The Freebird Gaming Table Mark 3!

The third refinement of The Freebird Gaming table - A unique multifunctional table, solidly built and good looking as an extendable dining table, with hidden features for board gaming, crafts, jigsaw puzzles, Lego and more.

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Dimensions:

The 3 leaf dining table arrangement is 165 cm long, 104 cm wide, and 78.6cm tall.
The 4th leaf extends it to 220cm long. Parts are styled with subtle curves, rounded corners and bevelled lower edges to the horizontal surfaces.

With the leaves removed, the height of the border around the gaming recess is 76.1cm, with a width of around 7cm. The depth of the recess is 8cm.

The playing area is 146cm long by 85cm wide, and can be reduced in length in various ways by keeping 1 or more leaves in position and using the strake board to close the gap underneath.

The knee space below the table is around 65cm, reducing to around 62cm in the central part when the 4th leaf storage is added.

Brief History and Other Details:

When my friend Andy commissioned the first games table around 4 years ago, I identified flaws in the common designs already on the market, specifically around the over complexity of the top design, the propensity for spills to get through the removable top leaves; the ease with which cup holders could be knocked up and out of their groove; the use of unsuitable materials, and the lack of an extendable option.

For the first Freebird Gaming Table, made for Andy and his family, we stuck to their preferred material of solid oak, despite my reservations.

In a normal dining table a solid oak top is restrained flat to a rigid frame. A games table requires loose leaves that suffer from the minor distortions of natural wood in changing temperature and humidity. This compromises the seal between the leaves, raising the risk of spills getting through to the precious items beneath.

This did prove to be a problem so I ended up replacing the solid oak tops on Andy's table with oak veneered boards with solid oak edging, to create more reliably flat and dimensionally stable top leaves.

For the second prototype, produced to exhibit at the UK Games Expo in 2019, I designed from scratch with no assumptions.

I settled on using oak veneered birch plywood as a material that ticked all the boxes - flatness and dimensional stability; rigidity; durability and a stylish modern aesthetic. This material also allowed me to harness modern CNC manufacturing techniques to create more sophisticated joints (including for the advanced spill stop interlocking detail), and to introduce curved detailing.

We gathered a lot of great feedback at UKGE 2019, and incorporated this feedback into the 3rd complete redesign of the table. Along the way we also loaned the table to the Sheffield Central Library Board Gaming Club to seek further feedback, and we loaned it to the Hairy Games Lords for more valuable insights.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCGfYnZM60DJroJaRNwWu0Q

This 3rd table was commissioned by Callum at Northern Dice (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEsQg_jNX0zYbVOHxVwL_xg)
and his family, and they also gave a lot of valuable feedback on improving the design.

I did a third redesign of the groove for inserts. Since the beginning I had been doggedly sticking to the idea that the groove should be high up out of sight under the overhang, to make the table look more like a normal dining table. Also I felt it should be possible to design for free placement, easy insertion, and reliable locking into place, with the ovehanh above helping to ensure resistance to being knocked up and out of the groove.

The first mechanism for Andy's table involved a thumb screw locating up into a groove under the overhang, but this was problematic and did not wear well.

The second iteration replaced the thumb screw with a bird shaped piece of thin plywood, interacting with a slot in the cupholder/tray inserts - this had a sort of elegance to it but was too reliant on friction; separate loose components did not seem ideal, and the lock was unreliable and also did not wear well.

In this third and latest redesign, a rebated grooved has been added at the lower rear of the slot, and the inserts have a rear lip that drops down into that groove, then locks down securely into place with the aide of a sort of lever that serves to pack the space above to make it impossible to remove until the lever is rotated back out of the way. This solution is both reliable and secure, and gives a much clearer visual cue as to whether the cup holder or tray has been properly secured into place.

The table is designed and made in the UK for the UK market, with compact storage of components carefully considered. A water-based sprayed lacquer has been chosen which is both durable and environmentally friendly.

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