Every 4th of July I travel to New Jersey to participate in a weekend long board game party at a friend's house. We'll call him Andy to preserve his anonymity Board games need tables to play on and a couple of other projects of mine have made it to his house. (See my pages of Projects for Friends)
The tables we have available for gaming at Andy's house is a relatively large dining room table, a large 4 ft x 8 ft table I gave him years ago, and some wobbly folding tables. I'd brought him a smaller table 2-1/2 ft x 4 ft a few years ago. After I refinished it it was a nice table it was a little small for almost all board games. Regardless, his wife took the table for her hobbies.
I had plans to build Andy a new table. It was going to be 3 ft x 5ft. Moreover I was going to cover the top of the table with epoxy. No, not a river table... I wanted to make the table as an homage to all the board games we've all played over the years. My idea was to take old board game pieces and seal them under a layer of epoxy.
Then last summer while walking my dog I saw another table out on the curb. I happened to know the people who lived in the house as they had a dog that came to our puppy play dates. After contacting them and making sure they were actually throwing it out I collected it and stored it in my basement over the winter.
This spring after finishing my filing cabinet I needed something a little more simple and after doing the math I figured I had enough time to strip and refinish the table before my 4th of July trip this year.
On close inspection the top was in very bad shape. It looked like the table had been left out in the sun and rain for a long time. There were also gouges in the surface that looked like a child had been using it as a workbench. The legs were painted and generally in much better shape.
To me this was perfect. I was not going to be able to get the 1/8" deep gouges out of the top to make it a "good" table again but if I was going to cover it with maps and other game pieces it wouldn't matter.
So, I removed the apron pieces and pulled it out into my driveway to strip the old finish using a random orbit sander and 60 grit sandpaper.
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| Before |
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| After |
It took about four hours to strip the old finish. The edges had cracks and mold stains so I ripped about 1/2" from all the sides then used my router to round the corners then put a 1/2" round over on the top edge and a 1/8" on the bottom edges.
The next step for the top was to apply a dark walnut stain. The base wood used in this table was not terribly attractive by itself and the darker stain also helped hide water stains from being left outside.
I then found the game pieces I had been saving for this purpose and laid them out to find a good looking combination. This next one was my favorite. It was a very charismatic map and with the cheat sheets next to it it almost looked like someone was playing a game.
Unfortunately there was one problem.
The table had a severe cup in the top probably from being left outside in the rain and the sun. I tried adding a couple of battens to the bottom to flatted it out; however, they were not enough. Since the epoxy is self leveling it would all have just pooled in the middle of the table and been a mess.
So I fell back to plan B which was to just put polyurethane on the top and call it done. I used my normal General Finishes Oil and Urethane diluted with mineral spirits on about a 4:1 ratio that I then wiped on.
To finish the legs I scuff sanded all of them and whenever I found loose paint I sanded to bare wood. I then repainted them with rattle can Krylon Glossy Ink, a very nice dark blue. A picture of the first coat is all I have of refinishing the legs and aprons.
And here it is in situ all finished. The legs did get dinged up a little bit in the drive down. I'd thought I'd wrapped them in towels well enough but I must have missed a spot. Regardless the table is going to look good from my house in Western NY and I think became a new favorite gaming table for everyone attending.
