How do you build the following table. . .

. . .in RL?


Thanks to SL, I can design stuff within the game, and learn how to build it in RL.
I would like to build a table in RL for my computer. I have no experience whatsoever.

Here is a pic of the table:



It will be made of 5 pieces of wood.
1 Surface: 54" x 36" x 1"
4 Legs: 4" x 4" x 24"


I plan to go to the hardware store to get everything I need. I saw some wood there, and they told me that they could cut it my specifications. Once I get the 5 pieces of wood of the proper size, I am not sure what to do.


1. How can I make the 5 pieces smoothe? (Just like the pic above). Somebody told me that I first have to have the wood sanded smoothe. Then I would apply some sort of liquid to make the surface perfectly smoothe.

2. How do I connect the 5 pieces together. I would think I need 4 metal plates. One for each corner. Then I would use some sort of power screw to screw everything in place. I would probaly also add some sort of glue just to be safe.

3. Is a 1 inch thick board good enough to hold a few monitors and a PC? Or will it bend inwards in the center?


I appreciate any insight from RL builders. Thanks! : )

Seriously? I think you might find the best advice and plans on some woodworking forums/sites on the web. In SL, we don't have to worry about pesky things like physics, i.e. can that table in your image support a computer and say a 20-50lb monitor without breaking right down the middle, etc.

My Player is a semi-professional woodworker, with over 30 years experience. I make and sell furniture as a hobby, and second income.



Use 3/4" thick 'cabinet grade' plywood for the table top. A good home-improvement store should carry it. Cabinet grade plywood has smooth hardwood venieer on the large flat surfaces, and few voids (air pockets) inside. It's finished fairly smooth to start with. If you stick with that design, I would use a double layer of 3/4" plywood for the top, to get enough strength to support the load you specified over the leg-to-leg span you specified.

The legs could be pine or fir. Either of which should be readily available at your lumber store. Either choice will tend to be fairly rough though, as that size and type of wood is commonly just used for fence posts. You may want to seriously consider purchasing pre-made table legs at the home improvement store. (see below)



Cabinet grade plywood is already fairly smooth, and can be made smoother with sandpaper. Use 150 grit sandpaper until it feels fairly smooth, then dust it off and switch to 300-grit sandpaper to make it very smooth. Apply a primer (a paint or stain-like finish) designed to go on bare wood. When that coat is dry, sand again with the 300-grit sandpaper, lightly, and then apply a top coat of paint or stain. Talk to the people in the paint department at the home improvement store, to suggest what to buy.



The home improvement store can sell you metal plates with a threaded hole in them, which fasten to the bottom of the table top with 4 screws. Each plate comes with a larger, double-ended threaded bolt that has wood-screw threads on one end, and machine-screw threads on the other end. The pointy, coarse-threaded end goes into a hole drilled in the top end of your table leg. Once it is in place, the machine-screw end of that bolt screws into the metal plate. Nice setup. It's secure, and you can take it apart later to move or store it. Commercial pre-made table legs will often already have the bolt pre-installed on the top of each leg, and may also coime with the appropriate mounting plates.



No. First of all, you can't purchase a 36" wide, 1" thick board that is 54 inches long. The most you are likely to find is 12" wide (Actually 11.5" x 3/4", if it's been made smoth on all 4 sides). A 1" thick surface made of plain wood would not be strong enough to support your computer, if the table top is 54" wide. Go with the plywood top that I described above, or better yet, the double-thick top. Use wood glue between the two layers of plywood to stick them together, and put some heavy weight on top of them to 'clamp' them together while the glue dries, at least over night. Put paper on the floor around the edges, to catch any glue that squeezes out. Glue the pieces together before you try to sand them or apply primer or stain.

Honestly, by the time you price all your materials - wood, hardware, sandpaper, glue, primer, stain, paint brushes... You will probably find it ie cheaper to go to an office supply store and purchase a mass-produced computer desk. But that wouldn't give you the pleasure of being able to tell your friends "I made that table!"

Regards,
Starchaser Webb
Bear Paw Woodworks,
Austin, TX

Make sure to avoid MDF as it is easy to work with and is smooth but will bend with weight in the middle of an unsupported surface.

You may also want to check out table tops and legs at a place like Ikea, where they are already finished and tested to support a reasonable amount of weight. And you can mix and match then put them together yourself.

For the legs, 4x4's seem pretty excessive. But if that's what you call for, take a look at some hardwood which will be smoother than pine or construction-grade lumber (like 2x4 or 4x4 studs). Although it will be more expensive.

To attach them, you have a few options. Drive some large screws in from the top and countersink them, then cover up the holes with wood filler. 4 should do the trick for 4x4's. Or get a metal plate which attaches to the underside of the table in the corners for the legs to slip into, then screw in from the sides. However, these are usually for construction projects and will be more visible and won't look very finished.

Good luck and have fun!

Does anyone else prototype building/carpentry projects in SL? I find it's a pretty good place to get a feel for what it would look like and how the pieces could fit together, but converting the size between meters and inches is a pain, and you have to adjust for SL's perceived scale difference. So getting size accurately is better left to other methods.

So why not build in metric?

My Dad showed me the benefits of using doors as desktops of all things! If you can find/have a used door for cheap or for free, consider that. Granted you'd be stuck with it's dimensions, but it's very strong and won't generally sag under most computer-related/expected weights.

