Ultimate Chiptray yet. So that was really satisfying to hear. People were really just blown away by the table.

The 2 tables that we have at the Full Contact Poker booth were both very well received, those guys are very happy with the way that those are working out. And the UberWidowmaker that's in the AbsolutePoker booth got a ton of compliments too. I wish that their booth wasn't so out of the way, as it's on an outer aisle, whereas our small booth is on one of the main center aisles (completely by luck), but I have a good feeling that the AP table will end up selling by the end of the show.

The show goes from 11-8:30 and we were absolutely beat. And hungry, as we'd each only eaten a small sandwich for lunch (because we were so busy). So we moved the valuable electronics upstairs to our room, then returned back down basically back to the show floor for the Absolute Poker party. It was nice but certainly not the blow-out that Full Tilt put on. We saw Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi and Lacey Jones at that one, along with a few other pros that frankly I don't really know. But our friend Jen at AP did a great job with the party and we had a great time, despite the fact that we were both pretty exhausted, especially our feet. Cold beers and good free food seemed to help. :)

Here are a few photos, we've been too busy to take many unfortunately, so maybe more today to give you all more flavor about the show and the circus that is the WSOP. First photo is the traditional first-day-of-school shot of me with our fully-loaded trailer:

Here's a shot of the booth:

This is one of the casino special tables that we built for Full Contact Poker. They're using the tables for freeroll sit-n-go tournaments for FCP shirts, jerseys, etc.:

And finally, here's the UberWidowmaker in the Absolute Poker booth receiving some loving TLC from an adoring fan:

Well, that's about it for now. More tomorrow. Cheers.

WSOP 2006: Day 3

2006-07-27T00:23:00.000-05:00

Heck of an eventful day today, we did a lot but I'll keep it short, both for your benefit and ours, as we have a party that Full Tilt Poker is putting on tonight. We didn't go to the BoDog party last night; apparently we missed a heck of a show. Rumor has it that they dropped a cool million bucks to pull it off. Hired the entire cast of one of the Cirque de Soleil shows to perform in and amongst the crowd, tons of food, open bar with ultra-premium liquor, the works. Open bar in a poker crowd = mega-bucks.

Anyway, we began around 7:30 this morning by off-loading the 'burb and the trailer, getting everything into the Rio Pavillion in better-than-expected time. Over the next 10 or so hours we got the table set up in our booth, plus the UberWidowmaker that's in the Absolute Poker booth, plus the two casino tables we built for FullContact Poker. Then we got everything else set up in the booth, the display, promo materials, etc. It was a lot of work but everything's looking really good.

I'm hoping that these are good omens. People -- and these are all basically other vendors and exposition staff -- are really taking a second look at our tables. You can see them just cruising along, eyes kind of glazed over taking the entire scene in, and then they lock onto our table and their walk kinda slows down and they really look at the table. We've already gotten a lot of very positive comments; hopefully they turn into green $ starting tomorrow :)

The best comment of the day came from a producer and a staff member with the World Poker Tour. They know the same person that I know at Absolute Poker, and they came by the AP booth to say hi to Jen right as we were finishing up the assembly/install of the UberWidowmaker. The guy who builds the tables for the WPT was very, very complimentary, especially about the cupholders, that he'd never seen anything like it and thought it was a super idea. The producer looked the table over and then looked at me and said "It's the nicest table I've ever seen." It was a very nice thing for her to say; I only wish that words of affirmation were one of my primary languages. But I think that we may have a very good chance at selling that table to the AP folks at the end of the show, or if not to them, somebody else. It really is a stunning table, if I do say so myself :)

We took some photos today but they didn't look very nice (as the Rio staff hadn't been through to police the trash and empty boxes yet) so we'll take some more tomorrow morning pre-show and will post them during the day if we can, or if not, tomorrow night. Ok, time to get dressed and head over to Caesar's for the party. Cheers.

WSOP 2006: Days 1-2

2006-07-26T00:07:00.000-05:00

We began Monday by finishing with packing up the 'Burb and the trailer. We'd wanted to get on the road early but didn't actually hit it until almost 10:00 Central time. Best laid plans, right?

