DIY Air Hockey Tablet is an Instructable bargain

Normally we look at these excellent Instructables and move on, but if there was ever one to lever us off our jaded blogger behinds then it would be this DIY air hockey table.  The handiwork of oldschoolstructure, it consists of a couple of sheets of chipboard, 4,608 holes and a second-hand leaf blower.

The construction is, frankly, as straightforward as you might expect it to be, with the most time – and drill-bit – consuming part being drilling all those holes in the game surface.  That's rapidly followed by all the sanding and buffing you'll need to do to make for a clean, splinter-free board, though there are also some handy tips for keeping the surface level, how best to attach the leaf blower and other construction guides.

Included with the instructions are the Google Sketchup plans, in case you're really serious about making it (and have enough room for a 122 x 244 cm table).  Altogether they spent around $140 on parts, which makes for a pretty cheap way to entertain the kids (and, when they're in bed with their earplugs in, the adults too).

[via MAKE]