Topic: "Vintage" Bonzini restoration

[kgstewar]

Took me a few tries to get the cabinet finish just how I wanted it but seem to have found a recipe that works. As I said above, I used gloss Arm-R-Seal as the finish. This does give a nice glossy finish, but it's almost too glossy, sort of sparkly, if that makes any sense. I figured the sparkle was because the finished surface was not as flat (geometrically speaking) as it could be. To remedy this, I sanded the cured finish gently with 800 through 2000 grit sandpaper and then buffed it out using an electric polisher/buffer. Started with 3m Rubbing Compound and then followed that with Turtle Wax Polishing compound. Last thing I did was to put on a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax. Photo below shows the final surface on the top half of the cabinet:

[kgstewar]

Now working on building a new playfield base. The original base was made from 10 mm particle board but this was in pretty bad shape and had a real sag to it. Finding 10 mm plywood is pretty hopeless but I discovered that you can get Baltic Birch plywood in a 3/8" thickness, and when I measured this with my metric calipers it came out to 9.6 mm. Not perfect but hopefully close enough, and if not I can shim it a little. I cut a piece that will serve as the base and dropped it into the upper cabinet to test the fit. At first glance, looked pretty good:


But on closer inspection, I noticed that the gaps between the new board and the cabinet frame were uneven. For instance, the next two photos shows the gap at one goal end is fairly large at one corner, and non-existent at the other:




So, either I cut the plywood badly or the top cabinet frame is not square. To check squareness of the cabinet, all you have to do is measure the diagonals: if it's square they should be the same. Two photos below show that is not the case. First diagonal is a bit over 65.5". Second diagonal is a hair under 66".




The solution is to clamp the long diagonal and try to bring it into square. Second photo below shows a more-or-less consistent gap now along the goal-end of the base. I'll clamp it like this and glue in some small wood blocks in the interior corners to hold it square.

[kgstewar]

Rebuilding the playing surface.

The Gerflex playing surface on the table was in pretty bad shape and the particle board base had a pronounced sag. I decided to get a new sheet of Gerflex and to build a new base.

These pictures show the old base. It was made from a 10 mm sheet of particle board, with beechwood corner ramps. Stapled to this was a 2.5 mm sheet of fiberboard, and the Gerflex was glued to that. On the underside of the particle board were strips of plywood that had various cutouts to accommodate the hinges. I disassembled the old surface and salvaged the corner ramps so I could reuse those.


I made my new playfield base out of 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood. The strips on the underside are also 3/8" plywood and you can see the rather complicated mortise I had to cut out to accommodate the hinges.



Reusing the old corner ramps saved some time. On the original play field these were glued and stapled. I used mostly glue and a couple of 18 gauge brads to hold them tight.



I then attached a piece of 1/8" hardboard to the surface. This is a little thicker than the original (by about 0.5 mm) which made it feel substantially sturdier than the original. The 2.5 mm hardboard that they used feels super flimsy.

The original hardboard was attached with many many tiny staples and no glue. I went with many fewer 18 gauge staples (1/2" long) and some construction adhesive. The hardboard "blisters" a little around the staples so I filled and sanded those spots smooth. The sheet of hardboard I used was slightly oversized, so after I attached it, I went around the table with my router using a flush trim bit, and trimmed it flush!



Next step is to glue the new Gerflex sheet on to the hardboard.

[kgstewar]

Starting to put it all back together. First two shots are a before and after of the same part of the table. Really wish I had taken more "before" photos, because this thing was in ROUGH shape.







Still need to glue on the new Gerflex, then should have the table completely finished by the end of this weekend.

[RobYates]

Thank you for posting all this. That looks like one hell of a project. I bet the table is going to play amazing when your finished. Awesome Job!

[alaskan thunder]

Nice job man!!

[kgstewar]

Thanks Rob and AT, it has definitely been a learning experience! I am REALLY looking forward to finishing this project :-)

[kgstewar]

Side rails. Replacing the plastic side rails seemed like a good way to spruce up the table. They come rolled into a fairly tight coil and - at room temperature - the plastic is super stiff. The rails have a small lip on the underside that fits over a metal channel that is screwed to the top edge of the table (you can see the metal channels if you scroll up a couple of posts).  The only way to get the rail on is to heat it up to make it more pliable. To do this, I submerged the rails in a pot of hot water (~180 degrees). At that temperature the plastic is very pliable and can easily be fitted onto the metal channel. The rail material is slightly long so you don't have to be super careful getting the ends just right. Just leave a little excess and then trim with a utility knife.

[kgstewar]

Putting the rods in the table. I put the men on the rods using the spacing provided on the french Bonzini site, under their FAQ (http://www.bonzini.com/en/football-table/Products/FAQ-Maintenance/). When I attached the inner rods I noticed that on one side of the table, the rod rested on the bottom of the opposite hole, while on the other side of the table the rod rested on the top of the hole. I had originally thought that the misalignment was due to the rod being bent, but this pattern suggests instead that the sides of the table are in fact parallel to each other but slightly tilted. Rather than bend the rods, I just put thin paper shims under the bottom or top of the flange on the inner rod and was able to get them centered:

before shimming:


after shimming

[kgstewar]

Rods all assembled and in the table.

[kgstewar]

Attaching the Gerflex I used 3m 80 spray adhesive. This stuff is pretty expensive and I could only find it on the internet but it's what 3m recommended for gluing vinyl to wood.


When you spray it out it comes out almost like spider webs. I did a couple of criss-crossing coats on each surface.



I put the sheet on, starting in the middle and rolled it on. The Gerflex was a little oversized and I was able to trim that easily with a utility knife.

[kgstewar]

Major setback....

I built my new play field base out of 3/8 plywood. I chose plywood because it was the only material I could find that was close to the 10 mm thickness of the original playfield. In hindsight, this thickness is not so critical, and plywood turned out to be a bad idea. Throughout the building of the play field I would obsessively check the flatness using a steel straightedge and it was always perfect. Then after I glued on the Gerflex, I checked again and it had warped into a "dome". Argggh. I don't know how or why this happened but plywood is warpable and I should have known that. If it had warped into a "basin" instead of a dome, then I might have been able to get it flat by putting some shims under the surface, but a dome required the following remedy. This got out some of the warp, but not all. I suspect I'll need to build a new play field, this time using particle board, which is very flat and doesn't warp because all the bits of wood in it are randomly oriented.

[Anderson]

This is very good to know since I am planning on creating a surface from scratch as well on a Rene Pierre. I'll be using my own marmoleum, which has a backing which makes it thicker, but I'm more concerned with what I use as the surface. I'll have to have a thinner surface to make it work with the marmoleum. I'm really concerned now as to what material to use. I would prefer to have a surface with ZERO give, but Bonzini and Rene Pierre should have some give to play the way that they do. Maybe quarter inch metal plate surface? I don't know. Any ideas?

[kgstewar]

This is very good to know since I am planning on creating a surface from scratch as well on a Rene Pierre. I'll be using my own marmoleum, which has a backing which makes it thicker, but I'm more concerned with what I use as the surface. I'll have to have a thinner surface to make it work with the marmoleum. I'm really concerned now as to what material to use. I would prefer to have a surface with ZERO give, but Bonzini and Rene Pierre should have some give to play the way that they do. Maybe quarter inch metal plate surface? I don't know. Any ideas?

I think I'm going to try 5/8" particle board. This is flat, a little bendy, but not much, should not warp, and is available at Lowes. The extra thickness will require some creative shimming but shouldn't be too bad.

[Anderson]

I was hoping to get a surface that fits like the old one to avoid altering the cabinet.