Neal Stephenson has formulated the influence of pent up sexual desire on clarity of mind. So if you’re wondering why you can’t concentrate at work, school or anywhere else, I recommend Cryptonomicon to solve all your problems.
Blogged with Flock
I cut out the pieces that would make up the padded rails out of 3/4″ CDX (leftover scraps), and screwed them together. When screwing the lip onto the main padded rail piece, I had the main rail laying down inside to make sure it would all fit together when i put it on.
After getting it assembled, I made a trip to JoAnn fabrics to pick up foam and vinyl. If you ever have a question about fabric or upholstering, just ask those ladies that work there. They answered all my questions and were a great help in choosing the right materials. I couldn’t believe how excited they were to “help this nice young man with his project”. According to one lady, it is more fun to help the men that come in since they are doing the fun projects like poker tables, boat upholstering, bar rails, etc. In reality, I think she was just hitting on me.
Ended up getting 3 yards of Black Dakota Vinyl, and one sheet of 1″ HD foam. The only HD foam they had came in pieces about 24″ wide, so I ended up having to piece it together to cover the whole rail.
Got the vinyl stretched on, stapled, and trimmed on one side and then ran out of staples, so I still have one side to go.
Since I couldn’t do the other rail, I thought I would tackle cutting the mirror to fit for the inside stickman wall. Let’s just say that cutting a mirror is a bit more difficult than scoring and snapping a piece of drywall. I ended up breaking three mirrors before I gave that up for the night. I’m hoping that I can find a mirror that will fit if I just keep an eye out. If not, I’ll be taking a mirror down to the local glass shop to have them cut it. Three broken mirrors of bad luck is enough for me.
Apparently, it’s the Ha Ha Guy’s birthday.
Rejoice! Rejoice my friends and be happy. I can’t help but laugh at these images every time I see them. Next big birthday celebration…the O RLY? owl. Stay tuned!
Blogged with Flock
So, after an impulse purchase off of ebay, I think I’ve found my next project.
A blackjack table.
This layout was used in the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, and for being used in casino play, it is in really good shape. A couple tiny cigarette burns in the outer edge, but that’s it. No stains, no rips.
You can see what the original light blue was like where it was folded under the chip tray, so I am going to take it into a dry cleaners and see if they can do anything with it… even if they can’t, I’m happy with it the way it is.
I’ve got plenty of ideas of what I want to do with this, including putting it as the end of a bar in the basement to have a sort of bar/blackjack combo thing, but, this will all have to wait till I finish my craps table. And after I build a toy chest/shelf for my little girl, at the request of my wife, who has been most supportive and encouraging of me in my latest obsession to create a casino in my basement.
Finally took the plunge and started working on the actual craps layout playing surface. It was a bit nervewracking considering I didn’t really want to ruin a $110 layout and end up with a very expensive wall hanging.
In preperation, a few days back, I took a piece of 1/2″ OSB and cut out a shape that would exactly fit inside the “tub” when dropped in. You can see it in the background here:
It is that big piece of OSB standing vertically in the back, leaning against the wall. I had to make sure that it fit nice and snug when dropped in, so it took a few trimming cuts with the jigsaw to get everything with as little gap around the edge as possible when laid into the table. What I ended up with went from snug fitting to at most a 3/16″ gap.
I took that OSB and laid out the felt playing surface, getting it straight and centered as possible, and then folded the overhang around to the bottom and stapled. Flipped it over, cut the triangles out of the corners and made sure there was never any overlapping fabric. Cut off any excess cloth and dropped that sucker into the table. It fit like a glove. [insert witty OJ/Johnnie Cochran comment here] I cut a couple finger holes in the bottom of the table, so that if I ever want to take that layout out of the table, I can just push up from the bottom to be able to grab it.
Once the layout was in, I could put the pyramid rubber back into the ends. I decided to just tack them in with a few well placed finishing nails. You can hardly see them and they hold fine.
Then I started applying the self-stick vinyl tile to the dealer side of the inside of the craps table.
This was fairly simple and gave it a nice glossy black finish. Again, ignore the white lines in betweend tiles, as my poor photography has brought them out with a bad flash or something. In normal light you cannot see the tile seams, except at very extreme angles. I think I might go in and use a black magic marker and see if that hides those seams.
Next I think will be attempting to cover the stickman side of the inside table with a mirror. I have a cheap ($5) wall mirror that I am going to attempt to cut to fit. After that, I’ll be starting the padded rail, which will be a project in and of itslef. Other than that, all that is left is trim details on the base corners and edges and the trim to cover the seams in the upholstery.
I think there is a craps night at my house in the very near future.