Making a beer pong table

For my of age friends a 'course. I know some of you know tables, and beer pong, and have ideas so let's hear a few.

But first to the basics: Dimensions. 8' long is the usual correct? and I think 2' long is like "pro" but I don't think that leaves much room for variations or for fun games (i.e. more cups) So what do you think, 3', 4' wide, 5' pushing it?

Then there is the next step. Materials. What would be a good top to use, frosted glass? regular glass, or just some wood? Any other ideas?

I am probably going to have the whole thing glowing, with clear cups and numerous parts in glow in the dark paint so a black light will be able to accent those parts, and give the room a sweet effect, along with making the balls give the "glowing" effect.

Few questions will glow show well through a frosted glass table?
Where can I get some frosted glass and how much?

Well let's hear some input so I can get down to business

Glow would look sweet under frosted glass.

I think Corvettecrazy did something similar to that.

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c2/corvettecrazy/Table/

cheapo ebay leds a few inches from the frosted glass. Definately pimp. and making it change color would be easy too.

Not helping, as I don't want to contribute to minors.

5 feet wide might be pushing it.

Build it out of wood, and then put a piece of frosted glass/plexiglass on the top with LEDs under that.

I want to do something similar but use bottle caps under some plastic.

Quote:

Not helping, as I don't want to contribute to minors.

Glad you shared that with us

It's for my of age friends Akenator, dUUUh.

Sounds good Tim, I thought 5 feet would be a little much. I am leaning on 4' wide as of now. I am hoping Moss can get in here and get away from his hatred toward me to help, since I know he is a pong man.

The_Mastor wrote:

For my of age friends a 'course. I know some of you know tables, and beer pong, and have ideas so let's hear a few. But first to the basics: Dimensions. 8' long is the usual correct? and I think 2' long is like "pro" but I don't think that leaves much room for variations or for fun games (i.e. more cups) So what do you think, 3', 4' wide, 5' pushing it?

8' is considered tourney length, most of the pre-made tables are 8 feet. Standard sheet of plywood is 8' making life easy if you got the wood route. Solo cup is 4 inches wide across the top. So if your table is 3 feet wide, it holds a back row of 9 cups which is a 45 cup game. People who play games with 100s of cups waste cups and drink warm beer. I always made my tables a yard wide.

The_Mastor wrote:

Then there is the next step. Materials. What would be a good top to use, frosted glass? regular glass, or just some wood? Any other ideas?

Glass is heavy and expensive. http://www.estreetplastics.com/ is a great source for plexiglass they have tinted and all kinds of thickness and sizes. I have seen tables that were plywood with glass shapes, circles which Estreet cuts, and what not dropped into the table, basically creating a shadow box type effect in the table. It's a pain in the ass to do with a router, securing it and keeping it sealed from funky beer spillage.

If you go with wood you can just use a quality 1/2 sheet of exterior plywood, obviously pick through the sheets and find a good piece. Use some quality hardwood as a runner to keep it from bowing and give it some strength. I built a table 2 years ago using some quality wood and it's been outdoors with some good paint on it, and it's outlasted some tables built this summer with crappy wood.

I assume you know not to use like window glass, it will break if you drop something, like a full beer onto it, or try to move it.

Home Depot sells folding legs to make your own folding table which is what a beer pong table is, just simply buy a set of those. Make sure to use some solid wood to attach them to the table, I screwed a set into a piece of plywood once and it was not too stable. I simply ran some of the same wood I used for rigidity and preventing bowing across the table and secured to that. They will look very short, but measure some normal tables, and you will realize how short tables really are, it's a weird perspective thing.

The_Mastor wrote:

I am probably going to have the whole thing glowing, with clear cups and numerous parts in glow in the dark paint so a black light will be able to accent those parts, and give the room a sweet effect, along with making the balls give the "glowing" effect.

Try not to have exposed lighting or large light surfaces, I play alot of night games and indoor games, and when drinking the lights will begin to bother people, they always think it's cool when they show up but an hour later they are trying to unplug it.

The_Mastor wrote:

Few questions will glow show well through a frosted glass table? Where can I get some frosted glass and how much? Well let's hear some input so I can get down to business

Call up your local glass shop, they will give you estimates, for a sheet of 4'x8'x1/4" plexi I was quotes a price from $200-350. I would go with the 25 dollar sheet of plywood and some inserts and what not.

My next table will be an all black table top with circles of plexi that glow different colors, the plexi will be tinted so it will not irritate the eyes.

I have built 6 tables and assisted on a bunch more, let me know if you need to fiqure anything out.

