The Ultimate D&D Tabel

Hi! And welcome back to the ones that follows my channel :)

I have been busy with the life of a parent to 2 small children, and renovating a house. But it seams like I have some time again to make projects now! so follow for more projects and please leave a messeage of projects you might want me to make, if you need the guide to make your own!

This time, I have fallen in love with DnD and is so lucky to have friends that wants to play with me as Game master. Therefor I wanted to develop my experience as a Game master and the environment as a player.

I had this old TV screen laying around, and I thought I just needed a table and done! but I got wiser in the progress... I hope you enjoy the instructions and please leave a message if there is anything that you don't think I explain good enough and want me to elaborate.

I had two option to begin with, and that was to make my own table from scratch, but this also seemed like a lot of work in my already busy daily schedule. I therefor went online on Facebook Marketplace and found this old table that had a lot of cool adventure looks about it. and it was super cheap! and in solid (maybe walnut) wood.

But for you it might be better to create your own table to begin with if you want a more round shape or similar. you could also buy one and skip this instructable but they are super expensive... and why would you even be here if that was the case ;)

Let's BEGIN!

I have played DnD for maybe 3 sessions and therefore my experience was not great. I found a group on Facebook with a lot of experienced people and asked them, what they would want on/in a table like this. there were some crazy good ideas like surround sound built-in, and charging port on the players seats for tablets or phones, because many people used their tablets to keep track of all their stats and equipment.
But some ideas was being mentioned more times and that is what I was looking for. The ones I took from this market survey was:
1. Drink/cup holder
2. Dice tray
3. A lot of table room for papers, rulebooks etc.
4. RGB light to set the mood/environment for the players by the GM.
5. A reserved place for the Master screen.
6. And of course! USB charging ports. like that would be awesome.

There were a lot of other good ideas like tablets holders, snack bowls, but I had to stop somewhere... or did I?

I had the table and the screen, but i needed to plan it out and toughest of all the functions was the need for more table room. i googled a lot and found more ways to do this, but I went with the shelf underneath the table to give room to place papers and stuff down there, and use the table top for the screen and the active equipment like dices, spell cards, figures and ect.

I also made some orders to make sure I had all I needed for the electronics an ect. the electronics list is shown at the electronics step.

normally as an engineer I would have measured the entire table and drawn it in 3D, to plan out the cut's I needed to make. But not this time! first of all I had little time, and I just didn't fell like it! so I tried to wing it along the way.

This method is sometimes good but it also resulted in some things I needed to do twice because I hadn't thought all the angle through before cutting away. I always start with the cut that would remove less material. in that way I can always remove some more if there is something I hadn't noticed to begin with. It's much harder to have to replace material.

I First cut the hole for the TV. here I started out only cutting the measurements for the screen it self but this resulted in a long distance between the screen and the table top, and that would make some problems when the players have to use it as a battle map because of the orientation the players look from. I then cut some more to make it possible for the TV to go all the way up to the underside of the glass/plexiglass screen. This would make the distance as low as possible.

Then I milled away the space that would be taken up by the plexiglass plate. I cut away 6mm in depth and the plexiglass is 5mm in thickness. This would make room for a 1mm textile cover between the wood and the plexiglass.

Then I started to plan out the bottom part, with the shelf.
I wanted to use some OSB boards, and they had a measurement of 1200x800 mm. So that would define the shelf size. I cut some holes in the side of the table to make the room for the shelf and for the potential cup holder.

I would lie if it was this easy. after cutting a lot then adding a lot afterwards. This was really a progress of removing material and adding some along the way. But this might have been because I didn't plan it out enough. and therefor also one of the downsides of not taking your time making the plan to begin with, thorough enough.

Anyway! I made the "box" for the TV, and made sure the sides of the box was high enough to be able to give the TV a backplate to hold it in place in the correct height. I then clamped the tv with the box on to the underside of the table while screwing it in. This reviled that I needed to move the TV a little.. so I did! of it goes and back on after adjusting it.

I then reinforced the underside of the table and also made it so I had something to screw in the shelfs. Made sure to make room for the USB cables.

The I made the cup holders/USB Charger station. The small box would act like a bottom for the cup holder and with the space underneath I could make a hole for the USB output. The hole i drilled was for the USB output.
I screwed it in place in the new reinforcements.

The I mounted the 230V outlet and the HDMI socket. (By drilling and sawing with a jigsaw)

I then cut the plates for the shelfs, and glued a rug on with spray glue. let it dry overnight under press, and screw them in place. I had to remove the corners on the big plates to make them fit, but here you only need to make sure you don't cut it with a rotating saw, because the rug in glued on. the threads from the rug could get caught by the blade and get stuck and making the saw suddenly jam. this hurts. so use a handsaw or a jigsaw.
And remember to drill the holes before the screws goes in to make sure you don't split the wood.

First the shopping list for the Electronics!

USB Panel mount - https://www.ebay.com/itm/143918631543?hash=item218...

USB Charger - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124473720677?hash=item1cf...
RGB strip (I used Phillips but it does not need to be high end) - https://www.ebay.com/itm/353328561146?hash=item524...
HDMI socket - Cheap: https://www.ebay.com/itm/193735596776?hash=item2d1..

Expensive: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373043077749?hash=item56d...

Power Socket - Use what ever international standard to do this. my solution was a wall mount, the only needed the square hole to get locked in place.

Make sure you don't cover up the electronics to much since it all develops heat, and that needs to go somewhere. for the USB system and the RGB it's not super important but depending of the TV it might be! mine is LED therefor the power consumption is low at the heat developing is therefor low. Say you have a Plasma TV then it develops a lot of heat and you should make sure the heat can get out.

I Added the RGB strip underneath, as shown here. and that was all I managed to get done by the deadline of the contest (RPG contest)
But I need to make a lot more! i need to paint some more bare wood places and I need to add a fabric between the TV and the top plexiglass to make the TV more "invisible".

First! Sorry for the messy workshop! I tried my best to make it a little presentable, but I simply had no more time on my hands!
I tested all I could managed (and it worked perfect!) and took some pictures to show you as best as I can the so far end results.

But! as a clever person once said: "A Work of Art Is Never Finished, Merely Abandoned"

I Still need to add the holes for the cupholders and I need to make the integrated dice trays.
So either I will update this instructable when I get to it, or I will create a new one where it is all explained in even more detail.

But I am so far that I will still call my friends to test it!

I know there is some great instruction here in instructable on creating characters, maps and much other accessories to make your DnD experience even greater!

AND DONT FORGET THE PIZZA! it is mandatory!

I Hope you enjoyed my instructable, and will get inspired to done something similar four you own! this is a great way of reusing an old TV and an old table. Make sure to follow the channel to get a update when I make the last changes to the table to see the final result :-)

Until next time!