Home Made Gaming Table "Topper" - Part 3

This is part 3 of my "How I went from being a DIY novice to building my own gaming table" thread - Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here

Lights, Camera, Action

The final part of the trilogy..

So, I wanted lights. All the best tables have lights. Lights are cool. 
No idea how you add them!

After a lot of Googling I found things called LED Strip Lights. They are EXTREMELY expensive.
In Currys and B&Q.

But EXTREMELY cheap everywhere else.

So, Amazon sell them for between £7 and £50, but I found a set with 150 4&5 star reviews, for only £14.99, so I went with them (full disclaimer, I actually went with another brand first, but it didn't work AT ALL so I had to order a second set from a different maker).

This is what I bought...

You get two reels of 5 meter light strip, a power box, remote control and splitter. You can change the colour, dim them, make them flash (God no!) and they attach via a double sided sticky back.

Perfect.

First I had to flip the table top. You can see underneath here more detail of how it sits on the table too (if you are interested, and if you're reading update 3 then I guess you must be).

I had to unwind the lights to test them and set the size. With these you can cut them to size with a pair of scissors. Genius!

It came with a splitter (below) so I could put one set on one side, and one on the other side, then hopefully work out how to connect them when I set it up each time.

The problem I encountered was that my table top was nice and flush when you put in place. So much so that there was no room for the cable to come up.

Now, my electrician skills are as good as my woodwork skills - i.e. non-existent! So, I decided to drill away a small section in the middle, so when it closed there was a small gap just big enough for the wires to poke through.

That was a pain in the backside, as it was under the rim on the side, and not easy to get to. But I managed to get a decent gap in the end, and then set about removing the tape backing and sticking it in place (remembering to wipe down the dust first!)

Below you can see the first one stuck on, with them going through the gap.

  

 

Here is a shot of them stuck around the underside edge. When its flipped they will be at the top of the rim, hidden by the edging (which is why I made it a bit wider earlier in Part 2)

I stuck down the second side

Then attached the Remote box, connected the wires (so I could work out how much give I had) and then attached the box to the side of the table with 2 small pins.

Below you can see the small hole I made for the wires to come out. I always sit at the same spot in the room, so I had the wires come out here, so no one else would have to see them!

I then tested them. 

LIGHT!!!

Ok, time to flip the table, and set it up, and test it properly. 

Below you can see how the wires looked when it was all ready to go.

And here it is!! My finished Gaming Table Topper complete with Lights!

My camera struggled a bit with the LED's, but hopefully you can see well enough to get a feel for it.

The best bit (for me) is that due to the way this is made I can quickly change the table cloth colour, and with the LED colour change remote I can then change the lights to match. Wonderful!!

I hope you like it, and if you want to make you're own and need some advice just drop me a note. And please do let me see any you make that were inspired by this!

Good luck!

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Tech bits in case you are building one - the felt was from Dunelm (UK), where they cut to your size for around £5 a meter. The wood was from B&Q - between £2 and £5 per section depending on the piece. The rubber underlay was around £3 a meter from Dunelm (cut to size). In total I spent about £65, and it took me around 8-9 hours to complete from start to finish (not all in one day!).