My current table which I love, that is not in storage is a PONG A LONG cost me $110 shipped, it folds up into a briefcase sizes and fold out to full size. Stable and easy to clean, I left it outside for like 3 weeks in the rain and sun and no problems. Only thing is the bounce is very limited due to the tables lightweight and the material the table top is made of.

^ See now that is an answer

I was thinking about that in the plans. The whole, cool when you walk in but hurting an hour in. I might have to steer away from lighting the crap out of it, to subtle, tasteful glow to set it off. First I need to get the table planned out and halfway done, then the customizing options and glow can start to fall into place.

I will contact some glass places and see what they come up with. I may resort to the wood route, since it would be a hell of a lot cheaper.

Thanks for the help and if anyone has any neat ideas just lay them out here, I would like to be exposed to some ideas that I can implement to this table, so don't be shy!

If you're in the market for doing the glass top with the glow, I'd fab it out of plywood and then make a 2"-3" riser that runs around the plywood and set the plexi on that.

Paint the plywood underneath either black or white....if you're going with frosted glass go white. Set your glow inside the plywood backed box that you have. The white and frosted plexi/glass will help distribute the glow, and the white will reflect the most color.

I would definitely wire in at least one switch in the side of that runner that goes around holding the glass up, you can have some running lights around the edge, and all the main lights controlled in some way that you can turn the major sections off when it starts to bother people without being in the dark. I would also mount your transformer that drops it to 12V inside that box and have a standard cord coming out to the wall....It will make things easier to plug in and move.

You could actually mount the tranny inside and use a panel-mount power cord plug so the cord you get can be removed from the wall and the table, as well as possibly stored in a small compartment somewhere on/inside the table.

Streetglow home adaptor rules for wiring neons and the likes into a table, small and easy to use.

If I were to make one, it would be out of plexiglass instead of frosted glass or w/e. Wouldn't have to worry as much about dumb ass drunks falling head first into it and smashing it to bits. Not as much anyway

How much are you trying to invest into the beer pong table?

I'd do plexi glass top, painted any color you'd like with a design of your choice left clear and the places for the cups left clear.. then I'd glow the cups and logo with million color strips.

the darker the color the more opaque it will be to the lighting. That's just me..

If you like frosted..do frosted plexi..
Still paintable and durable.
If you're in the hood use lexan
Can flip it over and hide behind in case of a driveby

the of age people will love this.......

I love beer pong.... and Aken, you're a party pooper.

Mine is 8 ft by 3ft half inch plywood, it makes it more managable when moving it around when it a foot less then 4ft.

If you are going to make it so u can carry it around and move it, stay away from glass, way to fooking heavy. Get plexi, itll still be a bit heavy.

sand the whole table down so its smoothe, then primer the whole thing, then paint it with flat pants, dont get gloss finish's, then do your uv ****. Make sure u put several coats of paint on at a time and lightly sand with very fine grit sand paper, thats when u do the base coats, detail work u just paint over and over. take your time, my table took me around 2 weeks total to paint. After that, buy a clear laquer, put several coats, atleast 3 coats, the more the better.

nice table lol but uh Sun Devils are going down next week just to let you know.....

SuBXeRo wrote:

Mine is 8 ft by 3ft half inch plywood, it makes it more managable when moving it around when it a foot less then 4ft. If you are going to make it so u can carry it around and move it, stay away from glass, way to fooking heavy. Get plexi, itll still be a bit heavy. sand the whole table down so its smoothe, then primer the whole thing, then paint it with flat pants, dont get gloss finish's, then do your uv ****. Make sure u put several coats of paint on at a time and lightly sand with very fine grit sand paper, thats when u do the base coats, detail work u just paint over and over. take your time, my table took me around 2 weeks total to paint. After that, buy a clear laquer, put several coats, atleast 3 coats, the more the better.

Not a fan of laquers, Benjamin Moore makes a paint/enamel that is killer. I have used it a bunch of times, if you want to do a bunch of diff colors or striping they sell little cans, it's pretty heavy duty stuff. I have done tables both ways, and SubXero's way of painting is equally as great. But if you are just painting a frame one color, two coats of the enamel would be ample.

i dont remember exactly what i used, but il take a look when i get home for thanksgiving and ill tell you, whatever i used has stood up phenomenonly well, adhered well, nice shine, and a good protectorent.

also i forgot to mention, if you are going to write on it, make stencils for it. i typed up **** on my comp, printed them, then put them on oak tag and cut the oak tag up using an exacto knife, alot of work, worth the hassel though, it should be a piece of artwork and you should be proud of what you produce