The point of this project was to transform an existing table into a convertible board game table. My problem was that I coul'd not let a game "in pause" for a day or more without my cats messing with it. Furthermore, if my friends are not available for a week or more to resume a game, an opened game can take a lot of place on my dinner table...

Supplies

The most important part of this built is a compatible table. I didn't want to buy a dedictaed piece of furniture nor building one from scratch.

Here is the list of thing I bought for upgrading the table itself :

Few metal brackets (example)
Some wooden cleats (example)
Particle boards
Polyesther sheet
Wooden footboards (example)
Metal slides (this one)
L-shaped aluminium profile (example)
Hinges (example)
Latches (example)

In a second step, I added some light to the table. To do so, I bought :

A Raspberry Pi 3b (this one)

A led ribbon (this one)
An external power supply unit (this one)

The main tools I had to use was :

A wood saw
Some screwdrivers
A drill
A router
A soldering iron and tin
Some jumpcables

Step 1: Building the Playing Surface

The first step was to remove the original table top. The top was composed of 5 pieces of wood :

Two short ones, making the table width
Two long ones, making the table length
A central one

They were fixed to each other only by wooden dowel. And this assembly was attached to the rest of the table by metal brackets and screws. Dismantle them was an easy part.

My plan was to keep the short parts fixed to the rest of the table and to use metal slides in order to make the long ones mobile. Finally, the center part will lie on a brand new "bed" that will be the playing surface.

To build the playing surface under the dinner table top, I used the side uprights to take advantage of their height. Using metal brackets and wooden cleats, I created supports that will handle the playing surface.

I did not randomly place the wooden cleats along the table. I've calculated their position using two factors :

The playing surface will be composed of 3 pieces of particle board. I wanted them to start/end on a wooden cleat
The central part on the table top will lie on the playing surface with 6 feet. I wanted them to fall just on a wooden cleat too.

In order to have a beautiful playing surface, I used double sided tape to cover the 3 boards with the polyester sheet.

To prevent the playing surface from moving and knock off my game pieces, I added some small pieces of L-shaped aluminium profile.

Step 2: Building the Top Moving Parts

This step was probably the most complex. I had to use a router to carve the exact space to insert my slides into the moving parts. The slides will be attached to the short parts that compose the table top. The fit had to be precise in order to let the central part fit inside them. The first attempt was not successful :D !

I wanted people to be confortable around this table, so I added some metal reinforcements on hinge that can be deployed to support the weight of someone's arms on those parts. I put 2 of them on each side.

To prevent those parts from moving during a game, I added a latch to maintain them on position.

Step 3: Building the Top Central Part

The central part will just be dropped in the center of the table. To make it at the right level, I built 6 feet using wooden footboards. I used metal brackets to attach them on the central part. I used threaded metal inserts to add adjustable feet on them. With all this, I was able to compense the gap created by the weight of this part on the playing surface.

Step 4: LED There Be Light

This step is a bonus and was suggested to me after I show this project to my friends and family.

I wanted to enlight my board games and more of that, display different colors for each player alongside of some animations. The cheapest way to achieve this was to build it from scratch. I didn't find a solution in any store that fited my needs.

The first part I picked was a 6m long stripe of WS2812b LED. It was composed of 800 LEDs. Each LED can consume up to 60mA. If I wanted them all white and at 100% of their brightness, it will consume 48A. So I bought a 50A, 5V PSU.

Using the same PSU, I was able to power the Raspberry board that control lights.

I followed some basic Python tutorials online before I was able to light up the stripe as intended. But in the end it was quite simple. Using some advanced technologies (like Firebase), I built a simple app to control lights, segment by segment.

Here's the most helpful tutorial I found for this project