How to Make the Perfect Beer Pong Table

At some point in college everyone builds themselves a beer pong table. How you go about it says a lot about you and your roommates, as well as the shindigs you will definitely have around the beer pong table. This is the holy grail of beer pong tables for those that wish to make their boozing den into a drinking palace.

Below you will find everything you need to know to bring your own beer pong table to life. From materials, to 19 very simple steps.

Materials:

• ¾ in. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. Pure Bond Birch Plywood. ($52.98)
• 1,827 Bottle caps from the beers of your choice. (A lot of drinking and tips to bartenders ($?))
• Optix 0.08 in. x 18 in. x 24 in. Acrylic Plexi Glass. ($11.01)
• Plexi-Glass cutter. ($ 5.73)
• 2 Gallons of glaze coat clear epoxy (kit). ($149.78)
• Waddell folding banquet table legs 29 in. x 24 in (Black). ($26.99)
• 2 Canvas sheets 16 in. x 20 in. ($10.00)
• Epoxy Spreader. ($3.99)
• Sand paper. ($3.32)
• 2 Wood borders 0.65 in. x 1.5 in. x 8 ft. ($15.00)
• 2 Wood borders 0.65 in. x 1.5 in. x 2.130 ft. ($10.00)
• Oz Ultra cover semi-gloss white general-purpose paint. ($15.88)
• Blow torch ($22.03)
• 5-gallon bucket ($3.25)
• Hardware, just screws. ($3.80)
• Polyester wall paint brush ($3.98)
• Sharpies (Dark blue, Light blue, and Silver) ($9.76)
• Black spray paint ($0.99)
• Masking tape ($3.00)

 Steps:

1. To start off the project, we first bought the Pure Bond Birch Plywood. Since the plywood was 4 feet by 8 feet, we cut it in half to give us two pieces of plywood that are beer pong regulation at 2 feet by 8 feet.

2. After the table is cut and ready with your wood borders standing by, sand down any rough edges or splinters off of the table and the borders.

3. Now that your wood is smooth, paint both the borders and table completely with the Ultra cover semi-gloss white general-purpose paint. Make sure when you’re painting the table that no debris like grass or hairs fall onto it and dry in your paint job.

4. Once your paint job is dried on all your wood, drill both borders that are 2.13 feet long on each shorter end of the table. When drilling, drill into the side of the border until the screw securely makes its way into the plywood. Before drilling the border on, place it where the bottom of the border is flush with the bottom of the table. Make sure when you drill the borders on each side that 0.65 inches is sticking off both sides, so when you connect the 8-foot borders to the table it is flush with the 2.13-foot borders.

5. Now that your borders are secured on each end of the table, it is time to add your borders to the sides of your table. To secure each border on the side, place each border flush between the borders on the ends of the table. Once your borders are placed in between the already secured borders, drill from the outside of the borders on each end into the new borders that are now flush against them.

6. Now that the borders are somewhat secured, in order to completely secure them drill the outside of the side borders into the side of the plywood 1 screw per 2.6 feet.

7. With your table top now put together, it is time to attach the legs. On the bottom of your table, your leg mounts should be drilled in 8 inches from the side and each leg should line up with the side of your table both folded and unfolded. Both legs should be a foot and 7 inches away from each end, so that when folded the legs do not collide with each other.

8. Now that your table is completely assembled it is time to start the decorating. First you are going to want to draw the Natural Light and Bud Light Platinum logos with the sharpies. Once you have completed the drawings, make sure all your bottle caps are easily accessible and sitting face up.

9. You’re going to want to mix just enough epoxy inside of a cup so that you can apply a thin layer of it across the board with your polyester brush. After the layer is applied, place each canvas 1 foot from each end of the table towards the middle of the table. When placing the canvases, make sure there is an equal amount of space between the side borders and the sides of the canvases.

10. After placing your canvases start placing your bottle caps everywhere on the table around the canvases. Once caps completely cover the table, take two layers of caps in the middle and spray paint them black. This black line will serve as the half court line. On the 7^th cap towards the middle of the half court line start bridging a line of black caps towards the 7^th cap on the other side of the half court line. Once you do this on both sides, you should have a circle in the middle of the half court like with each bridge containing 12 black caps. Take all caps out of the circle except the black caps going through the middle. This will expose the white paint and make the half court line pop out.

11. The thin layer of Epoxy should dry within 12 hours. This thin layer of epoxy will stick all the caps and canvases to the board so when the 2 gallons of epoxy is applied, none of it will float up.

12. Once the layer is dried and everything is stuck to the board you can now cover the logos on the canvases with the plexi glass. We made our Bud Light canvas 13 inches x 7 inches and our Natural Light Canvas 13.5 inches x 14.5 inches, with the plexi glass cutter we cut one sheet of plexi glass according to the Natural Light Canvas and one sheet according to the Bud Light canvas.

13. Once the right size plexi glass sheets are cut out, you must get your polyester paint brush and apply a thin layer of epoxy around the border of the plexi glass sheets and place them on the canvases with the thin layer touching the canvases. This is done so that after it is dry it sticks the plexi glass to the canvas and creates a barrier from the 2 gallons of epoxy that is about to be poured. The reason it needs a barrier from the epoxy is because the epoxy could make the sharpie logos bleed and look distorted.

14. After the thin layer of epoxy is dried under the canvases, masking tape needs to be applied to the cracks between the table and borders. This is done to prevent any of the epoxy from leaking out.

15. After the masking tape is applied to all the cracks, the 2 gallons of epoxy can start to be mixed together. The instructions to mix the epoxy should be on the box or bottles. Once your epoxy is ready, slowly pour from one side of the table to the other while moving side to side.

Epoxy, Epoxy, and more Epoxy 💧👍🏼

A post shared by CarolinaCreators (@carolinacreators) on Apr 24, 2018 at 9:01pm PDT

16. While someone is pouring the epoxy, another person should be using a spreader to even out the epoxy as much as possible just to help it. Once all the epoxy is emptied onto the table all you must do is spread it as even as possible. While it may not be perfectly even at first, gravity will do the rest of the work and the epoxy will even its self out.

17. After you are done pouring the epoxy and it is spread, you must work on getting the bubbles out of the epoxy. Take the torch and slowly heat the surface all over the table and you should be able to see the bubblies rising and then disappearing. This is done so that the epoxy is as clear as possible.

The last touch of perfection 🔥🏓

A post shared by CarolinaCreators (@carolinacreators) on Apr 25, 2018 at 2:29pm PDT

18. After you are done rising the bubbles out of the epoxy all you have to do is wait for the epoxy to dry. The epoxy should harden to maximum strength in 72 hours.

19. After the 72 hours is up you should have a table that will last you a life time of beer pong, parties, and memories!

This was a guest article with mild alterations from Raging Mammoth staff. If you want to skip the legwork, they are starting a side business to fulfill your dream. Shoot them a DM on their IG or send them an email here NPAsparker@gmail.com.