The $8,500 Gaming Table You Want

Recently I stumbled upon The Sultan Gaming Table. With a price tag of over $8K, it would have to be awesome: but it has little compartments for the players and DM as well as a drop-down playing surface. If you find the pricetag daunting then you are a sane person, and might instead want to look at the Emissary which starts at a "mere" $1,500 and has many of the same features. Honestly I just love the idea of having my minis on a playing surface underneath the dinner table. I ought to be allowed to expense one of these. I also wish they had more pictures and fewer renderings on the site.

Re:It's Just A Table

[Pojut]

Indeed.

I'm doing the same thing with a desk. I've been thinking about getting a tricked-out Ikea Galant setup, but figured out I could build something similar for about 1/4th the cost. When possible, do it yourself...this applies to just about anything. Costs less, you can get EXACTLY what you want, and you get the satisfaction of a job well done.

Re:It's Just A Table

[vlm]

Tell your friend you have a sheet of MDF or something and that you need to make some cuts with a table saw

The "real thing" is made out of hardwoods instead of particle board. Next time you visit Home Depot or whatever, check the price of some nice chunks of oak. Also realize hardwoods are more expensive/difficult to work with... Given a hammer to start it, large pieces of cheapass pine darn near allow self tapping screws, whereas oak is so tough you'll practically need a metalworking tap set to screw it together.

Leading to my anecdote of the day, last week I was trying to build some model-RR stuff using some Oak (long story why I selected oak). So, a dull made in China home depot drill bit gets hot, seizes in the hole, and twists clean off. It was a shear fracture in a drill press not a "I bent it using my handheld drill". Well OK use the next smallest drill, a 1/32 smaller for pilot holes. Install a cheap made in China home depot screw, its getting a bit tight in there, twist IT off in the hole. Not sure if I should be swearing at China, home depot, or myself, or all three! Thats what you have to look forward to, when working with hardwoods. Now, working in cheapass pine or particle board, you can practically install screws with a hammer, I've seen illegals do that with deck screws, as long as you're careful not to split the wood.

And you'll get a good story out of it.

"So, I rolled a 2d10 to see how many appendages I chopped off, with no saving throw"

A table saw is probably the most dangerous large wood power tool the average person can buy, with the exception of a radial arm saw (are those even sold anymore?). Although it depends how you want to look at it. A jointer table probably won't remove your entire arm and its probably impossible to hurt your leg unless you're really doin it wrong, but it'll take off fingers. On the other hand a table saw is extraordinarily effective at hand and finger amputation. Then theres stuff thats only dangerous when you do something blatantly stupid rather than just bad luck, like stand in the line of fire when running wood thru a planer that occasionally catches and throws the board, although supposedly "that never happens anymore" due to safety stuff. Yeah whatever.

Re:News?

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Agreed. My dad bought a non-gaming table of similar quality (some absurdly expensive very dark colored hardwood, 100% dry fitted, no glue or screws involved). He was kind of sheepish at the splurge; all I could get out of him is that it cost well over a thousand, but less than ten thousand. The additional complexity of building the Sultan to be stable while dry fitted despite the large number of parts, several of which are intended to move would require even tighter tolerances and justify a fairly high price.