Has anyone built their own train table?

[jess_g]

We have been 2 play areas recently and seen some amazing train tables. One was huge and had a cut out for a child to play in the middle of the table and one was curved all around in different shapes. Anyway I was wondering if I could make one for my son myself. It would be from a set of plans but I wondered what is involved in such a project and how hard it is to do. Any advice would be great as I have never done anything like this before. I know they will cut the wood for you at Home Depot (at least I think they will) which would be a big help.

Thanks, Jessica.

[bostonsmama]

My Dh and I have built a lot of things (dog house, replica of PBK catalina magazine rack, etc), but never a train table. I think your success would depend on your wood-working skills, access to wood-working tools, and materials budget. If you're just planning on making a table, I think that's easy sailing. But if you're planning on building mountains, tracks, hills, houses, trees, etc it might require some serious know-how. BTW-you said you'd be using plans. Curious, where are you getting your plans from?

Home Depot only does straight cuts, just wanted you to know. Building a table will probably involve at least a few meitered cuts (at 45 degree angles). You'll need either an electric meiter/chop saw or meiter box and hand held wood saw (both rough and fine teeth help). You can rent the former & buy the latter for cheap (<$25). On many of our projects we've needed a jig saw for cutting curves. A scroll saw is probably too fragile for larger curved cuts.

The curved table is way too difficult for someone without major carpentry experience...you're talking soaking planks in water and bending them, kiln drying them, using clamps...whole 9 yards.

If you need any advice, just PM or email me. We're pretty knowledgeable about that kind of stuff. Best of luck...and let us know how it's progressing. Don't be afraid to let it take a couple weeks, either.

Larissa