Topic: Don't cry over spilt beer?

[hackjob]

Hey all,
I'm looking into placing a table into a bar where people love to spill drinks and the staff liberally wash and wipe stuff down carelessly a few days later.  I have a strategy to make the table as tough as possible, but I just wondered if anyone has experience using caulking or removable adhesive to seal the perimeter of a playfield from spilt drinks?  What works, what doesn't?

I suspect silicone is too hard to remove, acrylic may crack or separate...  but wondered about real world experience with foosball tables and/or countertops.  I am considering using dap removable caulking or maybe rubber cement.    Something that can be removed easily and reapplied when necessary but does not leave much residue or damage the table. 

[kgstewar]

Interesting idea: they make removable caulk in clear (http://www.homedepot.com/p/DAP-Seal-N-Peel-10-1-oz-Removable-Weatherstrip-Caulk-18351/100140056). What about the goals? I'm envisioning a tipped-over can of beer emptying into the ball return.

[Chaggy31]

Buy drink racks and put them on the ends of the table.

[Alan Cribbs]

Drop down playfield in the way to go.

[hackjob]

thanks to all so far... dap removable is number one on my list.

 just curious about other suggestions for removable sealants or glues on formica?

[clint1080]

I almost did this to a brown marble I recently restored. I had planned on running a bead of clear silicone caulk along the playfield perimeter and up each of the four corners. If a beverage were spilled into the table I think this would do a good job of postponing greatly the soaking in/ swelling problem, giving one more time to clean the spill.

In theory, it seems like one could run a fairly thick bead without the ball ever being able to touch it. My idea, however, was to run a small, clean, unnoticeable bead. I would masking tape off the field and walls. I would then run a thin even bead. I would then gently smooth it with my index finger. My finger would be first dipped in windex. This trick helps greatly, as the silicone then cannot stick to your finger. Windex is also great at cleaning finished silicone caulk. I would carefully remove the masking tape immediately after smoothing while the caulk is still wet. If you're not confident, just nail two pieces of scrap wood together to make a corner to mask and caulk as practice. I'm not sure why you would ever need to remove it, but if you did, silicone caulk is not overly difficult to remove.

As was mentioned, this wouldn't solve everything. In particular, it seems like if liquids are allowed to pool up on the table ends, by the scoring markers, that it can soak in around that laminate seam. I'm not sure what I would do there, but if you do mount drink racks on the side, make sure to keep them low, so that tall glasses and long-necked bottle tops are still below the table top.

[clint1080]

Now that I think about, there's probably a bunch of reasons you might want to clean that caulk off some day, and it might be impossible to remove silicone without damaging the laminates. I switch my caulk choice to kgstewar's recommendation.