World Map Tabletop

A woodcarving project I started as a gift for my brother. He's a big gaming fan and one of his favorite games is Risk, so I decided to 'make' him a Risk inspired (world map) table. After a good 2 months of drilling, dremeling and sanding, this was the result.

Materials:
- Table (I found mine in a second hand store for 40 dollars)
- Painters tape/ electrical tape (or any other tape you have at home, just make sure it doesn't leave to much stickiness when you peel it off)
- Paper (to print your world map on)
- Spray glue
- Boat varnish (15 dollars, but I could make a other 10 tables with it)

Tools:
- Computer & printer
- Precision cutter
- Dremel tool with different routing bits (although I would recommend using a router tool, I used a dremel because I don't own a router but it could spare you a lot of time)
- Wood grater
- Sanding tool (you could do it by hand, but an electric tool makes everything a lot easier)
- Chisel
- Woodburning tool
- Paint brush

I searched and printed my world map. Using the website www.blockposters.com, I enlarged the image to make it fit the table.

After finding my table at the second hand store, I moved it to the living room (as I don't really have another place to do my crafting projects)

I used painters tape and electrical tape to outline the decorational lines on the side of the table

I glued the world map on the tabletop using the spray glue (the instructions told me to only spray it on the paper for a non permanent stick, ideal since I want it to come off easily). I spread the continents a little more than I had to, to cover more of the tabletop.

Armed with my precision knife, I cut out all the continents and leave the oceans uncovered.

I used a diamond bit to do the fine outlining of the continents and a bigger router bit to 'carve' the oceans. The table I bought was cover in a dark brown lacquer, so all I did was scraping the top layer off. I took me an awfull lot of time to do so, but with a lot of patience and especially a lot of dust (the resemblance with the Sahara desert was uncanny) I finished the nerve-racking job. Luckily, the result was satisfiying.
I recommend using a real router tool to make this step more efficient.

Because of the small dremel bits and my unsteady hand, there were a lot of dents in the wood, therefore I used a hand grate to plane it all out. After that, I used a sanding tool to sand it smooth

Searching the interwebs, I used the design of a compass rose and then used the design of Ardbeg whisky and changed it a little (the letter 'A' to 'W', the first letter of my brothers name, Ardbeg is his favorite whisky).
I then used a chisel to carve a little name tag out and used a woodburning tool to put my name on the piece

As the table is to be used as a gaming table (and everyone knows, strategic warfare always improves with a good beer) I decided to finish the table with a waterproof boat varnish, which gives it a shiny gloss and can withstand a scratch.
Let the game begin!