Day 1 - November 27th:  Cutting your arcs is the first step you need to accomplish.  Though this may seem daunting at first, rest assured it is an easy process. 

Simply place a sheet of the 4' x 8' piece of plywood on two sawhorses (or in my case, the 6' conference table).  Now, starting from the end of the plywood, measure 24" down (inward) along each of the two long sides.  Place a mark at each location.   Now using a 48" or longer ruler, draw a straight line across the plywood connecting your two marks.   Measure 24" inward along this line and place another mark.  This will be the axis of the ruler used to measure an even 24" semi-circle.  Simply attach the ruler with a screw and trace a line 24" out from the center as you rotate the ruler.  Keep in mind to make the proper adjustment in your measurements to account for the placement of the hole in the ruler.  Repeat this step for the opposite end of the plywood.

Now you should be ready to cut out the arcs.  Using a Skill saw, I simply followed the lines traced in the previous step.  Do not worry about making this cut 100% clean, as this piece will be used as your base and will not be visible.  You should now be left with the base of your table as pictured to the right. 

You can now use the piece you just cut as a template to trace the arcs on the remaining two pieces of wood.  Once traced, cut the arcs so you are left with three identical cuts of wood. 

Seeing as I wanted a 4" padded armrest, I had to use of the 3 pieces of wood we just cut.  I chose the piece that was already measured out and reattached my ruler as we did in the first step.  Now, using the ruler, measure 4" inward and trace a new arc on each end of the board.   You should now be looking at something similar to the picture on the left.  Do not forget to measure 4" inward along the straight sides and connect these lines to your arcs. 

Now make the cut for your rail.  Make sure the outer 4" of the rail is supported properly and will not break and fall away as you make the cut.  You should now be left with the top portion of your arm rail as seen on the right.

Whew!  Time to call it quits for the day.   I will pick back up tomorrow where I will be cutting the lower rail, the racetrack, and the center piece for the velveteen.

Day 2 - November 28th:  Picking up where I left off yesterday, I still needed to cut the 1.5" piece for the lower part of the arm rail.  I did this using the oak plywood which will later serve as the racetrack and velveteen insert.  Again, this cut does not have to be perfect since it is going to be hidden by the vinyl.  When I went to measure the 1.5" cut, I realized that I had no efficient way to measure a 24" center to make my arcs.  I had to use the original measured piece of plywood as a template which allowed me to drive the screw through the base and partially into the oak plywood.  Learning from my mistakes, I would advise you to measure the 24" centers on the bottom side of your oak plywood prior to cutting the initial arcs as I did yesterday.  To the left, you can see how the lower rail and upper rail fit together.  Keep in mind, this is the bottom of the railing and will be facing the floor once the vinyl and padding has been added.

Now that we have the required pieces for the railing, it is time to measure and cut the racetrack and felt insert.  To calculate the measurements needed for the cut, simply replace X with the width of racetrack you desire  4" + x" - 1.5" = ?   The resulting measurement is the distance you must measure inward.  If you are wondering, the 4" is the railing and the 1.5" is the piece you removed to make the lower railing.  I made my racetrack 5.5". 

Remember to exercise extreme caution when making this cut ( I spent about 45 minutes on it).  This will be the visible edge between the felt and the racetrack so be sure to switch to a fine toothed blade for this step.  If not, you will end up with splintered visible edges.  To the right you will see what the table looks like once you put all the pieces together. 

Day 3 - November 29th:  I am still waiting on the material for the center piece as well as the vinyl for the railing.  All I did today was to attach the upper and lower pieces of the arm rail.  Simply turn the arm rails upside down, so the big piece is on the bottom and lay the small piece on top.  I applied a small bead of wood glue along the circumference of the large piece, laid the small piece on top, clamped it down and screwed in some 1" wood screws.  Picture is to the left.

Day 4 - November 30th:  I went to Hancock Fabrics tonight to pickup some 1" thick foam for the arm rails.  I bought two yards of 27" wide Nu Foam.  I measured four 6" wide strips (see picture on the right).  These were then cut and glued to the top of the arm rails using 3M Super 77 Ahdesive.

Day 5 - December 1st:  In order to make the felt insert easily removable, I used Tee-Nuts installed in to the top of the center insert.  I used 3/8" Tee-Nuts and 1.5" bolts.  It turns out that I will also need spacing washers for the bolts, as they seem to protrude slightly above the surface of the table.  You can see on the right where I had to countersink the Tee-Nuts slightly with a 1" hole bit so they are flush with the surface of the table.  I then covered each of the 4 holes with masking tape to help smooth the surface out before applying the padding. 

By installing the bolts from the bottom of the table, I can easily remove the felt center piece should need to be cleaned or replaced.  Who knows what can happen with a bunch of drunks around a poker table ;-) .

