Two cupholders are installed! Two more got their third coat last night and are going to be installed today. The grain matching is looking great!

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Two to go!

We had a rainy Sunday due to Hurricane (now Post-Tropical Cyclone?) Hilary and I got to spend it in the shop! The final coat of finish went onto the last two cupholders, and then it was time to start working on the player stations. These consist of a two vertical supports that are split and hinge open, and then the actual tray which becomes part of the top when folded up:

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The tray was already cut when I cut up the tops for the cupholders and corners, so I worked on the split vertical supports. After jointing and planing a board I cut them into 5” tall blocks. Cutting a series of pieces to exact size is easy when you clamp a stop block to your sled:

After a couple of test cuts I found that 18.5° was the ideal angle for the split, so that the tray would be even with the top of the table, and flush with the base when open:

I cut a wedge at that angle and then used it along with another stop on the miter sled to cut the 5” blocks:

Next up was cutting the slot for the hinge. I’m using SR-301 side rail hinges from Brusso, the best of the best! I assembled a jig to hold the two pieces of the support in the open position:

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And then went to the router table and figured out where to place a couple of stops so that the mortise would be just the right size for the hinge:

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After a quick pass back and forth I ended up with a perfect fit:

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Next I needed to drill the holes for the screws. A centering bit does the job here, using the 18.5° wedge to hold the piece flat for the drill press:

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After drilling 48 holes I ended up all of my supports ready to go:

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Next up will be attaching the shorter splits on these pieces to the trays.

I put on the final coat of wax and assembled the last two cupholders!

After deciding a few weeks ago to replace the redundant cupholders on the two ends of the table with a dice tower, I’ve been rolling the idea around in my mind. I finally sat down at Sketchup and I think I have a plan.

I open a new file to keep everything nice and clean and just started with two boards simulating the back and base (the dark gray parts in the following photos). My design constraints were to keep the top and front edge design the same to match the rest of the table, which limits the dimension to 6” wide and 6” deep, with a 3/4” edge along the top and a 4 1/4” tall face:

I ended up creating two hinged parts to try and maximize the amount of vertical space (for the tower) and horizontal space (for the tray where the dice spill out). The main body first hinges up 90° along the back edge:

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And then what was the front panel flips over 180° exposing the opening to the tower. The other side of that panel is a little felt-lined tray for holding dice when not in use (and you can scoop them forward to fall in the tower):

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Inside the tower are three shelves which randomize the dice, and should give it a really neat sound:

The bottom tray is felt lined and 1” tall to prevent any dice from jumping out.

I did a lot of tweaking of the tolerances to give me as tall and deep a tower as I could. When closed, the two nestle together with no room to spare (color coded to help keep track):

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So that’s the current plan! I’ll sit with this design for a while and let my subconscious see if it comes up with any improvements. I’ll finish the player stations, the drawers and the leaves on the table (and probably put the table in the dining room) before I even think about starting to build these.

My main contact at the hardwood store, Dan, knows I’m always on the lookout for awesome pieces of Sapele, and a couple of weeks ago he set aside a highly figured piece for me. I bought it, not even having a project in mind (this was before I had the dice tower plan), but now I’m definitely using it for these! I’ll have to take it down off the rack and inspect it, but at first glance maybe I can center that dark streak vertically in the tower?