The Construction

I started with 2 sheets of plywood

4 X 8 X 1/4" Oak

4 X 8 X 1/4" luaun

 

 

Kittens in the picture:

On the left is Black.

On the right is Gray

They did a good job of getting in the way.

 

I trimmed them to the size of my table

During the construction - I labled every part with its place

NW - N - NE

SW - S - SE

 

My bearded dragon is on his log in the background.

Hi Beardie!

The oak wants to warp in a big bad way.

The luaun likes to lay flat
I traced out the rail, track and play area on the oak board

Once it was laid out, I hit it with the jig saw.

The outer piece will be the rail, the middle section will be the race track and the inner section will be the play area

I used the outer rail section of the oak to line up my race track on top of the luaun.

I searched my garage up and down for my wood clamps - the X must have them - I then glued it in.

I said to myself, back in college "This differential equations book will come in handy someday"

Once the glue was mostly finished drying - I added a few 1/2" wood screws through the bottom.

I crossed my fingers hoping they wouldn't go through - they didn't.

Once I laid out the lines - I made the cuts. The jigsaw blade wasn't too thick and the wood grain lined up nicely.

I found this incredible thick, cardboard like fabric material at the wallymart. It doesn't want to stretch or tear. It was located in the fabric section - the lady working thought it was called heavy wt interfacing?!?

I used it for the hinges. It's been through alot of abuse and hasn't stretched or tore yet. The staples nestle down in it nicely - the don't contact the dining room table when laid out.

I cut out the bottom rail sections from the luaun.

I then glued and stapled them to the top layer.

After chopping the rails into sections. I trimmed the long end of the long rails by a 1/4" to give the vinyl some room. The short end rails where trimmed a 1/2"

I laid out the pieces on HD foam and cut them out. I used a bread knife with poor results. An electric knife is the best, I hear. I found my "electric fisherman" after construction was done.

I glued the foam onto the rails with some spray adhesive. I then wrapped them with marine vinyl. I didn't take pictures because it was very frustrating. Making rails is covered extensively on the Internet - look it up if you want to see it - Im not showing ANYBODY my work!

Then I cut the play area and put on the hinge.

I padded the top with an old mattress pad I had. It's OK but you can feel very slight imperfections in it as you run your hand along the finished surface. I think 1/4" foam would be better.
Then I hit it with the felt. I left some room to stretch by the seam - about 4 inches. When it's collapsed - it doesn't tear.
Looking and feeling good.
I tacked down some more of the mattress pad to the bottom - I didn't want the play area bowing down in the center.
My kids helped me stain and put poly on the race track..

In order to get the felt piece perfectly centered, I had to line it up from the top. I slid the whole thing over the edge of the table and "screwed up"

It worked really good. All the felt edges just sink right into the race track.

I added a bunch more 1/2 inch screws to hold it together.

Here are my rails with 2" foam on them. I put the whole thing together - stated that I was done - waited about a day and decided to redo them all with 1" foam.

The one inch foam is more forgiving. The inside arcs are very tight and very hard to get right. It looks 100% better with the 1 inch.

On the corners of the rails - the vinyl is thick and the staples stick out. I added some of that wonder fabric to the edges to keep the staples from scratching my table.
I also added a piece of felt to help hold the fold. I used felt because it stretches.

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