The first day's drive was relatively uneventful. It was interesting that US-287 in Texas (which runs from north of Dallas/Fort Worth to Amarillo) is for the most part in better condition than I-40 in New Mexico and Arizona.

We actually hit rain twice in New Mexico. The first time it was unlike anything I've ever seen. Cloudbursts and huge drops, then a complete but short downpour, and then it was like all the rain did nothing but stir up a lot of red dust, and so then we drove through a bit of a dust storm. The 'Burb handled it like a champ.

Day 2 started easy in Albuquerque and the weather was good. Having never driven it before, I had no idea how mountainous northern New Mexico and Arizona are. I'd always imagined NM and AZ basically as flat as cardboard and about as scenic, but that's not true at all. Especially northern AZ was quite green for most of the drive (which was essentially all the way across the state).

We got to Vegas a bit later than anticipated due to needing to detour around Hoover Dam. We could have gone across but apparently there's a security checkpoint and they would have wanted to check all the boxes in the trailer, which would have been impossible. So we drove the alternate route through Laughlin. The parking situation was a mess, but we eventually got it all sorted out and got checked in at the Rio.

Very very nice and huge room. We were both very impressed. We walked down to the WSOP area for a minute to meet a friend who works for AbsolutePoker (but who was gone for a minute). We were kinda beat and headed up to the room to call the bellhop to get the bags delivered. They were nice, then we went to eat at the Carnival World Buffet. It wasn't as good as at the Bellagio, but was better than the seafood buffet that I ate at here last August.

The poker celebs are already covering this place. We weren't even looking hard (and arrived late on the day) but practically ran into a slushy Mike Sexton, saw some guy gladhanding Marcel Luske (who I think was on his dinner break from whatever event they're playing today), and then just as we were leaving, saw Johnny Chan walking around in the buffet line in a chanpoker.net t-shirt.

I'm beat so I'm not going to go on much longer, but a couple of things are already very evident. First, this is going to be a complete circus. Second, everybody is very excited. Us included. Tomorrow is load-in for the show and then the Full Tilt VIP party at some ultra-lounge at Ceasar's. More then.

Progress Continues

2005-06-01T17:51:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I feel like this should be inscribed over the doorway to my shop:

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly fine.

Progress continues unabated on Table 3. Things are looking very, very good as the sub-table has been almost entirely attached to the table. I've started bending the apron that will surround the sub-table and am going to start attaching that to the sub-table tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't twist as it comes free from the bending jig.

Bending the solid red oak apron is interesting, though. After submitting it to about an hour of steaming, it's then clamped into the bending jig. At first it doesn't want to bend at all, but with applied pressure in the right place, bend it does (don't we all?). I've let it dry in the jig for about 72 hours now, so it should hold its shape, but it will be immediately fastened into place on the table and we'll move onto the next one.

Next on the list for completion is the cupholder drawers themselves. The frames are all done so it's just a matter of completing the tops -- easier said than done. The cupholder holes have themselves been cut out using a template I built, but each of the holes have to be slightly widened to fit the jumbo stainless steel cupholders. I think we'll do that with a drum sander. Then I need to complete the detail on the top of each, then rabbet the sides so that they will drop into the frames correctly. That should be exciting.

Well, enough talking about it -- back to work! Cheers.

Update!

2005-05-18T15:02:00.000-05:00

There arose such a clamor for photos that I've put some pictures back up on the site. I'm not real happy that the database isn't transferring, so I've got them in a table format for now. But at least now if you're looking for some photos of the Ultimate Portable Poker Table, now you can see them.

On a different front, work continues to progress on Table 3. This is without question the most complicated table I've done, due to the new design of the cupholders and sub-table assembly that I've designed (way too much time with the CAD software the last 2 months). But these cupholders will be amazing in comparison with the old ones, or, frankly, any that I've seen out there. A buddy of mine calls them the Ultimate Cupholder, but I think he's mocking me. But they are pretty ultimate.

Anyway, enjoy the resurrected photos. If you need more photos, email me and I'll see what I have for you. Cheers.

Second Table Gone!

2005-05-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

So I completed the second table and am now dedicating all my available free time to building a third table. The second table was a full-felt table (using the wine-colored speed cloth) with a raised rail. The raised rail features a solid-wood lining so that the table still has some of the richness of the racetrack table while not incorporating the racetrack onto the playing surface.

