A Ping Pong Table Like No Other
One of my best friends and I were out having a glass of wine and just unwinding from a tough work week when he says, "Tom, my anniversary is in a few months and I was wondering... My wife LOVES ping pong, do you think you could make her a REALLY COOL ping pong table if I showed you an idea?"
Well, I'm all about cool stuff so I said, "Sure, show it to me." So my friend showed me this ping pong table that was the centerpiece of a hotel lobby. I thought it was a VERY cool idea but it could use some improvement for such an important occasion.
So I said "Dude, I'm all in, lets do this." So for the next two months I set about finding some REALLY COOL wood to make the table out of and gathered up steel to create the goal posts, base and table legs. The shop quickly created the table top from solid White Oak with a strip of Maple for the center line. Next, I started cutting, machining, and welding the goal posts that hold the net, trying my hardest to make this a true work of art. After spending about 17 hours cutting, drilling and machining the goal posts, I asked one of our employees, who is a gun aficionado, if he would put a really cool Parkerization finish on the final parts. They turned out beautiful!
Next came the net. So I asked one of my upholstery buddies if he could make the net from something REALLY cool. I said something like a Ferrari leather. He replied, "Well I can, but you probably won't like it." I told him to do it anyway. Turns out he was right. The Ferrari leather just didn't look right, so he sent me to a leather place that specialized in leather hides for purses and belts. I hit the mother lode! Holy cow (pun intended), this place had it all!!! So I bought a really cool piece of leather and took it back to my buddy's shop and he made a second fence (net) with the new leather. It looked AWESOME!!!
Finally the day came for the "Big Reveal." It felt like I was doing one of those chopper or auto shows on TV. While my friend got his wife out of the house, me and a couple of guys delivered the table and set it up in his game room where the old green table once set. After a few hours, I waited nervously for my friend to call and give me the verdict. Finally, a text went off on my phone, "JACKPOT" the message read. Then the call. "DUDE you hit it out of the park, this thing is amazing." Then the wife texted me with a gigantic "THANK YOU, IT'S BEAUTIFUL."
That made all the work worth it for all of us at Delta Millwork.