Folding Tables

[TonyLB]

Yes, the question really is as strange and seemingly trivial as the subject makes it sound.  I need to know whether I can get a cheap 90-degree crescent table, for demonstrating at the Independent Gaming Explosion (2) at DexCon8.

I've posed the booth-design quandary in more detail here.  Since my understanding of what you can buy in terms of card tables is limited to Google, I cannot answer the question myself.  But I just find it hard to believe that nobody manufactures a crescent table to sell for less than hundreds of dollars.  They don't strike me as that hard to make.

If anyone out there knows more than I do, I'd sure appreciate some advice.  Even if it's just "The product you desire does not exist, give up."

[daMoose_Neo]

...really, if you're needing something no bigger than a cardtable (except proportioned to the cresent), I can't see why you couldn't get one made yourself.
Off the top of my head, you'd need:

1) Brackets & Legs (should really be one piece), probably 6 to 8 such sets (two for each corner, of course, and some in the middle to stabalize)
2) surface material, probably a plywood or something. Depending on the size might recommend making 2 tables, each 1/4 arch that sit together.
3) padding, can pick that up nearly anywhere, a thin foam
4) a covering of some kind, possibly a plastic material, again probably not too hard to find.
5) Tools - Staple gun! For putting the foam and plastic on. Jigsaw, makes cutting your board easy.
6) Probably some kind of tape/craft tape (I KNOW its out there) to run along the edges, giving it a cleaner look, covers staples, surface edges etc.

Might want to paint the bottom like a black or other color blending with your surface material. Spent too many years in country 4-H: if we couldn't find it, we MADE it :D

[jdagna]

As another DIY alternative, consider getting two small tables and cutting off a corner of each one.  It won't be a crescent necessarily (since the tables are straight), but it should approximate one very closely and will probably be more stable than a single curved table would be.  At small sizes, the difference between a curve and an angle should be pretty small.

[Tintros]

It sounds like what you might be looking for is similar to a blackjack table (1/4, 1/3 of a circle)?  You might be able to rent one fairly inexpensively from the same places that do so for church casino nights and such, perhaps purchase one similarly?  

Tim Ryan

[Knave]

I've seen folding poker table tops as cheap as $60. They turn a standard card table into a larger hex... Would something like that work?

[Luke]

Tony,
not to be a dick or anything, but why do we need the extra hassles of custom tables for our demos? Shouldn't we be concentrating on the basics like a demo schedule, volunteers, menu of games/scenarios?

-L

[TonyLB]

Sounds like a damn fine idea.  Can I note you down as coordinator for one of those invaluable preparation and organization tasks?

[Paul Czege]

Tony,

Bed, Bath & Beyond has a folding outdoor bar set in their current advertising circular that might meet your needs. I tried to find it on their website, but no luck. So a scan is here:

http://www.123.net/~czege/foldingbar.jpg

You can see it here as well, in the photo of their portable canopy:

http://www.123.net/~czege/foldingbar2.jpg

At the very least, if it's too big or something, the design seems very slick and buildable.

Paul