If I ever get the photos working again, I'll put up photos of Table 2. I hope that Robert's enjoying it now.

So now I'm working on the third table, a more deluxe version of the standard racetrack table. I've got the rail, table, and racetrack basically ready for finishing/upholstery, but I'm in the middle of designing a fairly complicated cupholder sub-table assembly. I don't want to complete any of the final parts of the table until the sub-table parts are all cut and ready for assembly, just to make sure that I don't coat final parts with dust or anything. When it's done, I'll post photos of that, too. But don't go holding your breath or anything.

Second Table Nearly Done

2005-04-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

So I've been working on 2 new tables for 2 different guys. The first one is nearly finished and it's a more traditional style table -- although given that my first table was completely unique, I guess that's not really saying much. This one will sit on top of his existing dining room table, so there isn't really any work going on below the table. However, we're adding a little solid-wood trim ring above the felt on the inside of the rail to give it a bit of the feel of a racetrack table, while still functioning as a full-cloth table. He's driving up from San Antonio to pick up the table on Saturday, so I've been working evenings this week to finish that up for him. I'll include some photos of that table on the photo page -- of course, once it's rebuilt. Heh.

The third table is progressing, I have about 1 more set of cuts to make to have all the woodwork cut out for the above-the-table stuff. I'm still working on the design for some really unique cupholders, in fact, cupholders like I've never seen on any poker table. Should be quite a cool feature. But I'm itchy to get working on this table full-time. Hopefully on Sunday I can start really cranking along on that one.

Switch Complete

2005-03-23T08:33:00.000-06:00

The switch to the new server has been made, which is good on many levels for yours truly. Here's a bit of advice for other fledgling self-administrators: don't try to change registrars then try to change domain name servers, that's backwards. Go ahead and change nameservers first with your old registrar, then transfer to the new registrar. The old registrar (called the "losing" registrar) tends to lock down the account to any changes once the transfer order is put into play, including a nameserver change. And they will take as humanly long as the rules allow them to take -- 7 days -- before they approve the transfer request. Dotster, I was an early proponent of you guys, but your prices are now too high. And your complete lack of cool when the transfer order came through -- I basically got a desperate email saying "please don't go! I still love you Becky!" -- means that I'll never come back. No, no no, Lesley Gore.

But I've noticed that the entire site didn't transfer over as smoothly as I'd thought, especially the photo/gallery section. So we may have some turbulence for the next few days on that front. Please keep your seatbelts fastened until the webmaster turns off the fasten your seatbelts light. Thanks. And drink up.

An Interim Update

2005-03-22T10:48:00.000-06:00

Intrepid ultimate portable poker table fan Thomas emailed me recently with a question about whether I've experienced much sag on the rounded ends of the table. My answer was that we did see some of that before the current leg assembly was incorporated into the table, along with the cleats that hold the legs in place under the table.

Since there's no drawing of that detail, I've added a cleat detail drawing to the plans page of the site. It's a detailed drawing, but lacks a lot of the typical dimensioning information, mostly because the drawing is quite crowded. Why's the drawing crowded? Because I over-engineered the connection between the cleats and the table. There's no real need for 11 bolts on each cleat, and given that tee nuts can get expensive, it's frankly obscene. So you might want to back off of that a bit. That said, the cleats are the only think that holds the sections flush and true to each other, so maybe a bit of excess here isn't such a bad thing.

The point being, you should feel free to put in as many -- or as few -- bolts in the table as you feel the need to put in. I'd probably use fewer than I used here, but probably no less than 7 per cleat at the breaks. I'm not dimensioning them because I didn't bother doing so when I built the table, I just spaced them pretty evenly through the middle and then at 1", 3", and 3" on each end. Similar spacing on the horizontal bolts that tie the cleats together horizontally.

There are no bolts that connect the legs to the leg cleats, the weight of the table takes care of that.

I suspect I'm being about as clear as mud in this explanation at this point, so take a look at the plan and email me if you have any questions.

