Try looking up Glow Table on www.instructables.com to light up your checker board for night games.
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Happy Mathematics Day! ❌📐♾️
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Whew, that’s a relief, now I don’t feel rushed, despite living 20 miles from the Delta/Peach Bottom PA slate quarries. Careful what you wish for; there are piles unused 2x3 slag surrounding those old quarries.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/peach-bottom-slate-region
You pay the postage to Canada.
Sounds like a fall/winter project. Can you live with just four corner pockets?
That part, finding and selecting shooter stones and whittling a pool cue, would add an intriguing backcountry DIY aspect. I’m “game” to bring in a deck of cards on family or group trips, and even tote the bulk of a DIY Bocce set (wood croquet balls and a golf ball as shooter object). But danged if I’m bringing checker pieces or Carrom Rings. Part of the fun is playing around with found objects.
One of the funnest family tripping games we have ever played was DIY miniature golf, while windbound for a couple days on a sandy beach Adirondack island site. We had a couple golf balls (used as the object ball and spare in the all-terrain bocce set). Everyone carved their own found-wood putter stick. Everyone took turns creating their own custom putt-putt holes for the course, which became more elaborate over a couple windbound days as we better appreciated course design challenges between rounds.
By day two we had a par 30 nine-hole course, complete with bunkers, water hazards, even a windmill, and considerable time had spent creating the course and whittling improved putters.
The DIY parts of crafting a putter stick and creating each hole’s challenge was as much fun as actually playing the course. A lot of time was spent on hands and knees in the sand, giggling “Hee, hee, hee” while crafting improved course difficulties, and in whittling wood while boasting “Ha, just wait, my new Bettinardi X-5 Root Ball putter will show you a thing or two next round”
That is one of the few times we have left more than footprints; we left the sand bermed beach course and hazards intact. And left our custom putters, and one of the spare Bocce golf balls for the next visitors. I could only hope they had as much fun as we did.
We play a lot of family games while tripping; beachfront miniature golf was one of the best yet.
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I like that, and may try adding some Glow Powder to the first coat of pigmented resin on the future carroms board tabletops. I know where there are a half dozen defunct camp chairs with beverage sized arm pockets and have a variety of hole saws for the drill press. Mark 6 tops this fall after I scavenge some beverage-sized mesh pockets.
Night Carroms would be easier and safer than Night Horseshoes (glow sticks attached to the shoes and poles).
We play a lot of games on family trips. Physical games like all-terrain bocce, and mental games like Botticelli. The latter is my favorite game amongst a crowd with varied backgrounds, ages and interests, each with their own area of trivia knowledge.
Botticelli is essentially a combination 20 Questions and Trivial Pursuit, but there are no cards or game pieces, and no limit to the number of question tries. The Chooser (winner of the last game as we play) thinks of a well-known person’s last name and gives the first letter of that name.
In order to ask a Direct Question (“Is this person alive today?” Was this person male?” “Is this person fictional?”
the peanut gallery must first stump the Chooser with an Indirect Question about a character whose (last or sole) name begins with the same letter as the mystery person.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli_(game)
Framing the Indirect Questions with enough detail to eliminate alternative “correct” answers and stump the Chooser keeps the askers cleverly involved in crafting the question’s details and adjectives. “Last name starts with P, eh? OK, is this the once destitute English coal merchant whose name became synonymous with freeboard load lines?”
TMI in that Indirect Question, it was made too easy. A more obscure “synonymous with something on ships?” would be better. BTW, as we play BS responses are allowed, provided you don’t get called on it; “No it is not Eustace Porthole, inventor of cabin windows on ships”
Indirect questions can be posed about lesser-known characters, and about those who do not fit the now-established profile of “Living, American, male, author”, etc.
That game is a lot easier to play than it sounds, and speeds along when you discover the name-chooser’s area of weakness. Mine would be Pop Stars of the last 20 years. I don’t know my pop stars from my Kardashians from my Rappers. Even kid players have their youthful advantage; I sure as heck don’t know my Pokémon or Yugioh characters, and young kids can beat the wizened Chooser out of a dozen direct questions on instantaneous Oh-heck-I-give-ups.
There is a lot of laughter in that game, and a lot of banter. “Dammit, Tweedledum starts with a T, not a D”
BTW, as the famous name chooser and answerer of indirect questions “Cassius Clay” is guaranteed to stump them for a long while.
