DIY Ping Pong 101

February 25, 2008 9:10 AM

What should the dimensions and surface of a DIY ping pong table be?

I am intent on making a table tennis table top. I need help choosing the right material, and deciding if it's OK to vary from the official dimensions.

The official rules don't specify the exact surface of the table. Various recommendations suggest either Masonite, or MDF faced with melamine, or chipboard faced with melamine for the surface. Is any one of these preferable? If I buy a sheet in an odd colour, will I mess it up by repainting it green or blue?

The official dimensions of a table are 2.74 m (9 ft) long by 1.525 m (5 ft) wide. If I cut the table from a single 2.6m sheet of MDF (for economy), effectively shortening each side by 7cm, will that detract much from the playing experience? How easy is it to cut melamine faced MDF without making a jagged mess of the melamine edges?

posted by roofus to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Best answer: I work with melamine covered MDF quite frequently and I think it would make for a weird ping pong table surface. I have seen some older cheap tables that couldn't have been made with much more than half inch ply which played adequately. My concern would be the increased bounce due to the melamine, it would really detract from the vibration down into the MDF and would probably pop a lot higher than normal tables. Masonite seems like it would provide a better surface due to its single sheet composition, it is only slightly more resilient on the surface than MDF. Also melamine would be a bitch to paint, so unless you can buy it green I'd avoid it.

If you don't edgeband the MDF after you cut it, the layers of the material will be readily apparent as well as incredibly sharp. If you leave the edge exposed you will have to chamfer it unless you like blood all over your playing surface. Usually I can't even feel when I get cut by sharp melamine edges, it's like a papercut x10. Then the blood, oh yes the blood.
posted by prostyle at 10:28 AM on February 25, 2008

The upside of that, of course, is that, after playing on your miniature table for a while, your home-table advantage will allow you to make short work of even more skilled opponents.
posted by box at 10:29 AM on February 25, 2008

(That's in reference to TWF's comment, natch.)
posted by box at 10:32 AM on February 25, 2008

I just looked at the table in the basement and it appears to be 3/4" particle board with green paint. It isn't in very good shape, but it is quite old. Melamine would be too bouncy, I'd think.

And, yes, people will notice those missing 7cm.
posted by ssg at 4:27 PM on February 25, 2008