Homemade pool table

Here are a few pictures I took of the pool table that I built with the help of a few friends. There is a lot of detail and steps missing from my summary below, but if you have any questions please ask.

Here is the assembled frame of the table. All of the structural pieces were made from two pieces of 3/4" plywood glued/screwed together to make it all effectively the same as 1 1/2" plywood. It is very, very strong (and very very heavy!) The outside is covered by 1/4" pre-veneered sapelli mahogany. The color you see is natural. You will see it with a walnut stain later.

This is a rail being made. The top (dark) piece of wood is walnut, and is the decorative (visible) portion of the rail. The bottom piece of wood is called the subrail and is made of poplar. The subrail is really the structural part of the rail because it is what actually is bolted to the slate, and it also will have the bumper glued directly to the sloped edge. The cloth is attached by hammering a strip of wood into the channel groove you see here. The cloth is then stretched over the (soon to be attached) bumper and stapled into the subrail on the underside.
The slates (salvaged from another 8 foot table) have been laid out on the table (there are 3 of them) and the rails have been bolted to the table as a mockup of the final assembly in order to make sure everything fits right. We even simulated the future use of the table by drinking heavily during its assembly.

There she is! We used Simonis 860 cloth in powder blue, which really looks nice against the walnut rails. The pockets were salvaged from another table, but the worn look fits nicely I think.

I still have to finish up the aprons and I'm putting copper trim on the edges of the table. I'll post some more pictures when that is complete. By the way... just because I built a pool table doesn't mean that I'm a good pool player. But I'm working on it.