And I still insist my “P” person was famous enough to qualify as a mystery guest; I think the question askers had established “Dead more than 20 years, less than 50 years, American, author and illustrator" and 50 other less significant facts or misleading tidbits. They somehow never got around to “naturalist” or “conservationist”. Or elicit “Cremated and ashes spread, buried and inurned in three different places”.
Who dat? It pays to know something about the name chooser’s background and interests.
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Brad has requested more family photos on the next tabletop. We have photo collages of each year’s family trips, mounted and frames stamped with the year, going back to when the boys were toddlers. 20 years worth of yearly trip photo collages that fill all of the available space on the basement/gear room walls.
P8193865 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
P8193863 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I do miss 35mm and double prints; one print for the year’s photo album, one for the (no need to crack open a photo album) yearly collages.
Brad has also requested something in a larger size
We have a variety of portable sawhorse-supported tabletops, from full 4x8 plywood sheets painted in various crude designs to more easily solo hand portable 2x8 plywood sheets, all stiffen reinforced underneath, and use them frequently for parties and gatherings, and in the shop as an easy extra benches.
P8073852 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I use the slender 2x8 all the time; I can carry into the shop with one hand and is perfectly sized to cover with newspaper for paint or epoxy work.
P8073853 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
But we don’t have a family trip photo tabletop. As you wish Brad, but I don’t think I’ll be paddling in with this one.
I long ago used the best of the 35mm double prints on the yearly collages, but we also have a 10 year collection of old photo calendars, some from more recent digital photography. Every year we make a family calendar (3 copies) using photos from the past year’s trips.
I saved the all of the old calendars. The calendar photos are large glossy color prints on thick card stock, and I have 100+ different enlargements to choose from.
P8313878 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
A little measuring and sizing, a little paper cutter action, some Super-77 spray and I had a tabletop collage of family trips through the years.
P8183859 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Atop the photos as a protective layer, two coats of epoxy resin and four coats of spar urethane. Next time I do urethane work I may roll and tip another coat or two, until it has some bartop depth to it.
Epoxied and urethaned, and dressed up identical to the DIY “frames” on the family photo collages; wood corner molding perimeter with brass screws and corner caps. I couldn’t find brass corner caps that large and had to vinegar bath, primer and paint steel ones (screw heads too).
P8313879 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
P9023893 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Sorry that took so long Brad. What would you like to request next?
P8193865 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrP8193863 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI do miss 35mm and double prints; one print for the year’s photo album, one for the (no need to crack open a photo album) yearly collages.
Brad has also requested something in a larger size
Brad has some good ideas.
We have a variety of portable sawhorse-supported tabletops, from full 4x8 plywood sheets painted in various crude designs to more easily solo hand portable 2x8 plywood sheets, all stiffen reinforced underneath, and use them frequently for parties and gatherings, and in the shop as an easy extra benches.
P8073852 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI use the slender 2x8 all the time; I can carry into the shop with one hand and is perfectly sized to cover with newspaper for paint or epoxy work.
P8073853 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrBut we don’t have a family trip photo tabletop. As you wish Brad, but I don’t think I’ll be paddling in with this one.
I long ago used the best of the 35mm double prints on the yearly collages, but we also have a 10 year collection of old photo calendars, some from more recent digital photography. Every year we make a family calendar (3 copies) using photos from the past year’s trips.
I saved the all of the old calendars. The calendar photos are large glossy color prints on thick card stock, and I have 100+ different enlargements to choose from.
P8313878 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrA little measuring and sizing, a little paper cutter action, some Super-77 spray and I had a tabletop collage of family trips through the years.
P8183859 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrAtop the photos as a protective layer, two coats of epoxy resin and four coats of spar urethane. Next time I do urethane work I may roll and tip another coat or two, until it has some bartop depth to it.
Epoxied and urethaned, and dressed up identical to the DIY “frames” on the family photo collages; wood corner molding perimeter with brass screws and corner caps. I couldn’t find brass corner caps that large and had to vinegar bath, primer and paint steel ones (screw heads too).
P8313879 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrP9023893 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrSorry that took so long Brad. What would you like to request next?
Well, in this once burned twice shy kind of world I'm a little leery to congratulate you on your family's many fun adventures, if in fact they are your family and not paparazzi pics of the Queen of Monaco's summer vacation. But I doubt even she and her fam know how to have that much fun.
