How to Build a Ping Pong Table

The project describes the construction of a Ping Pong table dimensioned to the internationals standard sizes.

It’s a easy job: all people can be able to do it.

Only simple materials are used (wood mainly), and are necessary only simple tools for working the components.

The project combines the satisfaction of the creativity with the pleasure for the ping pong gaming.

The project is completed with 2D e 3D technical drawings, with dimensions, notes, part list, photos and instructions.

Good work and have fun!

Ciao from Italy.

Davide Dona’

Step 1: Scope

We will build a ping pong table fully conform to the internationals standard sizes, light, fully in wood, and fully disassemblable.

It is a creative project, for fun before with the do it yourself, and after with gaming.

Pay attention: All the dimensions on drawings are in centimeters: 1 centimeter = 0,3937 inch!
The material for construction is wood, and is not required a high precision for realization, so none tolerances are indicated on drawings: it is enough to have some rasps.
 

Comments

[valhallas_end]

Nice. We'd built a slightly undersized version (since we couldn't get the particular wood plates we needed in larger sizes) similar to this...although in hindsight, we should have thought out the leg set-up a bit better (two sawhorses perpendicular to the table length instead of 4 parallel, with 2x4's spanning the length that set into the horse tops). I like your net assembly much more, though - it looks sturdy and easy to put up/break down. Kudos.

[Davide67]

Dear Kudos,
Thank you for your comments!
The net assembly design of my table is very functional, it's the better part of project.
Do you have a picture or drawing of your construction?
Ciao from Italy!
Davide

[valhallas_end]

Davide,
Hmmm...I'm not sure if I have any shots on hand (granted, I haven't checked the archives from my dad's camera since early summer, and we built the table in August...I'll take a look through and see if I can post any). I'll have to get back to you on that. Honestly, except for the quick 3D model I built as a design plan (which we promptly ignored during the actual construction), we built it as fast as we could so we could finally play ping-pong on our new patio...
By the way, what program did you use for the design or the drawings you posted? It looks similar to a number of the 3D CAD packages I've used (Pro/E, AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks, etc.), but that exploded view in Step 8 looks much better than most I've seen.

(I'd bet the weather is much nicer in Italy than here in Syracuse, New York. Where in Italy do you hail from? My family came from the Provincia di Firenze, but I haven't had a chance to visit Italy yet).

[Davide67]

Your family came from Italy? Great!!!!
Pasta, Pizza, o Sole mio!
I live in northern Italy, my little city is between Milano and Torino, for the precision Provincia di Novara (Piemonte)
In this period the weather is good, there is always the sun and +10°C, but the winter can be very hard in my zone.
The weather is very sweet at south of Roma, and in Sicily is almost as in north Africa, similar to your California I think.
Are you a 3D CAD user?
The Ping Pong Project, parts, assembly and drawings, is maked with Pro/ENGINEER, the best for me.
The drawing modality of Pro/E can create fantastic exploded views and sections that others software cannot create so well.
You can found some components created by me with Pro/E on my Blog:
http://ddonagrignasco.blogspot.com/

Provincia di Firenze is wonderful, one of the best places of Italy!
I would like visit the United States…maybe one day I will succeed.
Ciao!

[valhallas_end]

Ahh I should have recognized the font as being from Pro/ENGINEER (although AutoCAD uses a very similar font) - Pro/E is my personal favorite, too. I've been using Pro/E exclusively for 3 or 4 years now, ever since one of my college courses required its use and I found the student version for a fantastically low price. I mostly use it for its "Mechanica" modules - Finite Element Analysis in particular - and for 3D mock-ups (when redesigning my living room wall, I recreated my whole room in Pro/E). I use the drawing tools (especially for full-scale drawings - I designed a full RC aircraft in Pro/E and printed parts at full scale for pin-board templates), but for my applications I rarely need to create part explosions or sectioned views.

Very nice models in your blog, by the way.