Hey, I'm Bob at I like to make stuff today. We're going to make an air hockey table
[Into music]
First I cut down two sheets of eighth inch plywood one of them was covered with melamine on one side
Then I cut down some one by sixes to the full length of the table
These are the 48 inches plus a goal on each end
So I marked where the goals went so I could line them up later
I cut two more pieces of 1 by 6 to box in the playable area and then I went to the table saw
I lowered the blade and then I cut a slot in each one of the pieces
But on the long sides I didn't cut all the way to the end you can see that
I started these cuts with the end of the wood past the blade
I gently set it down on the blade while it was spinning and then push the wood through but not all the way to the end
The end pieces, which are shorter, did get full cuts
I did a test fit with one panel to make sure that it would fit and then I moved the fence over and ran all
the boards through again
But this time I had to have a little bit thicker dado so I had to move the blade over slightly
Run them through again, and then repeat that process until it was the correct thickness
on both of the in panels
I measured in six inches from each side and drew a line between those marks that gave me a 12-inch area centered in the middle
of the board a ticket to the band saw and cut this section out on both pieces I
Used my CNC machine to drill all the holes in the game board
but if you don't have one you can just use a straight edge to draw a grid and drill them by hand it would just
Take longer, but it would work exactly the same
To make the strikers or the paddles I use the compass and draw a circle on a piece of three-quarter-inch plywood [I]
Also found the Center point just by making two marks
I cut these out on the bandsaw and got close to the line
But didn't actually try to hit it. Personally I do a better job of hitting that line with a disc sander
So I took them both over there spun the piece around while I got to the lawn
I
Also sanded off the raised lettering on the top of a PVC cap and this is going to be the handle using a forstner bit
on the drill press
I made a recess for each one of these caps to sit down in I did a little bit of fitting and then use some
Ca Glue to hold them in place once I got it in place
I spun them around to make sure that the glue is fully spread and they ended up holding really well
And then I gave both of these a coat of primer
I cut down some three-quarter inch scrap pine into a bunch of small pieces of random sizes
I sanded these off so they just weren't rough and then flipped over my game board and use some ca glue to place them randomly all
Sanded these off so they just weren't rough and then flipped over my game board and use some ca glue to place them randomly all
over the board
The only conditions here were to make sure that they didn't cover any of the holes and there was an area left in the center
So I could add the plumbing later
I set the bottom panel in place and found the center point and then from there
Drew a circle around the plumbing that was going to be attached, then I drew an inner circle to cut out
I put a backer board underneath the piece of wood to prevent blowout and then drilled out the circle with the Forstner bit
I added some ca glue to the top of all of these pieces and then use some really heavy stuff to hold it down to clamp
it in place while to dry
the Strikers then got a code blue paint
Back on the table saw I put on my crosscut sled and then raise the blade to where it matched the thickness of this piece
Of plywood I set up a stop block
And then slowly Chipped away the area that was going to be the goal on the end of one of these pieces
This works perfectly well, but it also took a while
So the next time I tried moving the piece of wood barely into the blade then sliding it across the blade
Moving in it a little bit more and sliding it again
I just did this until the area was finally cut out only do this against the sled take your time and do this at your
Own risk I set the fence to the thickness of the area that I had just cut out and then I ran my two end
pieces through to cut them down to the same height
Then it was time to put all this together
I added some glue to all the dedos on all four of the pieces and then I had to put the tabletop in place
You can see here that the pieces of wood I used for the tabletop were not really straight
so it took a lot of work to get them fit into the dedos from one end to the other and then to get the
Other pieces put on I kind of did them one at a time
And you use some core clamps to hold them in place at 90 degrees while I put on the rest of the pieces
This took way longer than I'm showing in the video
But it's just not that interesting to watch me fight it for a long time
The mallet really helped to knock these pieces into the dados and places where they didn't want to go in
for each one of the joints
I pre drilled some holes and drove in some screws to hold these together the glue is going to do the work long-term I
Found that there was one section that didn't really catch in the dado
I didn't want the air to leak out there or for it to be
Unsupported, so I took a scrap piece of pine and glued it in place
To make the tops for the goals I rip down two pieces of the eighth inch plywood and then marked them and cut them to
Length these fit over the area that I chipped away earlier on the mainframe
I added some glue to those areas that I'd cut away and then set these pieces in Place, I
Just used some brad nails to hold a min while the Glue dry. I
I measured the inside of the goal areas just to make sure that everything was the same and square and then I cut down some pieces
Of scrap plywood and scrap pine to fit in these areas
I made one piece to go at the top so that the puck would hit it when it came in the goal, and
another piece to go at the bottom to catch it when it fell I
added some glue and nailed these in with some brad's making sure that they were flushed to all the outside Edges and
Then it was time to add the plumbing I put a 90 degree elbow on a piece of PVC
Held it over the hole that I drilled and then figured out where I needed to cut it to length
Then I trace the outside on the outer wall and used a forstner bit to drill it out drilling from the inside and the outside
So it didn't blow out
They used a file to make it fit, and then fit all the pieces together this coupling for the shopvac hose didn't actually fit
So I used a belt sander to taper down one edge
So that would fit inside the PVC
Once I had everything fitting correctly I went back and took it apart added some PVC cement and glued it all together I
Used a thick bead of construction adhesive around the outside of the pipe connecting it to the table top just to seal it up
So no air would get lost here then it was time to paint the table
I covered the whole table top with some brown paper and use painters tape to hold it in place
I
Ran a line of painters tape along the edges getting right up to the wood but not covering it and I had to take it
Outside to my fancy paint booth I used several light coats of paint to Avoid drips and to make sure that [I] got even coverage
In the end while this was drying. I found some materials to cut off the pucks
I wanted to try a few different options because I wasn't sure how well it was Gonna perform I?