I first came across the post card type of photo display on the walls of a friend's home. I was impressed by all the candid photos stuffed into frames. She explained "We'd never look at them shoved into photo albums. Here on the walls I enjoy them every day, and the memories endure." Ah. I like that. Trouble is I either shoot no photos or too many. Can one have too many? Too many memories? My photo cache in our computer stores a couple thousand of them, and counting. Only this weekend I downloaded wedding photos from the summer. I kept it to a modest fifty or so. Or so. So many photos, so many memories, so much plywood and varnish. lol. I really like your idea though. And the lightweight option for these tables has lit that dim bulb so often burned out in my cranial attic. Saw horses rather than heavy fugly folding leg contraptions. Another light bulb moment.
I too miss the old SLR days, and continue to pause beside every second hand camera and lens on dusty flea market shelves wondering "Maybe I should buy this, now that I have room for a darkroom." The darkroom was where the other half of the techno-magic happened. Nowadays it's digital hocus pocus to me, but I do love the instant gratification from this modern marvel, hundreds of pics and storage for them all. Just need more plywood and varnish.
So I guess the snooker table has been put off till winter? That's okay. But since you ask about my next request I was also thinking about a shuffle board. Ever spend a few lost hours in a bar sprinkling fine saw dust on the hardwood slabs and squinting down table at that slim margin of big points and big disappointment? I'm certain you could put one of these together in your sleep. And saw dust must be in ample supply around your shop. You'd have fun with the graphics necessary for the project. I'm talking the table top kind of course. https://www.google.ca/search?q=shuff...w=1280&bih=615
ps Many thanks for the laminated lightweight table top ideas. I now have some projects to be completed in time for the big Christmas gatherings. And perhaps card table sized gifts? Oooh, I'm gonna be busy.
pps Have we already talked about shuffle boards, maybe on another thread? My apologies if so.
I first came across the post card type of photo display on the walls of a friend's home. I was impressed by all the candid photos stuffed into frames. She explained "We'd never look at them shoved into photo albums. Here on the walls I enjoy them every day, and the memories endure." Ah. I like that. Trouble is I either shoot no photos or too many. Can one have too many? Too many memories? My photo cache in our computer stores a couple thousand of them, and counting. Only this weekend I downloaded wedding photos from the summer. I kept it to a modest fifty or so. Or so. So many photos, so many memories, so much plywood and varnish. lol. I really like your idea though. And the lightweight option for these tables has lit that dim bulb so often burned out in my cranial attic. Saw horses rather than heavy fugly folding leg contraptions. Another light bulb moment.
I too miss the old SLR days, and continue to pause beside every second hand camera and lens on dusty flea market shelves wondering "Maybe I should buy this, now that I have room for a darkroom." The darkroom was where the other half of the techno-magic happened. Nowadays it's digital hocus pocus to me, but I do love the instant gratification from this modern marvel, hundreds of pics and storage for them all. Just need more plywood and varnish.
So I guess the snooker table has been put off till winter? That's okay. But since you ask about my next request I was also thinking about a shuffle board. Ever spend a few lost hours in a bar sprinkling fine saw dust on the hardwood slabs and squinting down table at that slim margin of big points and big disappointment? I'm certain you could put one of these together in your sleep. And saw dust must be in ample supply around your shop. You'd have fun with the graphics necessary for the project. I'm talking the table top kind of course. https://www.google.ca/search?q=shuff...w=1280&bih=615
ps Many thanks for the laminated lightweight table top ideas. I now have some projects to be completed in time for the big Christmas gatherings. And perhaps card table sized gifts? Oooh, I'm gonna be busy.
pps Have we already talked about shuffle boards, maybe on another thread? My apologies if so.
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I absolutely agree about framed photos vs photo albums. We rarely look through our photo albums, but we have framed enlargements of some best-of photos on walls throughout the house. The yearly collages are somewhat inelegant and relegated to the basement gear room display.
The sawhorse tabletops see a lot of use, and some are sized/built for specific purposes. Gear staging surface, ping pong table, extra dinner tables when we seat 30+ for Thanksgiving, extra benchtop in the shop. One of them is sized to fit in the back of the E-150 van as a bed surface with the rear bench seat removed (with the seat removed the tall metal seat brackets on the floor preclude sleeping there without a platform). It even has an attachable headboard to segregate the bed platform from the area under the middle bench seat.
