Lego / Train Table

So this year my son has been really into three things, Play Doh, Lego's, and trains (and now Shopkins, but that is going to be a whole other bag of cats, and another post). We pretty much had it planned that Christmas was going to center around those three things.

This year I finally got my permanent residence status, which meant I could now travel! Yipee!! I finally was able to visit my family back in Canada without fear of not being allowed back into the US. We got to have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with my family, we have Thanksgiving in October. While talking to my Aunt, she told me about a table my father had made for my cousin when he had been into Thomas the train. It was a table that was meant to roll under his bed when he wasn't using it. Well since we are in such a limited space for strictly our things this got my brain a turning on how I could a) make one for my son and b) how could I make it without the wealth of tools my dad had at his disposal (can we say table saw anyone! oh how I miss those machines).

Lucky for me my dad sent me home with a bunch of tool that I had been missing and I also had three days in the car to think and plan in my head.

I ended up getting a board from Lowes that was the exact size I wanted (but most stores will cut the board down for you if you need them too).  I knew I would need to do edging so when he is playing with trains and cars they won't roll off the table (avoiding frustrations are key in our house at the moment). But I also wanted to add something else to this table idea ... Lego capabilities. Yes I know he could have just used the Lego's on the table and that would have been fine, but my husband is ... a bit of a Lego snob so I wanted to give them a good foundation for playing. So that brought me to the idea of adding a Lego lid.

Lego / Train Table

So here are the materials I used (going to try really hard to remember everything)

1 board for the "table"
2 pieces of edging (or if your like me and get ticked off and try to do the cutting alone, 4 pieces, I swear I ended up having to re-cut them all ... anger and saws = not good)
1 pegboard sheet (have them cut it at the store to the size of your table board
1 tube of Liquid Nail (I love this stuff!) & a caulking gun if you get the big one like we did
4 wheels (make sure to measure what you want it to fit under (wheels + boards))
2 packs of screws to attach the wheels (if the wheels don't come with them)
1 roll of cork
Paint (I used two shades of green, blue, brown, black, white, and made grey)
Lego base plates
1 pack of Velcro (I used the stick down kind.
Paint brushes
Some type of sealer
Sandpaper
Drill
Screwdriver
Pencil
Scissors
X-Acto knife
Yard stick or ruler
Miter saw & box
Painters tape
Hot glue gun + sticks
and ... the kitchen sink! Wow, I didn't realize I had used so much ...

Anyways, here is, please excuse the reflection on the table, we are trying out new light bulbs and dang, those things are BRIGHT!

So that is the finished product. But this time I actually remembered to take pictures as I went, yay me!

Step One:

After buying my table, I decided which side was the prettiest, meaning the one side that didn't have the huge hole from a knot in it. I roughly drew out the simple image I wanted to have on it. I knew I needed to keep it a certain way for my sons sensibilities, too much would overwhelm him. But you could definitely go as fancy pants on this as you wanted. I just knew I needed to make it so the "road" stayed on the board and that the "parking spaces" will actually fit his cars.

Next I started painting it, I made sure I did the lighter colors first (I was very lucky the wood was great and the paint I chose covered in one coat with a few little touch ups (and those were because I painted it during nap time so I had no light to tell me I hadn't done a good job covering a section)). So I did the water, so I could use the grass to sharpen the waters edge, then I mixed my gray and used it to make the pavement and sharpen the edges of the grass. Then the boat, dock, sign, lines, trees and words.

Step 2:

The frame! I decided on a very simple frame, and after talking about it my husband and I decided not to paint it, we both like the natural look.
So what you need to do, is cut the frame pieces. I found after screwing four pieces up (which I didn't know I had until the next day when I went to put it together for the first time) that if you cut ONE piece and temporarily tape it down in its spot and then cut the joining edge it makes it sooooo much easier to get it right the first time. After cutting that piece, tape it down and continue all the way around the board. YAY! finally, lucky for me the edging pieces had been on sale for more than 50% off, and I'm already looking at the messed up pieces for a future project. * I also numbered each piece and side of the table, just as a safety in case I had to take the pieces all off at once. *

This is where I used the Liquid Nails, I used it to make my bathroom mirror and found it worked really well so decided to give it another try.

