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Two pair of two player stations glued up with biscuits between the joints. My Bud John came up with the great idea of using square steel tubing throughout the assembly process to insure the player stations remained aligned while drying.

Two sections of two glued, clamped tight, and drying using the same 1 inch square steel tubing to hold the two sections straight. Wax paper at the joint to keep glue off my wife's work bench.

The second pair glued up and clamped. Half a table rim now.

Finally we glued and clamped the two halves together to form the octagon while still using the square steel stock to hold everything flat. When the glue dried and the clamps were removed the top side was perfectly flat in every direction.

You could hold your expenses/effort down by picking up a round folding table at Costco, add a Vellux blanket to the top with an elastic edge, and shim your table ring to fit the folding table exactly. You could then play on it just like this, or go one step further and add a drop in center covered with foam and stretch the Vellux blanket over that before putting the outer ring in place. You would still have to cut holes in the blanket and the table top for the cup holders, and the folding legs might crowd some players, but you wouldn't have to buy plywood or build a pedesal. Such a table could be folded up and put away when not in use.

If you want the chip tray liners to be different from the playing surface, you are limited only by your imagination. Here is one idea for a chip tray liner. The chips there are part of the fabric. I think it would go with a green top better, but the pattern is too busy for my tastes.

I do like this Southwest scheme since my games will be in Tucson. It goes with the blue Vellux top well, but I'm still not sold and still thinking and looking for the perfect chip tray liner. In the end, I will likely stick with my original plan to let the blanket form the chip tray liners at the same time it forms the playing surface. I want the liners and the playing surface to be removable cause you know how guys are. Somebody is going to spill a beer in here, if one doesn't puke in it, and I want to be able to remove the table cover and tray liners and wash them or change them out.

Cutting biscuit slots in a scab to add on to the table top. Since I chose to make the table over 60 inches wide to give players more room, a standard piece of plywood is not wide enough to make an octagon that will fit closely inside the player station ring. We used 10 biscuits as suggested by Ryan's Table.

Gluing the scab to one edge of the table top octagon. I ended up with a cross grain situation with the scab, but I didn't want to cut up another piece of plywood just to get matching grain. It hasn't made any difference in the long run. Again, we used two sections of one inch square steel tubing clamped to the workpieces to keep everything in the same plane and eliminate any tendency of the joined pieces to curl up from the force of the clamps while the glue and biscuits are drying.

We trimmed the scab to the correct octagon shape and then put the player station ring around the trimmed octagon. We marked each piece so we can realign them the same way every time. Then we used another one of John's ideas replacing one of the cutout circles from the player station cup holder operation and using the previously drilled center hole in it to mark the center for the holes that need to be drilled in the table top. Then we removed the outer ring and drilled the corresponding holes with that same “flyaway” cutter.

Next we used a 1/8 inch roundover bit on the chip trays and cup holder cutouts and a 1/4 inch roundover bit on the upper and lower table edges. We left the inner edge at 90 degrees at this point, but later, after I accidentally knocked a dent in that edge, I rounded it over with an 1/8 inch bit also.

Next we block sanded the table ring to 80 grit which eliminated everything you could feel with your hands. We will continue to perhaps 220 grit. In this photo, the drink holders cannot assume their natural position because the table top is laying on that same round white folding table. You can clearly see the cross grain scab in this photo.

After block sanding the ring to 80 grit, I put on a coat of sanding sealer. Next, I'll block sand to 180 fine and decide then if more sealer or not.

At this point, I discovered some plans for a poker table by Norm Abram of New Yankee Workshop fame. I decided to use his plans for the base and the pedestal, both of which were also octagons. Here we have cut the base octagon from oak plywood. We will build and install a solid oak edge band and add some pads with leveling feet underneath. This piece will attach to the bottom of the pedestal eventually. I made my base larger than Norm's because my table is larger than his.