I think one of the most fun software to prototype simple carpentry projects is SketchUp. You can easily learn the basics in half an hour and you don't need to deal with the lag.

www.sketchup.com

I wonder why SL uses metric.
Using their interface, I just use the 1 meter as if it was 10 inches.


I'm checking the Ikea website now to see what they have. For some reason, they do not have a table category. It's a little hard to navigate, but I'll find something.



Thanks for all the advice. I just got back from the hardware store. As you said, they do not sell 1 inch thick sheets. They are all 3/4in. I guess the best thing to do is double them up. They only come in 4ft x 8ft sheets anyway, so might as well cut them in half, and have a 4ft x 3ft table. I can use the remaining 8ft x 1ft plank to make four 2ft x 1ft planks. Good as a surface for putting the computer on the carpet.

The material I saw was sand ply. I'm not sure if it's the cabinet grade you mentioned, but it seemed pretty hard, and smooth. Is there such thing as a metal fastener that I could put on all corners and screw in as better reinforcement for the 2 sheets of wood?

As for the legs, they had 2 x 4 whitewood. I didn't see any 4 x 4. I might just go with the 2 x 4 if that would be sufficient enough.

I talked to the people at the hardware store, and they recommended 150 grade sandpaper just like you mentioned. All they said was to use that, and apply polyeurethane on it to coat, and it should be fine.
I'm not sure I should sand it because the wood looks very smoothe as if it had been sanded already. But I might just do some extra sanding just in case although I do not really know how to sand. Is it possible to sand too much?

Otherwise, I can try what you mentioned, and sand it with the 150, and then with the 300. Then, apply primer, and sand again with the 300 until really smooth. Then apply the polyeuethane.


The metal plates are sort of confusing to me. All I saw were joint hangers. Just like this:



This one is for 2" x 8". They also has ones that were smaller than this for 2" x 4". This was all I saw regarding metal plates. I did not see anything like you described.


Thanks!

Kewl. I've never seen that. Ive been using AutoCAD for about 5 years before I started playing SL. I used it to build fantasy cities and futuristic devices. I don't think AutoCAD can rended like that. I have the latest version of EFrontier Shade. I figured it would be better than AutoCAD, but I still have not gotten the hang of it.

The SL interface has some serious limitations, but still, I see alot of really cool stuff get built there. I believe my table is still in the adult sandbox.

Because it is vastly superior to imperial for computer applications. No need to convert between odd units that have different steps, just nice simple power-of-ten calculations. Throw the object position in mm into a float and you're done.


Metric is superior for RL too.

Nase,

First, get out of the construction hardware department. You want to go where they have the turned wooden table legs, or where they have wheels to put on chair or table legs. Usually it's near where the nuts and bolts and hinges are sold.

The part you want is here. They go with table legs like these.

That is a mounting plate for a table leg, and the leg to go with it, as found on Ace Hardware's website.

Oh ok. I see now. That looks like it would work great. I would have to find that in the 2x4 size to fit my legs. Or 4x4 if I really want to do 4x4.

I wonder why anyone anywhere uses imperial...

ok, since i was bored. i made this simple conversion script to be used in builds to convert their metric dimensions into imperial. This is just a quick job. havent tested to see if its 100% accurate. Then again, advanced math was never my strong point lol.

 
string Convert(float imp)
{
	integer ft;
	float inch;
	if(imp > 12)
	{
		ft = llFloor(imp/12);
		inch = ((imp/12) - ft) * 12;
		return (string)ft+ "' " + (string)inch + "\"";
	}
	else
	{
		return (string)imp + "\"";
	}
}
 
default
{
	touch_start(integer total_number)
	{
		vector dimensions_imp = llGetScale();
		dimensions_imp.x = dimensions_imp.x * 39.37;
		dimensions_imp.y = dimensions_imp.y * 39.37;
		dimensions_imp.z = dimensions_imp.z * 39.37;
		llSay(0,Convert(dimensions_imp.x) + " x " + Convert(dimensions_imp.y) + " x " + Convert(dimensions_imp.z));
	}
}

Now, im sure there are more effecient and more accurate ways. This is just my version enjoy

Except for floating point errors, a recise conversion could be made by changing all the

* 39.37

code to:

/ 0.0254

That gives the exact official conversion ratio, with no errors beyond what floating point calculations will give you.

Of course, what I'm looking for is a good conversion for tatami mat sizes...

I have this almost exact desk.. I went to ikea and bought 4 metal legs, they come with 4 metal flanges that you screw onto a flat board, which they also sell..

viola. desk for around 50 bucks. and it's all finished and stuff as well. Not as much fun to build though, and it kills alot of the artistry..

ya know it's just me, but I'd use 4" x 4"'s for the legs, a peice of nice plywood (available in the furniture quality wood sections of most hardware stores)

Hell I can even build an exact RL copy, including screws and such in SL if you wish.

Contstuction would be simple:

1) Cut the 4 x 4 legs to the proper size. (height)

2) Sand the legs to a smooth finish, using smaller grit sandpaper as you go.

3) Cut the top and bevel as desired.

4) Sand the top until smooth, using smaller grit sandpaper as you go.

5) Attatch the legs to the table top using storebought fasteners OR trianlge peices of wood. I'd use 2 or 2 1/2 inch screws for this - you may want to countersink the heads beforehand.

6) Apply the stain/clearcoat/paint to the entire table.

7) Let dry, recoat if nessary.

Enjoy.

---- That's what I'd do anyway, although I'd make mine stronger, you are free to do as you wish.

- Sam