Still Transitioning, Part Deux

2005-03-16T10:17:00.000-06:00

Ok, the transition to the new webhost is affirmatively underway. Which means that you may see some irregularities in the next few days, particularly in regard to the gallery/photos. I'm not sure how that database is going to do in the transition, so if it goes all funky, please bear with me. The rest of it should transfer pretty cleanly, but those are pretty famous last words.

If you need something in the meantime, please email me at pat@patmulry.com.

Still Transitioning....

2005-03-15T14:38:00.000-06:00

Yeah, the greatest plans of mice and men, right? I'm still working on transitioning the site to the new host. I'm sure you're all choked up about it, right?

So what's taking so long? It's a helluva list. We had a family medical emergency -- everything's ok now but the last 7 days have been pretty rough -- and I'm working on 2 other tables right now. Plus trying to learn to be a better poker player myself.

But I promise -- the site is transitioning. Really. I swear.

Transition Underway

2005-02-22T11:16:00.000-06:00

I'll be moving the site to a new host in a short period of time, so if you experience any delays, that's probably why.

I'm working on designing a new, non-portable table. I've been drafting plans as I go this time -- the stupid monkey learns from his prior mistakes!!! -- and I'll post those later when they're in shape to be shared with the rest of the world.

But for now, no new content of merit.

Oh yeah, except this. We recovered the mousepad prior to my last game at the start of February. We used the navy "Casino Print" suited cloth from yourautotrim.com and it is awesome. It's not fuzzy or soft like a velvet, velveteen, or moleskin (or even the faux suede I've heard that some folks are using), in fact, it's a nylon and sort of feels like a backpack.

But the stuff is beautiful and it has this Teflon finish on it that makes it both practically spillproof and -- most importantly -- the cards just haul across it. Chips, too. The photo linked above isn't the best, so hunt around their site and look at the black, green, or wine colored samples, those photos show the cloth better. The navy is definitely deeper-colored than the photo shows, but it is some sweet looking stuff on the table. I'll definitely use it again and I recommend it to you highly.

And remember, if you have any questions about what you see here, please don't hesitate to email me: patatpatmulry.com is the address to use. Cheers.

Plans Up!!!

2005-01-25T00:57:00.000-06:00

Well, it was a long weekend learning how to use some CAD software, but it's done. The first of the portable poker table plans are up via the link over to the right. I've hidden them under the title "Poker Table Plans" because I'm feeling mischevious. Nobody will discover them there. Heh.

I've got 5 sets of plans up so far. There are a few more yet to come before the plan set is finished, but this is a good start. Give 'em a look and let me know what you think.

And you thought I'd quit when the table was built. Oh ye of little faith.

New Photos!

2005-01-21T11:03:00.000-06:00

Click on that little link on the right over there and it will deposit you in the gallery section of the website. I loaded a bunch of new photos last night, along with some pithy descriptions. I'm planning on working on the table plans this weekend, so hopefully I'll have something over there shortly for you, trusty reader. Enjoy the photos.

Poly Done!

2005-01-15T09:41:00.000-06:00

I've spent part of each night this week working on the polyurethane finish on the legs and the cupholders. Each coat requires a light scuffing with #0000 steel wool (so that the layers of poly are bonding to each other), then a quick hit with the tack cloth, then laying on another layer of poly. It probably takes 30 minutes at a time, and then I've been leaving them to dry overnight.

But I think that they're all at a point now -- 3 coats of poly -- that I'm ready to be done with them. The poly on the legs is just protective, they won't see much spillage, and the same is true with the cupholders (although they are more likely to see some spillage). So what's left to do?

Well, I need to shim the cupholders themselves with some masking tape so that they fit the holes in the mounts perfectly, that will take 15 or 30 minutes total. I'm going to put a thin layer of furniture wax over the poly as a final shine and protectant, that won't take much time. Also, it will help the cupholder mounts to slide easier, I'll probably add a little more wax to the cupholder rails while I'm at it. Then I just need to re-mount the cupholder slides and it's done.

At which point I'll probably more the table inside and snap some final photos for the plans-to-come and to publish here. As I've probably said before, I'm really thrilled with the cupholders and the legs. This project has surprisingly turned out to be much, much more satisfying than I ever imagined it would be.

