Upholstering the Playing Surface of The Racetrack Table
Upholstering the Playing Surface of a Racetrack Poker Table
To upholster the playing surface of your racetrack poker table you will only need a few things.
- Piece A (playing surface)
- Your sheet of 1/4″ foam
- Poker table fabric (preferably suited speed cloth)
- Spray adhesive
- Staple gun and staples
The first step is to lay your foam down on a clean flat surface. Then you spray a light coat of adhesive on to piece A and lay it down on the foam, sticky side down, making sure that there are no folds or wrinkles in the foam (Figure 3-1).
This will only take a few minutes to start to cure. When the foam is secure on the wood, take a knife and cut off the excess foam that hangs over the edges. Now spread out your playing surface fabric on the same clean, flat surface. Lay the padded wood down in the center of the fabric with the padding side down (Figure 3-2).
Now comes your first taste of upholstering. The goal here is to pull the fabric tight and staple all the way around the perimeter of the wood. Its best to start by folding the fabric back on one end and getting a few staples into it. Then you can head all the way to the other end and pull tight and staple again. Do the same thing on each side and your fabric isn’t going anywhere. Not you can work your way around the arcs and along the long sides making sure to always pull tight and add a staple every inch or so. When you’re done, make sure that there are not wrinkles or imperfections before you cut off the extra material. If everything is good to go, go ahead and cut away anything extra (Figure 3-3). This will give you a complete padded poker table playing surface (Figure 3-3 and 3-4).
With the playing surface complete, you can now set it aside. Please continue to Step Five – Upholstering the Rail.
