How to Construct Air Hockey Tables

Air hockey has provided fun for generations of arcade-going children and families for years. For the mechanically inclined, an air hockey table of your own might be in order. With simple tools, you can build one to last for years.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Smooth surface
• Wood
• Saw
• Ruler
• Screwdriver or drill
• Plastic discs
• Netting fabric
• Wire hanger

1. Find a smooth, flat surface which you would like to use as the air hockey surface. Common surfaces include whiteboard material or ceramic. If you do not use a very smooth surface, the discs will not slide.

2. Attach the playing surface to legs made of wood or some other sturdy, inexpensive material. It is very important that the legs be of uniform length and that the table sits on an even floor. Use a precise ruler to ensure that the legs are all the same height. After cutting, you can sand the edges if necessary for slight modifications.

3. Screw the legs to the surface. You could start playing like this, just knocking a disc back and forth, but it's better to have some nets. So, using netting fabric or ordinary cloth attached to wire cut from a hanger, fashion a rough net shape and attach it to your playing surface with glue or screws.

4. Buy plastic discs and mallets to knock the discs back and forth. Optionally, drill holes at regular intervals along your surface and attach a high-powered fan in an enclosure below the playing surface to provide a near-frictionless playing surface. If you decide to do this, be sure that you sand down the holes as much as possible. Otherwise the table will be unplayably rough.