So I'll post more photos soon. I promise. :)

So We Played Last Friday Night...

2005-01-10T17:16:00.000-06:00

And the gang all loved the nearly-complete table. Although the mousepad insert was acting up -- we need to more firmly adhere the felt to the rubber mousepad, as we'd only given it a light adhesive spraying the first time to test it out -- the table worked like a champ on its first time out of the garage/workshop.

One pleasant surprise was that the legs functioned even better than expected and setup and takedown were easier than anticipated. Each leg can be unfolded and set out on its own, and then the corresponding outside section of the table can be set on its pair of legs, and the legs and that section of the table will stand on their own. Then two guys can hold the center section while 4 of the bolts that link the sections are put in place. Once that's done, the guys can release the center section and it's just a matter of snugging those 4 bolts and adding the others under the table so that the table is square and the racetrack sections are flush.

The big hit of the night was the cupholders. I must confess, they worked out even better than I'd anticipated. Like I've said before, that's a damned high bar to clear, so I'm vey happy with the results. Best of all, the guys all thought it was really cool and worked perfectly, so I think I can say at this point that the table's turned out really well.

Last night I got a second coat of stain on the oak sections of the legs and a third coat on the solid oak section of the cupholders. They should be dry by tonight, so I plan to lightly smooth them with #0000 steel wool, hit them with the tack cloth, and then I'll start putting the wipe-on poly on the legs and cupholders tonight. The legs won't get more than 2 coats of poly, and the cupholders probably won't get more than 2 or 3. They don't need to be really, really glossy like the racetrack, just protected from the occasional spill. I'm also going to shim the plastic cupholder inserts with some masking tape (an old woodworker's trick for shimming) so that they fit the holes perfectly. As you may recall, I had to over-drill the cupholder holes because my hole saw was 3" but the cupholder inserts are only about 2 7/8".

And then the table is done. What to do next? Just write up the process and draw the plans, I guess. Maybe one of my buddies needs a table too. Hmm.

It's Been a Helluva Week...

2005-01-07T11:27:00.000-06:00

But the table's 99% done. I've been working this table like a second job this week. I probably spent at least 5 hours in the garage each night this week to get the rest of the details done on this table so that it would be ready for our monthly game tonight (yes, all this work is for a once-a-month game. Yes, I'm aware that this probably classifies me as insane, so hold your calls and letters). And the weather's been crazy. On Monday night, it was warm and humid. By Tuesday night it was cold, and the last two nights, below freezing. Not heavily below freezing, just the 20's, but still. Cold. Fortunately, the wood glue in the garage didn't freeze, so there was enough residual warmth from the house oozing into the garage to keep it in the upper 30's. So there was definitely some bundling-up to keep warm while working.

So what took so long? Here's the task list of things that were completed over the last 3 evenings. Thankfully, my lovely bride was able to help out a lot on Tuesday and last night or otherwise I don't think I would have gotten the table done for the game tonight. The table was playable for the December game, but not fully-featured (final legs, cupholders, stiffened cleats & substructure). So a huge thanks to her.

The week's been so busy that I can't even remember what I did on Monday night. I know that I got a lot done and it took a lot of time. I remember that I got home from work much later than intended and so I wasn't able to cut out the leg design and get those sanded (and thus they are stained and painted but not poly'd for the game tonight, same with the cupholders). And there was a problem with my hole saw in that it wasn't big enough to cut out the holes for the cupholders and it took a lot of sanding to make the hole big enough to fit the plastic cupholder inserts. I remember working while half listening to the Orange Bowl in the background. Oh wait, that was Tuesday. Like I said, it's all kinda bleary right now.

But what I did do on Tuesday morning was sit down and chart out everything that I needed to do in priority order to get the table done. This was a tremendously fortuitous move because it both focused my efforts and made it much easier to delegate/segregate tasks between myself and my lovely bride. If you're going to have 2 or more people working on your project, I highly recommend writing out a prioritized task list so that everyone can see the jobs to be done. It was a huge aid to completing this table with a minimum of supervision and oversight. Plus, my bride is tremendously gifted.