Tomorrow, I will probably install the cup holders in the racetrack and apply the first coat of urethane and stain.

Day 6 - December 2nd:  Today, I tackled the hardest part of the project, attaching the vinyl to the padded arm rail.  Other than the fact that I am about 30 staples short, the rail is about done. 

I started out by laying my vinyl face down and centering the arm rail in the middle of the fabric.  Starting in the middle of either arc, pull the vinyl over the edge and staple it as you see on your right. As you move around the arc, pull the vinyl inward toward the previous staple.  Do not worry about the wrinkles on the bottom, they need to be here or else they will show on top of the rail.  Do the same for the other arc before beginning to staple the straight edges.  Make sure to use an ample amount of staples.  It is better to have too many staples, than to have your vinyl rip out.  Once the outside of the rail is complete and trimmed you should have something similar to the picture on the left.

Now comes the fun part, stapling the inside railing.  Notice the picture on the right.  What you need to do is to draw a straight line across approximately where each of your arcs start.  Draw straight lines out from the center point to about 4" from the edge of the railing.  You should have what looks like slices of pie.  Make your cuts using a utility blade.   Be careful not to cut to close to the railing or your cut will be visible.   Start in the middle of the arc and pull the center piece up and over the inside rail.   If the vinyl is too tight to pull up, make additional cuts outward toward the rail, but be careful not to cut to far.  Make your way around both arcs before continuing on to the straight pieces. 

Once you are done, trim all your extra vinyl and go grab a beer.  Hopefully your hands don't hurt to bad to hold it.  I forgot to mention, I also spray painted the plywood base of the table black to make it look cleaner and more professional.

Day 7 - December 3rd: The 3/8" closed cell padding was fairly easy to apply to the center velveteen insert.  The best way I found to accomplish this is to lay the padding down on the workbench table first.  Apply the spray adhesive to the top side of the center insert and lay the insert face down on the padding.  Use a utility razor to trip the edges around the insert as close as you can, making sure to press hard enough to cut through the foam.  Remove the excess foam and flip the center piece over.  Examine the edges for any stray pieces and trim them off. 

After destroying my fingers and palm with a regular staple gun yesterday, I purchased an electric staple gun to staple the velveteen to the center piece.  Let me say, it is definitely worth the $29.99.  Anyway, lay your velveteen face down on your carpet or another soft surface as to not damage the surface.   If your velveteen has wrinkles in it, you may want to apply a warm iron to the underside before stapling it to the insert.  Set your padded insert face down on the velveteen and center it.  Beginning with one of the arcs, start pulling the fabric inward and stapling an inch or two from the edge.  You want to leave a little space between your staples and the edge.  The additional space will allow you to pull the fabric tighter should you find wrinkles in the surface after you are finished.

All that is left to do is cut the holes for the cup holders, stain the racetrack, then just put the pieces together!

Day 8 - December 4th:  I mounted the legs to the bottom of the table.  Notice I spray pained the bottom & edges of the table black.  This is just for aesthetic purposes and seeing as it is the bottom of the table, I was not too worried about the quality of the paint.  I measured 24" inward from the edges (1/2 of 48" width) and centered the legs about 15" from the end of the table.

After mounting the legs, I could not resist setting the velveteen insert in just to get a preview of what it would look like.  In order to get it seated correctly, I had to sand the inside edges slightly.  I used 100 grit and removed just enough off the inside edges that the felt fits snug with no gaps.

I sanded the racetrack top with 220 grit sandpaper, wiped the dust with a dry towel and applied the first coat of poly stain.  Make sure you have a good stain brush and apply the stain in the direction of the wood grain.  I chose a light oak color for my racetrack.

Day 9 - December 6th:  I put the final two coats of poly stain on.  Wanting to get another sneak preview of the table, I dropped the felt in and seated the arm rail.  It is looking great.  Hopefully the hole saw shows up tomorrow so I can cut the holes for the cup holders and be done.

Day 9 - December 9th:  Turns out I had to order the 2-7/8" hole saw from another vendor since my original order got put on back order.  Rather than have the base easily visible below the padded rail, I cut an additional 1.5" off the base so it is now even with the racetrack rather than the railing.  I also decided to paint the bottom of the table with a nice flat wall paint, rather than the horrible spray paint job.   I bolted the velveteen insert down using the 1.5" Tee-Nuts and secured the racetrack/rail to the base with 2" wood screws.

Day 10 - December 14:  Hole saw came today and all I had to do was drill the holes for the cup holders.  This part is pretty much up to you on how you want to space them.

Here are some final pictures:

If you found these instructions helpful and want to drop a dollar or two in the tip jar, click here to do so Thanks!