Turning the Tables...

A long awaited project has finally been completed today- the rickety old table tennis table has been given a new lease of life! Not only that, but the even older more knackered tops that were slowly turning to dust in the sports hall store are also now a fully functional table tennis table! And how was this miraculous transformation to take place? Through 2 days of hard work, sweat and blood, but worth every second. They were in a pretty sorry state when we started...( a previous fix up attempt had involved screwing the tops in from the bottom up...with long screws and then angle grinding the protruding ends off and gouging chunks out of the table top)...

We started by taking the top off the old fold up table in the sports hall. If anybody reading this is considering buying a fold up aluminium framed table for a high usage situation like a campsite, my recommendation would be- think again! They don't last!

Then we had a chat and decided to go industrial, heavy duty, one time. Solid pine frame, none of this pansy fold up business- once these things were in place- they were there to stay! Next tip for any would-be furniture designers/refurbishers, stick to standard lengths of timber- it will make the job go a lot faster if you only have to cut 3 pieces of wood instead of 57 (it will also work out cheaper)! So we made a simple but sturdy pine frame, pretty much like a pine dinner table 2.4m x 1.2m.

What followed was 10 minutes of grunting, sparewords and frustration as I tried to centre the tops on the frame. Walking around one side measuring, walking to the other side adjusting, back to the other side, too far, adjusting...and so on and so on! This complete, we measured in from the sides to the frame underneath, marked, drilled and counter sunk screw holes to go into the frame.

And then filled all the holes and gouge marks with wood filler, then sanded them off. This will never give a perfect finish but it was a sight better than the state the tables were in before!

After this, we needed a way to stop the chipboard edges from crumbling away to nothing so we glued and nailed strips of half round all around the edges. This should help them last longer when they are no doubt bumped and scraped around the place. unfortunately this did leave a couple of gaping holes where the edge of the table was round and the edging was well...not. So we applied generous amounts of expanding foam which, by its very nature, just kept getting more generous, which we later cut and sanded.

A couple of coats of paint and we were 90% finished. We used normal vinyl house paint (left over from the climbing wall project) with a view to lacquering it later on for durability. Once this was dry (very quickly in the African sun) I measured and masked out the white edging and centre lines and used some white enamel to paint the in.

Then after a Titanic effort, Shaun and I manhandled the table up to the UPSTAIRS hall, barely fitting through the door, and pulling various muscles! But there it now stands, already used by our international guests!