So what took so much time the last 3 nights? Here's the list:

Tuesday Night

Cut remaining cupholder holes, dress edges

Layout cutlines on oak legs

Layout cutlines on pine legs

Cut oak legs – jigsaw

Cut pine legs – jigsaw

Sand oak legs (outside & verticals only)

Sand pine legs (inside & verticals only)

Test assemble mated leg panels & drum sand to contour match

Measure oak cupholder ends & pulls to ensure overall dimensional adherence with table confines

Test assemble cupholders & modify placement of cupholder cleats as necessary & possible.

Cut cupholder ends to size

Drill out & countersink cupholder inside for pull screw-through

Run tack cloth on oak leg verticals

Edge veneer oak legs (verticals only), trim & file/sand as necessary

Tack clean and stain all remaining oak (cupholders, cupholder ends, leg outsides and verticals only)

Paint all pine (inside and verticals only)

Wednesday Night

Edge veneer remaining oak legs (verticals only), trim & sand as necessary (I only got 2 of 4 done on Monday night; it was the first time I'd ever done this and so there was a little bit of a leaning curve to get down)

Create test leg thickness from ½" and 3/4" plywood x 17" long

Test fit legs on table & position poplar leg cleats, mark cleat cuts

Cut poplar leg cleats to size

Roundover cut end of poplar leg cleats

Predrill poplar leg cleats for vertical mounting to table, but don't drill table until actual leg fitting

First/Second coat of stain & paint (as applicable); first coat of polyurethane? (no poly, too cold)

Put feet on exposed table bolts to protect other tabletops

Wax cupholder rails, cleats, table undersurface where cleats slide (this ended up moving to Thursday night)

Thursday Night

Install pulls on cupholder ends

Joint cupholder ends to cupholders

Test fit cupholders, modify vertical headspacing as necessary

Final cupholder assembly

Install cupholder magnet catches

Glue & assemble leg panels halves together

Drill & attach leg hinges – tops must be below cleat level

Install feet/glides to legs

Final mounting determination of legs and mount poplar cleats to table
Create foam protectors for table top transit

Assemble tools needed for assembly, disassembly of table & mousepad

So you can see, it's been quite busy. But the upside is that the table is 99% done at this point. The table structure is stiffer due to the substitution of 3' long red oak cleats for the previous 2' poplar cleats that attached the sections of the table together. The cupholders -- completely an optional item, but they really look cool and are very functional -- are done except for the fact that I need to lightly sand the stained surface and then give them a couple of coats of poly. I'll do that this weekend. Same thing with the legs.

I'd also like to paint the surface beneath the mousepad with some of the gloss black paint left over from painting the pine half (inside half) of the legs. I think it would be a nicer surface for the mousepad to sit on, and you do see glimpses of it sometimes if the mousepad lifts accidentally. Also, it would be easier for the adhesive on the velcro to stick to the gloss painted surface than to the rough pine. So I'll give that a quick sand and paint on Saturday. But this project is quickly drawing to a close (despite the bleary-eyed week).

So what's next? Well, I need to go back and revise my construction drawings and create a few new ones to reflect all the changes and additions (like a legs drawing and a cupholder assembly drawing). And I'd like to create a second mousepad that fits a little better than the first one. I picked up some cool, navy suited upholstery cloth a few weeks ago that would look really cool on the table. My bride thinks we could just recover the existing mousepad, but I think I'd like to have a choice of two pads, depending on the mood I'm in.

And then I'm going to start to outline the construction process and create an instruction sheet for future builders.

But don't turn blue holding your breath on the last part. I'll get it done, but as you might have noticed, I can be somewhat longwinded at times :) and that means that things run long. Sort of like this post.

And I'd promise some photos, but I've been too busy building to take any more interim photos. So after I get the stuff done this weekend (poly and paint), I'll take some final photos and create a page showing the table in all its glory, from raw wood through finished product.

That's all for now.

Back from the Holidays

2005-01-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

Well, we were travelling quite a bit during the Christmas season, so completion of the poker table slipped down the priority list quite a bit. But now it's back -- in pog form! Sorry, couldn't resist a reference to my favorite episode of The Simpsons.

