How to repair hollow core table top?????

Epoxy Putty.

Ken Vaughan

Easy to use. Reinforces edges. Smooths to hard surface. Fast.

Re: How to repair hollow core table top?????

Dick Coers

I'd glue in a piece of rigid foam insulation and a hardboard skin on top.

Bondo??

Forget the gouge

Gary Smyth

A card table can't be more than 48" x 48". Apply a skin of 1/8" or 1/4" birch ply. recover with the existing cloth, or better, green or whatever color pool table felt. tighten it down, (a very, very, light coat of spray adhexive may help) anchor as before or with inexpensive molding or chair upholstery hob nails on the sides.

Re: Forget the gouge

fred in ct

Great Stuff expanding foam then Bondo.

Beat me to it...

Jim Matthews

After the foam cures, a flush cut saw will level the surface.

1/8" ply over the entire top.

A fresh felt or leather resurface would look sharp.

Pics of the fix, please.

You guys are great....

Barry Irby

Good stuff to think about, which is why I asked...

We have a twice a month card game, for which I made a table, oddly enough out of a huge hollow core door. The game used to float around from house to house, but because of Covid we seem to be playing on the table I built at my friends office, I E, at nobody's house. Along comes another friend, not a card player and gives us this table he got for nearly nothing at an auction. (Between us we do a lot of auctions.) He did not know I had built a table, so he said just sell it. A fill in player said he wanted it and we sold it to him for $100 (Too Cheap). We will give the money to our friend who donated the table. Then we noticed the damage under the cloth which did not really damage the "playability" of the table but the buyer wanted it fixed. So, I will fix it. For nothing. So, it's a $700 or $800 table he's getting with a little road rash for $100. And, it's new. Folds up, rolls away and has a cover. And we have never played at his house.

Overlay a new 1/8" hardboard top

And the winner is....

Barry Irby

I peeled back the fabric far enough to get under it. This required removing at least fifty staples around the edge. Cleaned out the hole and measured the depth with a stick rule, went home to the shop and made up several blocks of slightly varying thicknesses with a pieces of matching hardboard on top, took them back along with every tool I could think of and 5 minute epoxy. Trimmed the hole with a sharp chisel, glued one of the blocks in place, troweled some of the epoxy over the surface and let it set. I had put a big screw into the surface of the block as a handle. Came back after an hour, remove the screw, covered the patch with a very thin piece of plastic just to be sure the epoxy, which still seemed very slightly tacky, did not stick to the fabric. Stapled the edge, Done.

Today I will go to a fabric shop and see if i can find tape that matches what they used to cover the staples for wandering fingers.

Anybody catch the mistake? It's the thin piece of plastic. It's shiny and from just he right angle you can see the shine though the fabric. No a big deal, but whooda thunk it?