I built a fairly nice craps table a couple of years ago and it has gotten a lot of use. See here for the thread about that, and the rebuild after the house fire.

I decided I would like a full size craps table to actually practice throwing dice, and maybe, become a better shooter. I have the room now to have a large table like that. I figure it can’t hurt, and it will be cool to have the guys over and play on a full size table.

I did some searching and the best dimensions I could come up with for a typical table was 12′ long by 5′ wide. As I remember, our local casino has 12′ tables.  I wanted to size it up and see just how long 12 feet is when throwing the dice.

My ping pong table is 5′ wide, but not long enough to try this. I took the ping pong table and layed some spare mdf on it to make it 12 feet long. I got some felt and set up a temporary back with the diamond end from my other craps table. I set up a temporary leaning/throwing station on the end. I started tossing the dice. It felt right. I can see that I need some practice. I think this is a good idea!

I started drawing this out in Google Sketchup, a great tool for this kind of thing! Here is the idea I came up with. It isn’t complete but it gave me some dimensions to work with.

The base is going to be interesting. Plywood comes in 4×8 sheets. I need 12 x 5 for the final size. I decide to make it two layers of 1/2″ plywood. I would cut the pieces necessary and stagger the pieces so the connections don’t overlap.

I went to the casino this weekend and kind of sized up the table, and I think my idea is about right. As I remember anyway. My memory is a little foggy after a few too many. It was a good night!

The walls would be 1 x 12 pine boards doubled up.

So off to the lumber store with my son. I need help moving those 4×8 sheets. Getting old sucks. He wasn’t doing anything anyway.

I added some more 2×4 support to the ping pong table frame (which was home made).

I layed the plywood on the ping pong table frame and cut a couple of 4×4 pieces. and 6ea 4×1 pieces. I layed them on the concrete floor with some fence board spacers under them, as my screws protruded through a little underneath.  It was a pain, but it seemed to be somewhat rigid. I put a few splice pieces of plywood on some of the connections for added strength and tried lifting it. Wow! That is heavy.

I managed to lean it on the long edge, scoot the frame over, and persuade the huge piece of plywood on the frame.

It wasn’t 30 minutes later my two oldest sons showed up to get some of their furniture out of my shop! Man, I sure could have used their help. Figures.

It was a little flimsy, so I figured some 2″ 1by strips around the perimeter would help. Also a 11×11 square on each corner.

That helped, but the ends were kinda saggy. Is that a word? I needed some bracing on the ends. I used some of the 2″ 1by stock I had left over. This would prove to be inadequate, and would be replaced later by 2×4’s.