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?

Coming into the home stretch...

Got a lot done the last couple of nights, David and I have been busy squeezing in a Monday evening this week to boot!  We got so much done just gonna rattle it all off in list form.

• The top anchor system in place consisting of 4 carriage bolts counter sunk into the play surface with wing nuts.  This way the top is removable and modular!
• The top play surface cut outs have been made for the chip tray, bill collector, and no peek device.
• The Volara closed cell foam is installed and cut.
• Bill box and bill slot are installed
• The betting track / racetrack has had it's second coat of paint and will be getting it's first layer of polyurethane soon.

So really there isn't a whole lot left for the table at this point.  Still need to do the following;

• Install felt play surface and secure discard box, bill collection gasket, no peek device and toke box
• Install shelf in pedestal
• Install lighted blackjack sign, table lighting and powerstrip
• Finish betting track ornamentation and super gloss epoxy coating
• Secure arm rest to betting track.
• Order rules signage and display bracket
• Design and install back trim (maybe - this is kind of optional)
• Source over table lighting and install
• Buy barstools!  Getting a couple of stools for Christmas, but that leaves me needing 5 more - so cut me some slack and buy some stuff already!

And now for the pictures!

Oooh Shiney!  It started off red, but then I had to paint it black.

Bill box and chip tray

From the front

You can make the picture big to see my recently rescued and restored vintage velvet Elvis.  

Any ladies out there attracted to 40 year old guys who collect comic book toys?  Email me, we'll hook up..

Because one picture of a black piece of wood is never enough. 

I'm not satisfied with only two pictures of a black piece of wood, so here is a third.   Am i satisfied yet?  No... I can't get no satisfaction.  Because one Rolling Stones joke is never enough.

Tonights Amazon sales pitch - Things I would like to get on Christmas morning.

The question is, does it match the drapes?

Woo hoo!  Looks like we can stick a fork in the carpet and call it done!  It looks sweet too.  Chris, who you will recall helped with the pedestal upholder, came over and lent his expertise to carpeting the base.  The results are fantastic, especially considering that I didn't order quite enough carpet - but we managed to get some stretch in some of the places and we just barely got it to work.  For the record the carpet is, so far at least, the only thing I haven't ordered enough of, and next time I do something like this I believe I will over order.

We used speaker cabinet carpet, the kind with the thick backing.  The collective wisdom of the internet say's the backed kind can be more difficult to work with, but it is more durable.  Since this was essentially a foot rest I figured durability was the way to go.  The carpet is pretty stiff but we were able to bend it around some very tight turns without any problems, so I think anyone else following along here could use the same.  I ordered mine from parts express - the carpet arrived folded instead of rolled so I let it sit out on the ground to get some of the creases out.  The edge of the carpet looks like it was cut from the roll by hand and was kind of crappy looking, but I wasn't planning on using right up until the edge anyhow.

The carpet we fixed down with the 3M #77 Spray adhesive and staples.  I got some great tips on hiding the seams from this you tube video and I gotta say their advice contributed heavily to the high quality finish on my base.

Cutting the rug as they say

Measure twice cut one, we needed to measure three times maybe :) 

Like a black fuzzy toilet seat

Lookin good

Needs cleaned, but still sharp

Can you spot the seams?  There are two in this picture

From the inside

Again

Seam on this side - on the left front

Two seams here - 1 on the top, the other on the side

Can't see the seam here either.

Lest I be accused of being misogynistic with my headline puns and Amazon selling, I'm including mens grooming products here too.  So the ladies can calm down and crack window dressing jokes too.  Yup something for everyone!   Even have some wax for those who don't want any carpet on their floor -  Is there a tag for a <crash cymbal> ?  There should be.  Anyhoo - Try the veal, I'm here till Tuesday.

Vendor Spotlight: Spinettis Gaming

This is a new feature where I will post about my experiences with the many businesses out there who willingly accept my money in trade for the things I need for my project. There is a complex economical term to describe this type of exchange of money for goods, but since this is a light blog and not an academic journal I will not bore you with a bunch of jargon just to show how book smart I am.  Oh okay, I'll get technical if you insist.  It's a little something I like to call commerce.  Feel free to use the term in conversation if you want, I don't mind as long as I get some credit when you do.

First up is Spinettis Gaming, located in beautiful sunny Mecca Las Vegas, this family owned store rightfully calls itself  "A Candy Store For Real Gamblers".  I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a lot about 'real gambling' because I have never once won a casino, but let me tell you I know a thing or two about candy.  (I'm big boned)  Their products for the most part taste terrible, which candy most defiantly does not.  Putting matters of flavor aside they have a ginormous selection of accessories and things that I want to own.

My first purchase from Spinettis was a set of the sweet Dunes commemorative chips that had that perfect retro vibe I wanted.  I shopped around many retailers and eBay and for building out your own set Spinetti's had the most reasonable price per piece with shipping of anywhere I had looked.  I also ordered a dealers toke box (think tip jar with a lock).  Both items came well packaged, as described and shipped very quickly making it to my home in Atlanta in about three days.

They see me rollin', they hatin'

Luck be a lady tonight!

Today I ordered cards for the table, which is more troublesome than you might imagine, since I need cards with 'No Peek Faces'.  'No Peek Faces' are different from the more familiar 'No Peek Index' cards which are much easier to come by.  For those not familiar with the term the index is the value declaration in the corner of the card.  Most playing cards feature a 'Regular Index' or in some case and enlarged or 'Jumbo Index' which sits 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the corner of the card.  A 'No Peek Index' moves the index further into the corner, this style is popular with poker players as you may keep your cards face down on the table and just barely lift the edge of your cards to see your whole hand.

Toke box!  Obligatory 4:20 joke is absent.

My blackjack table will have a mirror style no peek device to allow the dealer to check the hole card for blackjack.  The dealer only needs to know if there is an ace or a face card in the hole, so aces and faces are the only indexes that should be visible to the mirror so they have a 'No Peek' style index, cards 2-9 are in the 'Regular Index' position so the dealer can not see the exact card in the hole, instead they can only tell if they have a blackjack or not.   Thus 'No Peek Faces'.

As luck would have it Spinettis had uncanceled 'No Peek Faces' decks in stock - so I ordered 8 in red and 8 in blue.  The website had some difficulty calculating the shipping on my order so it displayed a message to call the store.  I spoke with Josh I believe and he looked up my online order and had me taken care of in a matter of minutes.

I joke a lot about selling stuff on here through amazon and all - but this is no joke, two orders in and I am very pleased with the price, service and selection Spinettis offers.  If you are going to try your own table build please consider shopping with them.

/Brian.