To save a bit of the costs, we glued two ten foot pieces of 1 1/2 X 3/4“ oak to make some 1 1/2 '' square stock from which to make the base edge band. We will round over two edges with different size bits and cut a rabbit in a third side for the base to sit on. Then we will cut the pieces at 22.5 degrees to fit the base octagon.

First, we cut 1/4 X 3/4 rabbits in each piece for the table base to ride in.

Then we rounded over the upper leading edge of each piece with a 3/4 inch rounding over bit. I didn't have the expensive 1 inch rounding over bit Norm's plan called for. I'm satisfied with the results we achieved though. We also rounded over the lower leading edge with a 1/4 inch bit.

We fitted each piece individually, glued up and nailed.

Last piece coming up.

We cut these levelling feet down with a Dremel Tool so that when fully screwed in, they would not jeopardize the top of the pedestal base.

We fashioned some plywood pads with threaded inserts for the levelling feet.

Glued and nailed in.

Now with the base roughed in, we can more easily calculate how tall to make the center pedestal to bring the table top to a comfortable playing position. We decided to make the final playing surface 30 inches from the floor with all four leveling feet fully screwed in.

We cut birch inner and oak outer stock to make the pedestal, glued and nailed them together, and then cut them at 22.5 degrees to form an octagon shaped pedestal. This simple table saw does not have a stop at 22.5 degrees, so we cut the pieces about half inch wider than we needed to start so we could check the octagon shape a couple of times and readjust the saw blade angle as needed. Here, John is shaving a RCH off this piece.

Here is the stock for the pedestal. Once completed, a pedestal top and a base will be screwed to the inner birch plywood pieces leaving the outer face oak.

Here the pedestal is sitting upside down on the pedestal top which will eventually be bolted to the table top there in the background using countersunk lock down nuts (see next). It will be held in place by eight 5/16th hex head bolts each 1 1/2 inches long with washers. The pedestal is fitted down over another smaller octagon that fits inside and is glued and nailed to the pedestal top. A similar smaller octagon will be used to center the pedestal on the base when the time comes.

Countersinking the eight lockdown nuts in the top of the table. I used stainless steel lockdown nuts and bolts, probably overkill, but I found them at Ace Hardware and just couldn't resist. At least I'll be certain they won't rust. This area will be underneath the playing surface.

The pedestal disassembled. The base is on the right and the top of the pedestal is on the left.

Here you can see the small octagon used to center the pedestal top during assembly. I rounded over its edges to make it easier to slide into the pedestal. The pedestal top will be secured to the pedestal with eight 1 3/4 inch long deck screws countersunk from the blind side. You can also see the eight 5/16th inch holes in the outer edge of this piece. These were drilled first then this piece was centered on the table top before drilling on through thereby insuring perfect alignment.

The base has a similar small octagon centering piece and the base will eventually be attached to the pedestal with eight 1 3/4 inch long deck screws countersunk from the underside. I outlined the area where the pedestal's inner birch plywood pieces will sit and drilled pilot holes for the attaching screws from this side to be sure they will be well centered.

Adding filler to fix tiny imperfections. Once this filler is dry, I'll begin the sanding process at 80 grit. If using a veneered plywood like this oak, be careful with your sanding. The veneer is super thin.

The playing surface was cut from 1/2 inch MDF to fit inside the player station ring with a quarter inch to spare on all sides.

Then, a 1/4 inch thick piece of closed cell foam bought on line at foamorder.com inc was glued to the top side bringing the playing surface up to the 3/4 inch height of the player station ring. The vellux blanket will then raise the playing surface just slightly higher than the player station ring making it easy to rake chips into the trays without catching on the edge.

Trim the foam leaving a quarter inch all around. We used a quarter inch strip of scrap wood placed alongside the playing surface on top of the foam and trimmed it with a #11 Exacto Blade. This soft edge will help prevent tears in the Vellux blanket when placing the outer ring in place.