A couple sets of sawhorses were made with the crossbar at 29 inches high, so when the tops are in place the dinner table is at proper feasting height and our chins aren’t resting on the surface.
By far the handiest of those portable tabletops is the 2 x 8 half sheet of plywood. I originally made two of those (1 full sheet of plywood ripped in half) and the second one became a raised sleeping platform in the back of a friend’s van.
The other 2 x 8 is in use in the shop again today. I have some large custom-cut pieces of minicel exercise floor undergoing contact cement work; since newspaper sheets are 25 inches wide it is easy to lay down paper for wet work.
Ah, shuffleboard. In my early twenties a particularly frugal domicile (a 12 foot wide row house, shared with four roommates and two German Shepherds) had one extravagance, a real shuffleboard table in the basement. That thing weighed a ton. Or maybe half a ton; it took 8 of us to move it in and we had to take out a basement window and build some rigging to get it inside.
Luckily it wasn’t mine, and I moved out before it had to be removed.
This year’s photo calendar will be something different. My wife has 6 siblings, all still very close (see 30+ for Thanksgiving). I co-opted one sister on a secret calendar mission and she sent me copies of childhood photos of them as kids. I chose the most awkward or embarrassing photos for the 2018 calendar(s).
Augmenting the photo calendar I have printed all of their birthdays and anniversaries (including nieces, nephews and grand-whatevers) on transparent labels to apply to the appropriate calendar squares.
The box of Avery transparent printer labels wasn’t cheap, and seven copies of the photo calendar will be a little pricey, but it will be worth it to sit back and watch when I distribute them at Thanksgiving. It has been a while since most of them saw those photos, and their kids/grandkids have never seen them.
They are a loud bunch when they get together, with great laughs, and I am anticipating quite an uproar.
EDIT: If you are thinking card table sized as gifts those folding plastic “sawhorses” work well (the ones under the purple 2 x 8). They have a 27 inch wide crossbar, 30 inches tall. For folks who do not have storage space for wood sawhorses they are an ideal solution.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Heavy-Duty-27-3-in-Folding-Sawhorse-2-Pack-226862/206463891
For real shop work I prefer stout DIY wood sawhorses, but for portability and light work those folding Husky’s are hard to beat.
The sawhorse tabletops see a lot of use, and some are sized/built for specific purposes. Gear staging surface, ping pong table, extra dinner tables when we seat 30+ for Thanksgiving, extra benchtop in the shop. One of them is sized to fit in the back of the E-150 van as a bed surface with the rear bench seat removed (with the seat removed the tall metal seat brackets on the floor preclude sleeping there without a platform). It even has an attachable headboard to segregate the bed platform from the area under the middle bench seat.
A couple sets of sawhorses were made with the crossbar at 29 inches high, so when the tops are in place the dinner table is at proper feasting height and our chins aren’t resting on the surface.
By far the handiest of those portable tabletops is the 2 x 8 half sheet of plywood. I originally made two of those (1 full sheet of plywood ripped in half) and the second one became a raised sleeping platform in the back of a friend’s van.
The other 2 x 8 is in use in the shop again today. I have some large custom-cut pieces of minicel exercise floor undergoing contact cement work; since newspaper sheets are 25 inches wide it is easy to lay down paper for wet work.
Ah, shuffleboard. In my early twenties a particularly frugal domicile (a 12 foot wide row house, shared with four roommates and two German Shepherds) had one extravagance, a real shuffleboard table in the basement. That thing weighed a ton. Or maybe half a ton; it took 8 of us to move it in and we had to take out a basement window and build some rigging to get it inside.
Luckily it wasn’t mine, and I moved out before it had to be removed.
This year’s photo calendar will be something different. My wife has 6 siblings, all still very close (see 30+ for Thanksgiving). I co-opted one sister on a secret calendar mission and she sent me copies of childhood photos of them as kids. I chose the most awkward or embarrassing photos for the 2018 calendar(s).
Augmenting the photo calendar I have printed all of their birthdays and anniversaries (including nieces, nephews and grand-whatevers) on transparent labels to apply to the appropriate calendar squares.
