Pool tables are very expensive. Can I build my own? Tips requested...

Factual Questions
21

Ahhh, memories.

I, as part of a group, built a pool table. It worked pretty well.

Every year, our high school had a science fair type thingy, where groups from various science classes (physics, biology, chemistry) would hold a fair with projects demonstrating real life actions of various scientific principles.

Our group was assigned vectors, motion, velocity and we had about two months to work. Our grand idea? Build a pool table and then basically spend the 2 days of the fair playing nine ball to demonstrate physics.

Construction was pretty easy, although the table wasn’t world class in quality. But, we made it regulation competition sized. We divided the project up into various sub-projects to come up with cheap alternatives because as high-schoolers, cash was limited.

I was on the “Base” team. For table legs, we had access to a bunch of tree stumps, all about 4 feet tall. We cut 4 of them down to the same height, leveled all of them off, and you had sturdy and strong legs that also looked kind of cool. For the “Tabletop” team, the guys got some heavy dute particle board, layered on the bottom with plywood for extra strength. They drilled out holes for the pockets.

Bumpers? Not a problem. Get 2X4s for the outer walls. We cut them to look a lot better than just chunky wood. One guy had a lot of extra time, so he sanded everything down, did some nice angled cutting and stained them. The group also went to a local pool table builder, and in exchange for putting up a sign of their company during the fair, they donated bumpers for free.

Finally, we went to a craft store, bought felt, and stapled it down.

Total cost? About $50. Did it work? Like a charm. Did we win the fair? You bet.

After all was said and done, we donated it to the teacher’s lounge.

22

What about a solid-surfacing material like Corian or Avonite? Might be cheaper than the standard slate/marble, and still be rigid and water-/moistureproof.

23

Local newspaper classifieds, perhaps? I saw one for $100 a few months ago. I considered calling about it, but didn’t because I had no room for it.

24

A little off the subject, but I remember seeing plans for building an air hockey table in Popular Mechanics. Even the writer conceded it was a project that would require some commitment - one of the steps was drilling 6000 holes in the tabletop.

25

In my opinion, you really need a slate top - one that’s been finished to perfection.

Manufacturers would love to get away from slate as its heavy and expensive. But there just aren’t any suitable alternatives. Wood isn’t dimensionally stable - changes in humidity cause it to swell and shrink unevenly. Your table will never stay level. Also, the surface of even a finely sanded wood top is not as smooth as slate, so the table will play ‘slow’. Then there’s damage from the balls - balls do jump in the air and land back on the table. A pool ball is fairly heavy, and the contact point with the table is very small. That translates into high PSI, and even tiny dents in the surface will ruin the playability of the table.

26

First statement about honeycomb tables-they suck. We bought one at the firehouse, and it stayed in an air conditioned room, and we spent as much time leveling the table as we did playing pool. Ball rolls on that table were so strange you’d think you’d been drinking when you were sober.

My Dad picked up an old coin-op barroom table and redid the innards-removed the changer, redid the felt, and refinished the exterior. Solid, true, and very good play.

Your problem Opal is desire to store out-of-doors which might work if you were back in Arizona.

How 'bout a 3 season room? :wink:

27

Try the “thrifty nickle” it’s a free classified ads paper. There’s a place in Tyler (I can’t recall the name) that sells surplus furniture out of motels, hotels, and other furnished buildings that are under renovation. From time to time they get some really good deals.
Another place in Palestine supplies vending machines, pool tables, videogames etc. to places in East Texas either to sale or lease. They usually have/had tables and stuff that they want to get rid of cheap.
Go to practically any bar and ask the owner where he got his.

I was discussing this idea with my brother in regards to him building a table. If the frame was welded tube steel. It could be made near to perfect without worrying about whether it would warp. The weather (humidity/heat/cold) wouldn’t effect it either. The bottom of the legs could have adjustable feet. Basically just a bolt w/ two nuts but whatever. That’d give you the ability to level it in any direction depending on the floor. Beneath the slate, several crossbars could be welded into place and all the way around like a lip for the edge. A 1" piece of solid oak panel could then be set into place and attached with screws from the bottom through holes drilled into the tube steel braces.
The top could then be finished by gluing a heavy one solid piece of formica.
The felt could then be stretched over the formica and the edgse of the top panel. Banks bumpers and etc, could be added then.
The 1" thick oak panel wouldn’t warp or bow if the braces were spaced properly. and if the screws done right.
Some heavy laminated sheeting is very tough. With a solid wood core backup and steel braces I think it’d work. The balls wouldn’t dent the formica. Formica is hell to break when it’s glued down properly. It’d have a slatelike response in play, I would think. It was just a thought…I figured a top built this way wouldn’t cost but about a $100-150 as opposed to $600-1000 depending on what kind of slate you get.
Seems reasonable to me.

28

An 8’ playing surface (which is 44" x 88" according to this chart would need about 32 board feet of oak. The best online price I could find is at Steve Wall Lumber Co. at $2.75/bd-ft plus shipping for 5/4 red oak (Last time I was shopping for hardwood locally it was more like $8/bd-ft). You’re not going to find a four foot wide slab, so it’s going to have to be pieced together out of 6-8" wide strips. Better plan on buying a lot more than 32 board feet to account for milling waste, checks, etc. and a lot of time milling and assembling the panel. And for that much work, I’d want to be building a table top that someone can actually see when I’m done.

No matter how much you screw down a solid oak top, it’s going to move across the width with the seasons. In fact if there is no room to move, it will tear itself apart. I don’t have a wood movement chart handy, but I’d guess it would be upwards of a quarter inch over a 4" span.

A solid wood top is going to cost a lot more than the $100-150. I think this really calls for an engineered product like 1 1/2" MDF. It’s a better choice all around. The big drawback is that it swells when wet, so it needs to be sealed and kept out of the weather as much as possible.

29

Amen to the comments about motion in wood substrates. That is the entire reason why we get so crazy about stiffening a floor before installation of ceramic tile. If the floor has an excessive moment of expansion or contraction, the tile will crack or disbond. The dimensional change in a piece of slate from 0% humidity to rainforest is negligible.

30

If I had the money to add a room onto my house I’d be able to afford an outdoor table. :wink:

31

Opal said it wasn’t going to get rained on. The humidity can be a big factor when dealing with wood. This I very well know since I do a lot of carpentry and cabinet work. A 4’ x 8’ x 1" thick piece of 9 ply oak finished paneling is about $60-70/sheet. If it is thoroughly cured and sealed properly the humidity will have practically zero effect on the movement.
Maybe that’s where the mistake was made. When I said solid oak panel, that meant sheet goods. Solid OAK plywood I guess you’d call it. But not common pine plywood. Solid core oak, ash, birch etc. paneling that I use when building cabinets was what I was referring to. I’ve never had any problems with shrinkage in the past and I’ve used a lot of it.

32

Medium density fiberboard or particle board is IMHO not an option in this case. I rarely use it on anything as a MoF. Especially if moisture is a concern.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear in my description.

That paragraph wound up in your quote and should’ve been attached at the end of my reply. :smack: