Building the LONG SIDE arm rests for the main table.

For this post we will focus on the two LONG SIDE Arm rests that sit within the gaming table. Arm rests, at least that's what I call them, serve dual purposes; they give you an area to rest your elbows or forearms while you play your games AND they help maintain different sized gaming play areas.  

When playing a long or involved game we all know how tiresome it can be to either wait for your opponent to make a move or go through AP and decide upon your own move. When you have a gaming table that only has a narrow table edge to lean against or rest your forearms on, it can be very uncomfortable.  I wanted to remedy this by adding removable arm rest that have a 5" wide surface area. This, plus  the 1" table border, will give you 6" of rest area, which is plenty of surface area to rest your forearms on and still provide enough gaming area to play most long games.  The added bonus of making them removable was so you could play on the entire playing area of the gaming table 48" x 39" when all the arm rests were removed!

Here are the number of configurable play areas with the arm rests installed and then removed section by section.

Gaming surface areas:

1.  48" x 39" when all arm rests are removed from the gaming table.

2.  48" x 28" when only the LONG side arm rests are added.

3.  38" x 28" when both the LONG and the SHORT side arm rests are added.

Even at the smallest gaming surface area you can play a large number of games with their game boards.

Now that we know what we're using the arm rests for, let's build them!

Use your Maple stock on hand that is at least 5-1/2" wide because the arm rests will be 5" in width.  We are going to cut the LONG side arm rests first so you'll need material that is at least 49" long.

CRITICAL: It's critical that you use stock that is as flat and straight as possible!  You don't want to use any wood that has any kind of warp, twist or bend which can show up on the arm rests and produce uneven gaps or edges.

Rip cut the first two pieces at 5" wide that are a little over 49" in length for each piece. When you have these two pieces cut take the exact inside measurement of the LONG SIDE of the gaming table and cross cut these two board to just under 1/16" less than the exact measurement of the inside gap.  

Make sure you cross-cut one end of the arm rest pieces first before you cut to size so you get a nice 90 degree starting edge. 

Example: Since the measurement of the inside of LONG side of the table is 48", you should have two LONG SIDE arm rest boards cut to a length of 47 - 15/16" length.  This 1/16" gap, which you could make even smaller by trying a 1/24" gap, which is enough to allow for expansion of the wood when it sits inside the table area.  You really only have to worry about wood expansion if you live in an area that is very humid and the wood you get has not been dried out completely.  In this case, expansion can be sever and wood can expand up to 2/16" in some cases.  Use your best judgement when compensating for the gap because it would be bad if your arm rest expands and you end up not being able to remove it from the table!!

Now go ahead and cut the two arm rest pieces to the length indicated above for your arm rests.

With the initial LONG SIDE arm rest boards cut to size, we need to cut the [2] support pieces for each arm rest.  To get the correct measurement for the support pieces make sure you have all the planks installed around the gaming board.  Then measure the thickness of the arm rest pieces.

NOTE:  When you get 4/4 lumber it is normally around 14/16" thick and would be planed down to 3/4" thick.  On my table I wanted to simulate people not having a planer and left the wood at it original thickness so that is what I had as my starting thickness for the arm rests.  So, to get the height of the support pieces you will take the thickness measurement of the arm rest, which in this case is 14/16", then take the height measurement from the top of the plank to the top edge of the table.  Subtract the thickness of the arm rest piece from this height and you are left with the height of the support pieces!  

Below you can see the actual height measurement I set on my table saw to cut the support pieces for each arm rest [2 - 10/16" high]!

With this measurement set on the table saw, go ahead and rip-cut the four support pieces "2 per arm rest"!

Like we did with the arm rests previously, make sure you cross-cut one end of the support pieces to get a nice 90 degree edge.  Then go ahead and cut these four pieces to the same length as you made for the arm rests.

In the image below you can see all the necessary pieces for the LONG SIDE arm rests.

Below shows the arm rests "pieces" temporarily installed to check for height and length accuracy.  If it is hard to get the arm rests out of the table then they are too long and you should trim them down by 1/32" increments until they can be removed smoothly!

CRITICAL: Make sure you don't trim off too much are you will have an unsightly gap at one edge or both edges of your arm rest.  This will just end up taking away from the beauty of the table!

Here you can see the arm rests temporarily installed along with the gaming board.  You'll also notice that the planks were set high enough where the arm rest support pieces never rest on the actual gaming board cloth so as to crease or dent it!

Below are where the actual support pieces would sit for the actual arm rests.

Now that we have the LONG SIDE arm rests completed, let's cut the SHORT SIDE arm rests. You'll be following the same steps above to create the SHORT SIDE arm rests as you did for the LONG SIDE arm rests!

If everything looks and fits perfectly let's go ahead and attach the support pieces to the arm rest pieces!

Since I don't want to glue all these pieces together because it allows for changes I may want to make in the future, let's go ahead and use the KREG pocket hole jig to attached the support pieces to the arm rest pieces.  As we've seen previously, you can get a strong, accurately aligned joint by using the KREG system so that's what I plan on doing.  This also saves time since you won't be gluing anything and having to deal with any mess or wait for the glue to dry!

Let's begin with the LONG side arm rests first.  Since the LONG side is almost 48" long, I wanted [4] secure points on the support piece to join with the arm rest piece.  Make a pencil mark that is 2" from both ends of the piece and drill the first two holes. 

NOTE:  Do this on all four support boards at the same time!

Then make two more pencil marks that are 17" from both ends and drill these two holes on all four support pieces.  These will be the inner secure points.

Once all the holes have been drilled on all four support pieces, let's secure the INNER support piece first to the LONG side arm rest.  

The INNER support piece is the piece that will be closest to the inside edge of the table. As you can see below in the photo, we don't want this support piece secured exactly at the same edge of the arm rest because we only want the arm rest piece resting against the table edge.  

NOTE:  Notice the small 1/16" gap between the arm rest edge and the face of the INNER support piece.

We want a clean, tight connect with only the arm rest to the inner table edge!

CRITICAL:  Make sure you use a clamp right next to where you will be placing the screw to keep the boards flat against each other and stop them from separating while you screw them together.

Below is the INNER support piece screwed down and secured to the LONG side arm rest!

Let's move onto the OUTER support piece and drill the same holes as you did on the INNER support piece.  Go ahead and use the same measurements as before:  2" and 17" from the ends.

In the case of the OUTER support piece, we'll want this piece secured flush with the arm rest piece as shown below.  This will be the side where we add another support piece that is used to hold the table inner leafs.  So we will eventually be using another 1/2" thick piece that will rest against the arm rests to hold the three leaf sections.

CRITICAL: When you screw in the KREG screws be careful not to OVER tighten them too tight because you can shear the head and break the screw, leaving you with a screw you can't remove!

Below you can see one of the finished long side ARM RESTS!  You can glue these pieces together if you want but it's unnecessary when you use KREG screws since they create a strong, secure fit.  Plus you can take it apart later if you want and add the 1" thick piece to the front of the arm rest.  This is the piece that will hold the leafs.

Below are the two LONG SIDE ARM RESTS placed in the gaming table and ready for sanding.  Don't sand the arm rests now, that will be done with the entire table in a separate post covering finishing and sanding!

  

In the next post I will cover making the SHORT SIDE arm rests so see you then!