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Ok so I've seen all these cool gaming tables and I decided it's time to try building one. Now I have virtually no experience with this stuff. Over the years ivI' purchased the tools at yard sales or discounts etc so I have those but I've never really used them. Time to fix that.
O thought I'd start with something easy. Take a 40" HD LCD TV and wrap it in a wood case. Sounds simple. Just remove the plastic from the TV, cut a few 45 degree mitres and glue/nail it together. What could go wrong? Well first it really helps if you have properly aligned your mitre saw.
A mitre cut is just an angled cut. In my case I'm taking a 1" x 6" board laying it on the wide part and cutting a 45 degree angle into it. Easy peasy. Now if you want it to fit together make sure it makes straight cuts at 90 degrees or you get what I have which is 45 degree cuts that are just slightly not perpendicular to the flat of the board. That's great if you want to make a funky trapazoidal box I guess but what it left me with is big gaps because the wood couldn't squeeze the metal tv frame so it could mate up approximately nicely. Oh well I have a lot of nails and this is just my prototype. Ok next time tune of the saw to cut straight or get a new saw. This ones from Harbor Freight which is basically like saying it's from the back if a truck I China made by the cheapest factory in China. I think you can guess the quality.
Ok we have something like a box. It almost looks pretty from a few feet or a few beers away. Now I want the tv to rest level with the box. That could be tricky because I'm not 100% sure the box is level but I put the tv face down on a flat surface, put the box around it and cut a few support pieces to keep the the from falling when I flip it over. This went on without a hitch. Now it would be nice if I could tilt the tv and frame without the tv falling out. Also I want everything to be flat up top so no clips or trim up top to hold it in. Why you might ask. Because I have to put something clear over the top of the tv to keep the LCD from getting scratches but every millimeter beyond zero leaves a gap between the LCD and anything resting on the clear surface.
I want to use this for either playing face to face RPGs using Fantasy Grounds somehow projected on to the TV. If a miniature is placed on the above mentioned clear surface it floating above the map on the TV. This is a problem because if you look at it from an angle it makes it hard to see where the mini actually is. So getting as close as possible to zero is good.
I also want to be able to use this for projecting Vassal games on the TV. Vassel is a fairly universal program for playing board games. It's almost the opposite of FG in that it for most games does no automation and or rules enforcement. But it's good.
So back to how to keep the tv falling out. This particular old LCD TV has what turn out to be great recessed mounting holes in the corners. I just cut some blocks to go in back and scew it into the blocks. That was nice.
Ok now I have some cord management issues. Ultimately this is less of an issue if I put this into the table vs on top since it's all hidden. Right now I'm dealing with a power cord, a Chromecast power cord and a Fire stick power cord. The Chromecast is because to turns out I can cast my desktop to TV. What I'll probably do here is have a laptop set up as a player casting it's desktop to the tv and a separate laptop running as GM.
So to have the tv w case lay flat I drill a hole slightly larger than the power cord plug and run it through. Then I have some old cord friendly staples I can use to route the cords.
Last but not least I need to be able to turn on the TV. I got the crappy cheap route and just mount the IR sensor behind the hole for the power cables. It's awkward but I don't expect to do much beyond turn on and off the TV so it's not a big deal.
Here's some pics of the result.
O thought I'd start with something easy. Take a 40" HD LCD TV and wrap it in a wood case. Sounds simple. Just remove the plastic from the TV, cut a few 45 degree mitres and glue/nail it together. What could go wrong? Well first it really helps if you have properly aligned your mitre saw.
A mitre cut is just an angled cut. In my case I'm taking a 1" x 6" board laying it on the wide part and cutting a 45 degree angle into it. Easy peasy. Now if you want it to fit together make sure it makes straight cuts at 90 degrees or you get what I have which is 45 degree cuts that are just slightly not perpendicular to the flat of the board. That's great if you want to make a funky trapazoidal box I guess but what it left me with is big gaps because the wood couldn't squeeze the metal tv frame so it could mate up approximately nicely. Oh well I have a lot of nails and this is just my prototype. Ok next time tune of the saw to cut straight or get a new saw. This ones from Harbor Freight which is basically like saying it's from the back if a truck I China made by the cheapest factory in China. I think you can guess the quality.
Ok we have something like a box. It almost looks pretty from a few feet or a few beers away. Now I want the tv to rest level with the box. That could be tricky because I'm not 100% sure the box is level but I put the tv face down on a flat surface, put the box around it and cut a few support pieces to keep the the from falling when I flip it over. This went on without a hitch. Now it would be nice if I could tilt the tv and frame without the tv falling out. Also I want everything to be flat up top so no clips or trim up top to hold it in. Why you might ask. Because I have to put something clear over the top of the tv to keep the LCD from getting scratches but every millimeter beyond zero leaves a gap between the LCD and anything resting on the clear surface.
I want to use this for either playing face to face RPGs using Fantasy Grounds somehow projected on to the TV. If a miniature is placed on the above mentioned clear surface it floating above the map on the TV. This is a problem because if you look at it from an angle it makes it hard to see where the mini actually is. So getting as close as possible to zero is good.
I also want to be able to use this for projecting Vassal games on the TV. Vassel is a fairly universal program for playing board games. It's almost the opposite of FG in that it for most games does no automation and or rules enforcement. But it's good.
So back to how to keep the tv falling out. This particular old LCD TV has what turn out to be great recessed mounting holes in the corners. I just cut some blocks to go in back and scew it into the blocks. That was nice.
Ok now I have some cord management issues. Ultimately this is less of an issue if I put this into the table vs on top since it's all hidden. Right now I'm dealing with a power cord, a Chromecast power cord and a Fire stick power cord. The Chromecast is because to turns out I can cast my desktop to TV. What I'll probably do here is have a laptop set up as a player casting it's desktop to the tv and a separate laptop running as GM.
So to have the tv w case lay flat I drill a hole slightly larger than the power cord plug and run it through. Then I have some old cord friendly staples I can use to route the cords.
Last but not least I need to be able to turn on the TV. I got the crappy cheap route and just mount the IR sensor behind the hole for the power cables. It's awkward but I don't expect to do much beyond turn on and off the TV so it's not a big deal.
Here's some pics of the result.
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