The weekend saw a lot of progress on the table. I was finally able to implement the new, longer cleats and they have reduced side-to-side flex and flex at the breaks nicely. That was a pretty involved process because it required carefully transferring the holes from the old cleats to the new ones, plus drilling out new holes for the 3/8" bolts that attach the leaves to one another. Lots of holes to trill, and solid oak is much, much denser than poplar (the very reason I switched to oak when moving to the longer cleats) but the result is that I burned up a couple of drill bits by turning them faster than they wanted to turn in oak. Lesson learned. But after sporadic work all weekend, the new cleats were drilled and installed by Sunday afternoon. Whew. Glad to have that task over with. While important, remediating a design flaw is just not as fun as designing and implementing a new feature.

Of course, the pressure on this project is building, as we have our monthly game on Friday night this week, so I want to get all the new features installed no later than Thursday night this week. So what's on the horizon?

Well, my lovely bride was quite sleepy early yesterday, so I spent a lot of time in the garage/shop after she sacked out. I spent the time alternately watching "Midnight Run" (bleeped-out version, not as fun as the original, but still a great and funny movie even after a dozen viewings) and working on the design of the cup holders. The cupholders will slide out from under the table, thus eliminating beer bottles on the table top (and hopefully preventing stains on the felt). Because the foam rail wraps around the bottom, I also had to design some spacers to allow enough clearance between the bottom of the rail and the top of the cupholder assembly so that there wouldn't be any chafing when the cupholder is extracted or withdrawn. I'll take some photos tonight and post them tomorrow, as I hope to complete trial assembly of one of the cupholders tonight. I have to cut out the holes for the plastic cupholder inserts tonight, and once I do that, I can test to see if the design is working correctly. This is going to be a nice additional feature to this table.

The second project is completion of the folding legs. I picked up another sheet of 3/4" oak plywood because the 1/2" pine ply wasn't holding the table up very well by itself. I intend to bond the two pieces together, giving legs that are 1 1/4" thick, which should be more than sufficient to stablize and support the table. I've also come up with a little design to cut out that will, I hope, make the legs more attractive and functional. I was inspired by the table legs on a trestle table in Norm Abrams' New Yankee Workshop plans book (vol. 1, I think). I'm going to cut those out tonight (or at least the 3/4" thick pieces) so that I can get the first coat of stain on them tonight too. I'm going to stain the oak outer pieces and paint the pine inner pieces black. 1-2 coats of the same color finish as on the racetrack will tie the legs in nicely with the table as a whole and will, I think, make a world of difference for this table.

How is it I always promise more photos than I provide? Guess I'm just a tease. :)

New Cleats!

2004-12-20T02:01:00.000-06:00

It's sort of sad that I get so excited about finding a part that will help me to complete the table the way I want to complete it, but what can I say. I'm a dork.

So yesterday I took my 3-year old daughter with me on a trip to Lowe's. That's always a fun adventure, this time she wanted to stand on the bar at the bottom of the back of the cart and alternately hold onto the handle or swing from my arms as I pushed the cart. Well, she was having fun and it doesn't bother me at all, so we had a good time.

Home Depot's been out of longer poplar 1.5" x 1.5" blanks lately, so we went to see if we could find them at Lowe's. They did it even one better, with 3' long blanks made of red oak! These will stretch basically from rail to rail on the bottom of the table, and the oak will be more durable and stiffer than poplar. Of course, it was slightly more expensive, but what am I going to do, quibble at this point? Of course not. 4 blanks in the cart, another couple of odds and ends for the house, and it was back home for us.

Last night's garage workshop activity was pretty evenly split between setting up the table saw (1 wing extension installed and levelled, the other one's installed but not levelled, and then the fence and rail system have to be assembled and installed) and with transferring one set of cleat holes to the new attachment cleat blanks. I hope to complete that part of the operation tonight and try out the new cleats, then get the additional cleats for the portable legs attached. My buddy Scott is planning to borrow the table for about a week and I'd like to get that completed before he borrows it.

The new mousepad fabric is scheduled to arrive today, so I'll add photos tomorrow if it actually arrives as scheduled.

Progress Slowed, but Progressing Still

2004-12-17T02:00:00.000-06:00

Well, I knew that it would happen, but progress on getting the table completely finished has slowed. I was out of town last weekend for a buddy's wedding in South Carolina and of course with Christmas upon us, well, the poker table's just sliding down the priority list, you know?

