I was wondering if any of you knew were to get a card table from, because I don't have a good working surface

Do you have a prejudice against laying down a close-up pad on an existing table?

If you would like to have a fancy dedicated table like on the L&L tapes, call them and they will direct you to the man who makes them and sells them for a lot, a lot, of money.

Or you could make your own, which is what I would do. I'm sure you will get some good hints on this, down the line.

all righty then, where do you get a close up pad

i just made my own close up table-top because i was sick and tired of my close-up pads coming apart and i always wish i had a larger surface.

so for about $20 i went to the store(s) and bought...

some felt (on sale)
some 1/2 in inch soft foam cut to 2'x3'
spray adhesive
2' x 3' 1/4" piece of plywood
strips of wood cut to line the plywood on all sides, plus 2 more strips to strengthen the middle of the board. (1/4" plywood warps).

lucky for me the guy down the street makes furniture so i just walked all the wood down to his house and he staple-gunned it all in a few minutes.

i sprayed the wood with the adhesive.
i put down the foam and it stuck just enough.
i stretched and stapled the felt all around
underneath (which is easier than you'd think to keep stretched because of the foam)

it's the best thing i've ever used, period!

I think felt is probably not the most durable or desirable fabric but this was sort of a trial run for me because i want to make a nice close-up table eventually.

so in an hour, i was a happy guy!

there is also another thread on this in the "Workshop" forum.

You could also keep an eye out in second hand stores or auctions, they do come up occasionally, thats where I got mine. As Fstarsinic said though, felt is not the most durable of materials though, so you might need to get the staple gun out anyway...

If you want a high-quality, long-lasting surface, buy some top grade billiard table cloth. The higher the quality the longer it will last. I use "Simonis" or "Granito" (these are brand names) imported billiard cloth to line my leather wand cases, coin wallets and to top my close-up tables. In my estimation nothing works better. The traditional color is green, but many other colors are available.

Just be sure to buy the highest quality you can find; it's sometimes called "felt", but it's actually a woven wool or wool/polyester blend and the good stuff wears like iron.

Regards,
Thomas Wayne

thomas, that is actually a very good idea.

i know a lot of people like the table top that dean dill makes and i thought it was about $80. i thought he used something more like velvet but i don't know what it is for sure.

I made my own table thanks to some hints from the cafe's donald porte.

I went to Ikea and bought a table that had collapsable legs (that fold in like a TV tray). The legs on this table were great!

I got an old piece of plywood and cut it to 24X36.

Then I went to an auto upholstry shop and bought some black car headliner which is a great surface to perform on and is quite inexpensive.

I also picked up some edge wood (square quarter round) and some brass corners.

I removed the old table top from the table and put the new plywood top on. then I stretched out the car headliner and used a staple gun to fasten it.

Then I cut the wood quarter round (that I bought at home depot) into four pieces that would fit around the edge of the table (it took some work to get the corners right).

Then I put brass corners on.

Looks great...if interested I can take a photo and post it.

Mitch