So I'm building a gaming table...

[dragonlordofpoondari]

My ultimate table would be ...

I used to know this guy who happened to be a mechanical engineer. For $20, he took a dry erase board and permanently etched a grid into it with some sort of micro saw or something. I don't know exactly how he did it but it came out beautifully. Then he cut the board in two and inlaid both pieces into two beautiful pieces of wood and attached them with a hinge turning the whole thing into a foldable chess-board type thing. The device is awesome for smaller encounters ... it's about 3 feet on each side when unfolded. Unfortunately, Marty is now lost to me. He quit his engineering job and decided to just travel around and live the hippy lifestyle for a while. He can probably be found at Burning Man every year, but I'm getting too old for that sillyness.

Anyway, the grid etching method is the most professional looking in my opinion. If you really wanted to do it right, I would find a large wooden table. Have a professional carve out the top so you could inlay two sheets. The bottom sheet would be whiteboard with etched in grid lines. On top of that you could have plexiglass. This way, if you are using a paper map, just slip it under the plexiglass and you can draw over top. If you relying on the grid lined white board, either draw on the plexi or directly onto the whiteboard. The ultimate would be to have a projector hanging from the ceiling too with a retractable laptop station by the DM.

Built in or carved out cupholders and dice trays would be pretty nice too.

 

[pawsplay]

Particle board and a wood burning kit works fine. Later, you can put a transparent overlay if you want to be able to draw on it.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

Just had another idea for you. You could buy a mondo mat from Chessex and put it under plexiglass, preferably inlaid if possible into the surface of the table. Mondomats are huge and would more than cover the size of most gaming tables! They normally run for $100 but they sell irregulars for $50. I bought an irregular and it is flawless. Not sure what's supposed to be irregular about the thing. Anyway, you could cut the mat to the size of the table.

EDIT: I just read the last sentence about doing it on the cheap. Nevermind.
As an alternative to an earlier idea ... maybe paint the whole thing white with high-gloss oil based paint (sanding between layers) and then carefully paint in the grid yourself onto the top using metal rulers as a guide (or you could use micro sharpies or pigma micron pens or other kinds of permenant markers for this too). Just be slow, careful, and methodical about it. Then you could go over the top with clear enamel. Then use wet erase markers over top to draw in encounter locations. This could be done on the cheap and could be very cool.

EDIT^2: Tablecloth for fine dining?

 

[frankthedm]

Cheap - Pegboard or other 1" grid with plastic or plexiglas on top of it.
Fancy - Tabletop with 1" or 2" mosiac tile as a surface. Plexiglass sheet on top or clear vinyl tablecloth.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Can't recall the name of the company, but there is firm that makes a Dry Erase board pre-grided. Have to see if I can find it again.

 

[frankthedm]

Here is a gif of the mosaic tile table idea

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Here is a gif of the mosaic tile table idea

I've thought of doing this - but making the mosaic inlay removable, so that you could put a nice tile inlay, or a more gamer friendly surface in there when needed.

 

[Catavarie]

I've thought of doing this - but making the mosaic inlay removable, so that you could put a nice tile inlay, or a more gamer friendly surface in there when needed.

Simply cover it with a clear coat epoxy finish. Has a smooth glossy finish and feels soft to the touch yet is hard as a rock.

 

[deltadave]

Last time I built a gaming table it was 4x8 1" plywood Painted with a couple of layers of magnetic paint (http://www.kling.com/magneticpaintindex.html), then a 4x8 sheet of one inch marked grid paper, to top it all off was a thick coat of clear spar varnish.

 

[dagger]

We have been using plexi with Grease Pencils (or China Markers)....no liquid needed. Comes off easy with dry paper towels.