The box of Avery transparent printer labels wasn’t cheap, and seven copies of the photo calendar will be a little pricey, but it will be worth it to sit back and watch when I distribute them at Thanksgiving. It has been a while since most of them saw those photos, and their kids/grandkids have never seen them.
They are a loud bunch when they get together, with great laughs, and I am anticipating quite an uproar.
EDIT: If you are thinking card table sized as gifts those folding plastic “sawhorses” work well (the ones under the purple 2 x 8). They have a 27 inch wide crossbar, 30 inches tall. For folks who do not have storage space for wood sawhorses they are an ideal solution.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Heavy-Duty-27-3-in-Folding-Sawhorse-2-Pack-226862/206463891
For real shop work I prefer stout DIY wood sawhorses, but for portability and light work those folding Husky’s are hard to beat.
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A blue barrel folding table top success story.
The distribution of the folding tabletops has been great fun. The best of which was friend Ed’s sheer overabundance of delight. That top coincidentally fit both his 60L barrel and his 20L Curtec wide neck drum.
The overabundance of delight was in part memories; he wistfully related that his college frat house had checkerboards on every horizontal surface. Most delight was in current pride; he showed it to everyone. Repeatedly, “Look at my cool tabletop”, “Yes, Ed, you already showed me a couple of times”.
More prideful, and funnier, he shared it non-stop as a side table from drinks and food. Every few hours he would take everything off and carefully wipe the surface of drips and dribbles.
Hey Ed, it’s not a Gustav Stickley original. And it has two coats of epoxy and multiple coats of spar urethane. Let it be.
I scavenged enough folding chair arm rest cup holders for use in the next series of folding blue barrel tabletops, Mark VI models with cup holders and Caroms/mini-billiards pockets.
Mark VI production this winter. I’ll need to find out what sized barrel Brad has, and how to get one to him.
The distribution of the folding tabletops has been great fun. The best of which was friend Ed’s sheer overabundance of delight. That top coincidentally fit both his 60L barrel and his 20L Curtec wide neck drum.
The overabundance of delight was in part memories; he wistfully related that his college frat house had checkerboards on every horizontal surface. Most delight was in current pride; he showed it to everyone. Repeatedly, “Look at my cool tabletop”, “Yes, Ed, you already showed me a couple of times”.
More prideful, and funnier, he shared it non-stop as a side table from drinks and food. Every few hours he would take everything off and carefully wipe the surface of drips and dribbles.
Hey Ed, it’s not a Gustav Stickley original. And it has two coats of epoxy and multiple coats of spar urethane. Let it be.
I scavenged enough folding chair arm rest cup holders for use in the next series of folding blue barrel tabletops, Mark VI models with cup holders and Caroms/mini-billiards pockets.
Mark VI production this winter. I’ll need to find out what sized barrel Brad has, and how to get one to him.
I see custom coasters in Ed's future.
If only...I'd saved the birch log coasters made and used (and thrown in the fire wood pile) from a family wedding this past summer.
Any type of sizeable branch at hand might do, sliced as thin as needed and multi-clear-coated with whatever might do.
And then there ya go Ed, be as fussy as ya wanna be. I don't recommend doilies though.
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Thanks for the idea. I will make custom coasters for Ed. And they will have doilies epoxied to the bottom. Ed has received some, uh, peculiar variations of past shop trinkets.
On the last production run of minicel-donut-on-wood-base beverage stabilizers Ed got a custom model. Let’s call it, um, a stubby bulb thermometer shape. Engorged and well endowed. The endowment part was custom cut outs along the shaft for an ashtray and a Bic lighter.
Stopping at a Walmart before that trip I found a mini spray bottle of “Sexy Thang” perfume that fit the lighter slot perfectly. Yeah, yeah, what I was I doing in the perfume aisle. . . . . .
One morning mid-trip Ed found that his Bic lighter had been replaced with “Sexy Thang” spray perfume. I, and everyone else, denied any knowledge, and had him convinced that some anonymous MILF on the trip was sending him signals.
Eventually he and another companion ended up in a wrestling match, grappling over the spray can, liberally spritzing each other with ghetto-scented Sexy Thang as they rolled in the dirt. They stunk for the rest of the trip, even at a distance.
Shoulda hosed them down good and muddy; and sold tickets.
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Well I ain't Brad, but that looks like a few tables worth of can holders you got there!
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