  

I found that it worked best if I ran the bead of Liquid Nail more on the side that would be against the side of the table than on the top it. This way less of it oozed back out onto the top. Figured this out about two pieces into the four ... at least I learned something as I went. Each time I would get a piece beaded I would gently put it back on the table, making sure to rock it back and forth so if glue was going to come out it would come out at the bottom. Once I was happy with its placement I would tape it in place. I tried to have several pieces of tape ready so this whole process would be fast. Thankfully I had my wonderful husband helping me!

Notice my little piece of scrap? That thing was a lifesaver, it worked perfectly for scrapping off any oozing glue, so try to keep a piece + some paper towel for wiping it off after each scrap.

Step 3:

The Lego top. This was the easiest part of all, just not the cheapest. Turns out those base plates be expensive. Make sure you price check. Amazon I found was the cheapest, but Toys R Us will match any price on there as long as it says ships and sold from Amazon.com. So I got the $24.99 each base plates for $14.99. My mistake ... I miscalculated how many I was going to need, so I have two pieces left over (but I'm going to make a mini Lego only version of this for under the sofa downstairs).

I used peg board for the base of this part because it is a heck of a lot lighter than the other options!

This table took, four. Two full and two that I cut. I just used my husbands work knife and a yard stick to brace the edge of the knife against. Just use a decent amount of pressure as you are cutting (and be very careful not to cut yourself) and you should be able to bend it and it should pop apart.

See, when I cut the length side pieces, I took the "scrapes and turned them to make the end pieces.
Just make sure you line up the dots at the seems very well. The next picture is just showing that they all fit, not glued down yet.

  

I used Liquid Nail (LN from now on) again to glue this down. I first tried to just put the LN on the board and put the plates on top ... that caused it to ooze up between the cracks. And it is a great big pain in the butt to get that stuff off from those dots. So I switched to putting it on the back of the base plates and then after I had them pushed down well I would GENTLY pull up any edges that weren't down well and carefully add some more. I left this (and the edging on the table) dry for two days. When I went back if any pieces were still a bit loose I just gently lifted and added some more.

Step 4:

Wheelies!!! Lets get one thing straight right away. Wheels are beeping expensive! Good thing this kid is so dang cute.

Like my pink screwdriver? Hehe, I even have a pink tape measure, both from my parents when I first moved down here and dang they are still awesome.

The wheels were very easy to put on. Just mark your holes first. Pre-drill your holes, I used my mother-in-laws push drill. Than work the screws in, but try to get all four screws in before you tighten them all just in case the screws have a mind of their own.

Step 5:

I decided to put cork board under the Lego top because I didn't want him to be pushing on the center and have it bowing, even just a little because if you are building a city of world domination ... never mind he would so build a playboy bunny house, the big flirt, you don't want it pop off because the ground wasn't steady.

I cut the cork board to fit INSIDE the frame. Be careful when working with the cork board, it breaks easily. I just used my old crafting scissors to cut it after roughly scoring where it "should" be cut.

Next I used a hot glue gun to glue it down ... according to the packaging you are suppose to use "appropriate adhesive" ... yeah I didn't have any of those things, so I made what I had work, and it did! Just a bead all the way around and I just made sure to do the bead in small sections so I got a good adhesion.

Step 6:

Velcro, that awesomely magical stuff, that makes anything possible! I cut each side to the size of the space available on the Lego lid corners, and placed the matching one on the frame of the table.

 

And that's it! Not exactly a simple project but I love the way it turned out!!! And I know my son is going to love it and have a blast with it. Please excuse if there are any spelling mistakes. I have a husband and son who are anxiously awaiting the use of the precious box that allows youtube videos to magically appear.

Well I hope this inspires someone! Despite some of my issues making it, it was fun to make.

Oh and I also wrote a little note on the bottom of the table for my son, and dated it. So maybe one day he will look back at it and see how much hard work and love we put into things for him.

Cheers!