This winter I came across a craigslist ad for a broken air hockey table. I had always wanted to build an air hockey table for my boys and I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some parts. What's the worst I could do? I mean it was already broken.

I didn't take any pictures before but when I got the table it had a crack going down the entire length of the playing field. Everything else on the table was fine except for this crack (It was about 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide). The crack also buckled the table a little so the playing field was lifted up abit.

After calling the manufacturer and getting a referal to another place, the cost of a new playing field would be about $700 shipped. So my strategy to repair the table was as follows.
1) Patch the table drill new holes in the patch, paint it and see if that works.
2) If that doesn't work route out the entire crack, expose the baffel and replace about a 2-3" area with something (Plastic?).
3) If that doesn't work, I can buy a new top, formica or thin luan. (Lot of holes to drill)
4) If that doesn't work (Last resort), build my own table top and try to replicate the baffels for good air flow.

As you can see from the pictures I got to step 1. It didn't work too badly except for the fact that the buckling was a little wider then I thought. I used a router that I put some little feet on and just used a trim bit (Couldn't find a planer bit) and when I was doing this, I felt like I was shaving a lot of material off but there was still a buckle (speed bump) on the table after all of this and the puck didn't go over this very easily (It easily got high centered).

Yesterday I thought I'd see if I could sand it smooth with a random orbital sander. It didn't do much except remove the paint job I did. So I think I need to find a better router bit and repaint. I think I'll try this before option 2 since option 2 is so invasive and loud and messy.

Couple things I learned. I read a bunch of forums about painting formica. I used some Zinzer primer, Krylon paint and an oil based semi gloss poly. The zinzer and krylon went on ok, excpet that I masked the area and when I pulled the tape of there was a little bump. Also when I spraid the poly, it caused some of the paint to crinkle. I probably did a bad job of surface prep, although I used TSP and alcohol to clean the sruface. Also I used spackle to fill the whole (I tried silicon but it dried too rough) and it seemed to shrink when I hit it with the primer.

Some other observations about this table. The playing field is 3/4 MDF with baffels criss crossed with what I think is a formica (Or some sort of plastic) top. The baffels appear to be about 3/8 deep (or less) with the criss crosses being about 3/16. and about 3/8-1/2" wide. If I remade the pplaying surface I think I'd just get some 1/2 MDF and make strips to glue on to another 1/2 MDF sheet instead of trying to route all those groves (Baffels) and glue on some formica or thin luan. The problem with this table field is that the baffels weaken the table a little, but I think the glued on formica give it a lot of strength (I still don't know how this table broke).