found two different types of wood in one piece of acrylic
I drew a circle with the compass and then cut them out on the bandsaw
Again, I got close to the line on the band saw but didn't actually try to hit it
They used the disc sander to really dial it in and get these rounded out the right way
I lightly sanded the edges of these to make sure that they would move smoothly on the surface
Then it was time to actually test it out first. I tested without any air blowing
I wanted to see what the baseline was for the movement not so great
I hooked up the air and turned it on and then tested him out again one of them worked really well
But then I realized that I hadn't cleaned out the filter in my shop back in quite a while
So I went outside clean that [out], and then the acrylic worked great
After that the kids were playing air hockey all day long, and I have to say I played quite a bit, too
It's a lot of fun and works way better than I expected it to
My kids absolutely love this thing we've already played with it a lot
And I'm sure it's going to continue to get played with
But there is a big list of stuff that I would like to add or change about it luckily most of those things can still
Be done without having to start over the one that can't really be done without starting over is to change the way the plumbing runs
I wasn't really thinking ahead or planning how the plumbing would interact with the outer wall
But it would be really nice to have it flush mounted. So it didn't stick out to do that
I would have to make the side walls a little bit taller
So there was enough room to drill a bigger hole so that it wouldn't be too close to the bottom
Either way, it's not a huge deal, but it would be nice just not to have that thing sticking out
But the rest of the changes can still be done at this point
One of the easiest ones to do is to change the material of the striker
There's a lot of different ways you could do that
but the simplest one would be to cut a PVC pipe into a ring and use that as the outside sleeve around here because as
this wood runs into the acrylic puck it's starting to damage this wood and take off the paint if you're using a wooden puck that's
Not really a big deal, but the acrylic one definitely is doing some damage to this and will over time
So if you add a layer of PVC around the outside it should help that a lot although honestly the paint's probably still not going
To stay for very long could just paint them white another problem is just the volume of the shop Vac
It's super loud, and it makes it uncomfortable for everybody else in the room
Who's not playing a game eventually I'd like to find a quieter blower
Maybe one that can be mounted right underneath the table to blow right into it
or just connect to the same plumbing that I have in place now another thing is that this acrylic puck is running into
The sides which are made out of wood and so eventually it's probably going to do some damage to the sides as well
So a way around that would be to add a layer of plexiglass around the outside edge or aluminum, originally
I did want to put a border of aluminum around the inside of it
I just kind of ran at the time, and I didn't have the materials on hand so I didn't do that
It would be super easy to add at this point, and it would just keep the table in better
Shape longer now the last one is something that was a problem even when I was a kid
I remember it being an issue when you hit the puck into the goal
It hits the back wall and bounces straight back out and then that person doesn't get their point a way around that would be to
Put a strip of wood on the back side of the goal with an angle on it
so when the puck comes in it hits that angle and deflects down into the box so when I get some time I'm going to
Cut that little strip put it in the back of both of the goals and that will be fixed
Obviously, I didn't put any legs on this table
But you could easily add some legs if you wanted this thing to be freestanding
I don't really have the floor space to add a bunch of tables for every new game
We make or anything
so I just made it so that it could set on top of our lego table that I made in a previous video or if
Adults want to play it you can just set it on the kitchen table
I know that there are already some questions that are being typed right now in the comments about the top of the holes on it
So let me answer a few of those somebody's probably going to ask well
Why didn't you use pegboard the holes are just too big and they're not close enough together?
The Air would come out and it would be too slow
And it probably wouldn't do a great job some people are also probably going to ask why the holes
I did are too big
Typically the holes in an air hockey table are very small way smaller than what I did and they're closer together
And if you did that that would probably give you an even better result because the velocity of the air is going to go up
As it goes through a smaller hole but in this case
I thought I would try it out, and if it didn't work. I have plenty of material
I could have recut a new top in my case
It worked pretty well
And then I realized that the filter on my shop vac was full of sawdust so I cleared it out
And then I had a lot more air blowing through there
It worked great after that in case you were wondering these holes are an eighth of an inch
And they're about an inch apart in both directions. Alright, that's it for this project guys. I hope you liked it
Let me know what you think about it down below in the comments or and my website
iliketomakestuff.com. Down below in the description
I've got links to all my social channels, and I would love for you to show me some stuff that you're working on
I've also got a list of all the tools that are used on this project
I've got a lot more videos for you to check out don't forget to subscribe to this channel and
Subscribe to the second channel if you want to see some behind the scenes and kind of non project stuff
That's it for this one guys. Thanks for watching I'll see you next time