My Homemade Ping Pong Table

So here it is my homemade ping pong table. People have been really impressed that I made a table instead of going out and buying one but this really was a simple afternoon project.

To start with a confession: The table is 4 feet by 8 feet. This is not regulation size. A regulation size table is 5 ft by 9 ft. With that said this is nearly regulation size. It is actually closer than any table that I have found for sell that were not regulation. For some reason you can buy regulation size tables then you can buy tables that are 6 ft by 3.5 ft or smaller. The table is this size for 2 reason. 1 this is the size boards come in at Lowes Hardware. 2 I did not have a lot of space. As you can see this size fits will behind the couch in this room.
 So what did I do: I went and bought a 1/2 inch 4 by 8 sheet of particle board at Lowes. The sheet cost less than 20 dollars. The board is really heavy (it takes 2 people to move!) and part of the reason I taped the sides with white duct tape was because the sides are easily damaged. The surface though is really solid.

I painted it with primer paint combo. I could have primed the board and then painted and that would have been a dollar or two cheaper maybe. If you have some primer laying around go get the sample size paint at Lowes Hardware. The board does not take must paint because it is such a smooth surface. I have seen people buy the board and not paint it or draw cool pictures on it with Sharpies. The paint was just so the table would look more legit.   

The sides are taped with white duct tape. The lines down the middle are taped with masking tape. The masking tape is probably going to pill and I will need to re-tape it. I might go with a different type of tape in the future but this works for now.

  The table is set on a cheap set of plastic saw horses these cost around $30. This way I can lean the table top against the wall and fold the legs up and the table will take up next to no space with not being used. Lowes sells adjustable saw horses which would mean you could adjust your table up and down if you wanted.

If the table starts to bow I might come back and frame the bottom out. 

So for this project I had to buy the particle board, the saw horses, some paint, some duct tape, and the paddle and ball set (I bought these from the evil empire aka Walmart). I purchased all of this for well under $100.

The table has been great fun. The paint tends to turn the ball green but the more we play on it the less than happens. The cardboard net really is a lot of fun to play on. It is really unforgiving. A lot of players ask if it is taller because most ping pong nets sag over time and this does not. The ball makes a really loud popping sound when it hits the cardboard and with a traditional net if the ball touches the net it slows down but here the ball bounces off this adds an new dimension to the game. I have come to enjoy playing with a cardboard net a lot more than playing with a traditional net.