New project!

It's almost fall! And so it's time to get back to work on another project to pass the winter with. I'm not quite ready to reveal all the details just yet, so I'll tease you with clues instead.

All I gotta say is this thing is gonne be sweet when it's finished - but it's gonna be costly too - so I'm starting out shilling on Amazon again this year to bring in the big bucks.  Once completed this project will give me something I have wanted ever since I was a young boy.  Ya'll need to start buying stuff so get to clicking and make my inner child's dream come true..

 So here it is... other things I wanted as a kid..

Vendor Spotlight: Casinosupply.com

Casinosupply.com was the vendor who provided me with the custom printed felt and many of the accessories I have on my table. The service was absolutely top notch and friendly to boot. The sales rep I dealt with, Jay, didn't seem at all bothered to help someone who was building a table for home use as opposed to a big customer. Jay spent a lot of time listening and asking questions as to what I wanted from my layout and the final result shows his attention to detail. Jay even emailed me a sample of the artwork over the weekend, how awesome is that?!?  Even when I kept wanting to change things on the layout they handled my revision requests with patience and a text book professionalism that you just don't see often.

Layout

The finished product, WOW!

Still in progress Almost finished with the table

Of all the things I bought for my table, I had the most fun and excitment shopping for and buying the felt. Rolling it out the first time and seeing the personalized design was an absolute blast and really helped to keep me energized during the build.

If you are thinking of going the build your own route then do yourself a favor and get your felt from the folks at Casinosupply.com

I did it my way!

I'm thrilled to be able to post these pics of the final assembly! The only currently remaining tasks on the table are to install the shelf and spruce up the sign holder (I scratched my sign! I'm very very sad - gonna have to buy a new one now *cry*) But setting momentary disappointment aside, I gotta say this bad boy rocks. This turned out far better than I could ever have imagined. I'm so fortunate to have such talented friends and conspirators for this project - we all did good on this one!

Wanna play? Hit me up!

Table view, that race track sure is pretty!

Gonna need to spruce up that sign a bit, expect a new Sign Post when I do (HA! Sign Post)

I can't believe we pulled this off!  I'm very lucky to have such talented friends.

Another view to appreaciate

Table Win

So I've run out of captions, but not pictures, so you just look and don't read okay?

Make it big and see the scratch.  Now go buy something down at the bottom of the page so I can buy a new sign.

My sign is scratched and it is Amazon to the rescue, you click and buy stuff and I get a new sign, it's Austrian school econ at it's finest.  If you don't buy anything then Mr. Hayek will cry, and then Mr. Von Mises will be angry, and you don't want to make Mr. Von Mises to get angry.  If you don't know Hayek you can always Google him, come here for the blackjack and get an education too.

Stool Sample

The stools are in!  The stools are in!  I'm doing a happy dance here, and you had just better be thankful you can't see it.  Don't tempt me either, I have a Flip so you could be seeing my happy dance in HD.

Stool Sample.  Still not tired of that joke.

The stools represent one of the single biggest outlays of expense for the table, and their importance is hard to overestimate.  If the stools are uncomfortable who will want to play?  Well fear not, I have sat upon each and every one and can assure you of their comfort and stooliness.  I was neither stuck on top of, nor did I fall off the stool, both basic indicators to the general suitability of the stool as a place upon which to sit.

It's happy!  No, it's Retro.  Relax kids, it's both Happy and Retro.

I ordered the stools from IVG Stores, and I was very happy with the price and service.  The stools took about two weeks to get here and they appear to be drop shipped from the manufacturer, the date stamp on the bottom of each stool indicates they were made to order.  The stools were priced very reasonable at just a few dollars above $100 each delivered.  I'm very lucky considering that 4 of the 7 were gifts from my Mom and Grandmother for Christmas!  That's good news for you too, now you guys don't have as much to buy from my Amazon links for me to break even!  I mean you still have to buy some stuff so get to clicking and add to cart, you'll be grateful you did!

Loredo Garnet

The stool's model is "Happy Retro"  it's chrome base and styling fit well with my deco/50's lounge mashup.  The stools are available in two sizes,  26" height for most home bars, and 30" commercial bar height.  My table is about 42" so the stools themselves are needed to be true bar height at 30".  The color is these picture is Laredo Garnet.  All in all I got to say I couldn't be more thrilled at such sturdy, high quality stools at such a fantastic price.