And my lovely bride just bought me a wonderful present that will make all subsequent tables and et cetera much easier to fabricate, a nice new table saw. We brought it home yesterday afternoon, that bad boy is heavy! Started assembling it last night but I'm going to need a buddy to help me flip it over and get the cast iron extension wings installed. So we'll probably do that on Saturday or Sunday.

Which means that on Sunday afternoon, I may be able to finish the table. As you can see from the photos below, the top is completed, all that's left to be done is some sub-surface work. I've completed the folding legs (version 1) which aren't very pretty right now but they work. I've constructed the cleats that will hold them in position on the bottom of the table (sorry, no photos) and have routed the edges so that they won't beat up anybody's legs, should they come in contact. But I need to get them lined up on the subsurface of the table and drilled in and attached. When my buddy Scott comes over on Sunday afternoon, we'll flip the table upside down on some sawhorses and get that lined up and done.

The other modification is to constuct some new attachment cleats out of longer material. The current cleats end about 9" from the edge of the table, and that's allowing a little more flex at the rails on the seams than I'd prefer. So I think I'll extend the cleats out to the edge of the table, basically, to stiffen up the middle of the table at the rail/seam intersection. That and the cleats for the portable legs should stiffen the table enough to avoid the deflection on the ends that was occuring when guys would lean on the rails during the game at the apex of the rail curve. If that doesn't stiffen it up enough, then I guess I'll add another layer of plywood below the current subsurface.

As I draw up the instructions and plans for others to build this table in the future, I will definitely spec 3/4" plywood for the base layer or two 1/2" boards. One 1/2" layer just isn't stiff enough.

Lastly, I just ordered a new piece of fabric for the "mousepad" insert. I saw a deal on the web and really liked it, it's a navy suited nylon that looks really, really sweet. My lovely bride and I would both like to have the insert meeting the edges of the racetrack perfectly; right now it gaps slightly in a few places. Once we get the velcro put down on the insert sub-base, you won't be able to tell, but you can tell now. When we make the second insert, we'll get it perfect.

Yes, we do have exceedingly high standards for our little hobbies, don't we?

Wednesday update

2004-12-08T02:00:00.000-06:00

Not much to tell, but a couple of notes. Work on the table has slowed the past couple of days due to other life events. My lovely bride returned home yesterday from taking the girls to the playground and discovered that the left rear tire on her car was sitting on the ground. I came home from the office at lunchtime to change it out and discovered that it was basically finished, the tread is pretty thin and almost worn through on the inside edge. So yesterday evening was spent at Sam's Club ordering new tires, only to have their computer go down midway through the process. Thus, I instead ordered them online from home last night and will have to wait for the special order to arrive. But I wasn't going to put the crappy tires on the car that they had in stock, especially when a set that is far superior were only $2 more per wheel! Like I said, life intrudes and the poker table completion must wait. It's a shame having priorities.

I've definitely probably decided that I'm going to avoid using angle iron/steel as a stiffening solution for now and am going to try to use the poplar blanks as cleats to the bottom of the table. I think that will work and will also help to keep the bottom of the table level if/when it is ever used sitting on top of an existing table (dining room, kitchen, etc.) at a friend's house.

The folding legs seem to be working great. I've had the table sitting on them since Sunday afternoon and I'm not seeing any bowing or warpage, which was a bit of a concern since I'm just using 1/2" plywood for the legs. It was left over after cutting the insert of the table. I'm still thinking about attaching some leftover 3/4" plywood to the outside in strategic places (especially at the hinge attachment points) but I'm waiting to see if that's really necessary or not. I'd like to minimize additional weight at this point. The whole thing will fit in the back of my car, but not if I make it so heavy that I'm bottoming out the shocks in back.

I may get some work done on the table tonight, or I may meet up with a buddy to see a movie we've been meaning to see for quite awhile and that the wives wouldn't exactly appreciate: Team America. Foul-mouthed puppets! But if that doesn't work out, I'll probably try to cleat the table. I'll fill you in tomorrow on how that's going. Or I'll bring an amateur movie review. Cheers.