Most of the time I sell you things I like or use, so this time I think I will sell you things I'm not likely to use.

Comin round the mountain charming Betsy

Big news! We got bar stools! All seven of em to boot!  Expect a stool post and a felt post in the next day or so too.

Nothing much to report, first coat of finish is on the betting track, pics will show you some imperfections in the finish that we will fix with a second coat.  Redid the wrist rest with a solid piece of foam instead of pieces of foam and it turned out fantastic.  Pics will show a much more even stracth to the vinyl and a much more finished look - this time I didn't cut the vinyl too deep!  Yay me.

Chip case w00t!

The stools

That's not the same KFC bucket in the fridge that was in there two weeks ago.  OK I lied, it is the same KFC bucket from two weeks ago.  Someone needs to clean out the fridge.

Shot from the comic room

the rest of the room

This time with feeling!  

Even the back staples look better this time

Betting track with finish, view full size to see defects

After the first coat of paint

Look what you made me do

It's shiney even if a bit flawed

More stuff to fix, but it still looks great!

 No Amazon this post, unless I come in and do it later.  Pressed for time and gotta jet!

Remember when I said I felt good? Now I felt better.

The felt is on!  More than a felting.  You make me felt like dancing.  You've lost that loving felting. (Now it's gone gone gone).    I can go on like this for days.

So the felt is on the table and I did a happy dance.  For those of you keeping score at home that doesn't leave a whole lot left for the table.

1) Affix accessories and apply finish to betting tack.
2) ???
3) Profit!!

Bar stools should be shipping out today, and hopefully the snow and Ice will have melted by the time it gets here (Atlanta is in the clutches of GLOBAL WARMING an ice storm).  All in allI couldn't be any more thrilled with how the table is turning out.  I think I will probably redo the padded wrist rest at some point, but for now I am ready to play!

Pics below

Stapling the wet felt

Bunch of excess material to trim

Folding the corner seams so they are neat

Trimming the wet felt down

Another exciting shot of the underside!

After it dried

Some of the accessories on the table

Abbey Road will find a new home, it just doesn't fit with the Vegas theme

Detail shot

Really lucked out how well the felt coordinated with the pedestal upholstery

Logo lookin' sharp

It's 80's movies on bluray!  Hooray!  You buy now!

When I grow up I wanna own a casino.

Yeah, been busy,  don't know about you guys but in my part of town it's the holidays and well they just have a way of distracting you from the important things in life, like build your own black jack table projects.

Don't worry though, we made some progress all the same and I have some pics to prove it.  As you can see the pedestal and base are married (Vegas style baby!  Stay togethor as long as it's fun, but when it's time to go, two bolts and BANG! it's over, except for arguing over who gets the chips on the weekends.)

In other momentous news, got 7 bar stools on the way!  Several of which are gifts, so sincere thanks Mom and Grandma!  The barstools rock, so expect pics of them when they arrive around the 19th of January, which seems like forever from now.  I guess since each seat is wrapped in the rich Corinthian leather it must take a while to even find a '75 Chrysler Cordoba in the first place, not only do the have to find the cars, but then they have to use local trappers to keep the wild clones of the late Ricardo Montalbon away long enough to get the seats out.  I've heard tell that the feral clones will shed their Mr. Roark costumes and mate with the car, unless they are dressed as Kahn in which case they stick a bug in the glove compartment and collect a paycheck and go home.

Pics or it didn't happen you say?  Pish posh.  Pics it is then.

Here is the the assembled piece.  Tops almost ready to go on!

STFU! All the high-class folks keep KFC buckets in the beverage coolers.

The betting track is coming together.

Velvet Elvis watches over us as we play.

It's big!  The dog by the way is Rupert the Wonder Dog.  The cat  above is Stanley Badkat - he was missing for TWO months and then showed back up for Christmas Eve!  How awsome was that?  Longest caption ever, ya but it's sweet.

So after writing the caption about my pets, it made me realize how much of a zoo I really have.  1 dog, 8 Year old chow mix, Rupert the Wonder Dog.  1 cat, 5 year old domestic short hair, Stanley Badkat.  1 Kitten, 9 month old piss and vinegar, Snat!  1 Cockatiel, old, named Fritz and two 8 year (Still baby's) old Double Yellow Head Parrots.  Good times.  Will do a pet thread soon - so there.  But for now, how about links to things my pets want?