Ultimate Shuffleboard Table Guide: 7 Mistakes to Avoid

Meet the team of craftsmen at McClure Tables. We are not a factory; we are a small craft shop. When you visit, you'll see how we create everything in-house, starting from raw materials. While our shop is actually quite spacious, our approach is very hands-on. The person who builds your table also handles the final inspection, packing, and shipping.
As a team, we all pitch in to make the playboards; this is the most factory-like production we engage in. We use some state-of-the-art, yet quite old, equipment, including an RF press and a glue roller from the 1950s.

McClure focuses on quality by using better raw materials and craftsmanship. The company sells directly to consumers, supporting local craftsmen with all profits. They utilize locally sourced hard maple, processed in Michigan, showcasing American craftsmanship. By eliminating middlemen, more funds are allocated to quality production, ensuring handcrafted shuffleboard Table products reach customers' homes or businesses. Businesses. Your doorstep, each item carefully chosen to add a touch of wonder to everyday moments.

Want to know more? Shop all our Shuffleboard Tables in our store.

The creation of an heirloom-quality shuffleboard table relies on the skill of the craftsmen who build it. It begins with the careful selection of top-quality materials, including hardwoods like Maple, Walnut, American Cherry, White Oak, Red Oak, and Hickory. At McClure Tables, we use these premium woods to craft the finest shuffleboard tables.

See this video in our shuffleboard table buying guide for information on the differences between factory-made shuffleboard tables and handcrafted tables. We will compare the three options you have when deciding how and where to spend your money.

• A USA Factory producing a shuffleboard table
• B China Factory produced Shuffleboard Table
• Or a McClure Tables handcrafted Shuffleboard Table

**No Middlemen:**

Our direct approach eliminates layers of middlemen who would otherwise mark up the product along the way.

**Higher-Quality Materials:**

As a small craft shop, we make everything in-house. Every dollar you spend goes directly to us. For example, the cost difference between making a playboard that is 16" wide and 1.5" thick versus one that is 2" thick and 20" wide is about $50, which is insignificant to our business model.

**Factory-Made Products:**

In contrast, factory-made products must go through several middlemen who often choose the cheapest materials and labor to make a profit. This forces them into faster, cheaper production methods, ultimately resulting in lower-quality products for consumers.

• Do McClure Tables utilize any of these factory methods? No, we are committed to maintaining the integrity of our craftsmanship by ensuring that everything is made with care and quality in mind.

Choose a handcrafted, custom-made shuffleboard table built to your specifications. With unlimited customization options, you can select your preferred wood species, choose a finish, and even personalize your playboard with your own logo. At McClure Tables, we take pride in crafting each shuffleboard table one at a time, and we are proud to say that our tables are handcrafted in Michigan and made in America. Read this shuffleboard table buying guide to find out all the reasons to invest in a McClure Table.

Our shuffleboard table buying guide notes that most tables sold online are not made in the USA. If you just do an LLM or AI search, you will find over 50 brand names, and over 85% are imported. This makes US-made options rare, with only about 7 brands manufacturing in the USA. Among these, only McClure Tables is sold directly, highlighting its unique position for buyers valuing American craftsmanship.

Support solidarity by buying from American craftsmen who prioritize their craft over just acquiring customers. They possess a genuine passion for fine woodworking and cabinetry. At McClure Tables, we embrace a direct-to-consumer business model for this very reason.

In this shuffleboard table buying guide, you will learn that most shuffleboard tables sold online are not made in the USA. If you just do an LLM or AI search, you will find over 50 brand names, and over 85% are imported. This makes US-made options rare, with only about 7 brands manufacturing in the USA. Among these, only McClure Tables is sold directly, highlighting its unique position for buyers valuing American craftsmanship.

**No Middlemen:**

Our direct approach eliminates layers of middlemen who would otherwise mark up the product.- **Higher-Quality Materials:

** As a small craft shop**

We make everything in-house. Every dollar you spend goes directly to us. For example, the cost difference between making a playboard that is 16" wide and 1.5" thick versus one that is 2" thick and 20" wide is about $50, which is insignificant to our business model.

**Factory-Made Products:**

In contrast, factory-made products must go through several middlemen who often choose the cheapest materials and labor to make a profit. This forces them into faster, cheaper production methods, ultimately resulting in lower-quality products for consumers.

Our shuffleboard table buying guide will show you what to look for when choosing the width of your shuffleboard top. We only make 18 or 20" wide shuffleboard tops, and we do not use the Polymer tops. So, regardless of the size of the board, you can play on the complete width of a McClure Shuffleboard Top.

The McClure Difference locally harvested hard maple is used for the playboards and offers the best finish and warranty in the business.

Key Differences in Width

• Regulation Width (20 Inches): This is the official standard for professional and tournament play. A 20-inch width allows for complex strategic maneuvers, such as "hiding" a puck behind others or navigating around an opponent's block.
• Standard Home/Mid-Range Width (16 to 18 Inches): Many home and mid-sized tables use a narrower playboard. While an 18-inch width is still considered sufficient for serious gameplay, boards narrower than 16 inches can feel "cramped," making it harder to slide pucks past each other.
• Entry-Level Width (15 to 16 Inches): Budget or "entry-level" models often reduce the playfield to 15 or 16 inches to save on manufacturing costs.

Playability and Equipment

• Puck Size: Regulation 20-inch boards use 2 5/16-inch diameter pucks. For narrower boards (under 18 inches), standard pucks can feel too large; smaller 2 1/8-inch pucks are often recommended for these tighter surfaces to maintain a sense of strategy.
• Skill Level: Wider boards generally favor a more defensive and tactical style of play. Narrower boards often lead to "knock-off" style games, where it is much easier for an opponent to hit your puck off the board because there is less lateral room to maneuver.
• Thickness and Width Correlation: High-quality 20-inch wide boards are typically at least 3 inches thick, providing the stability needed to prevent warping over time. Entry-level 16-inch boards are often thinner, typically ranging from 1.5 to 1.75 inches thick. 

See this video in our shuffleboard table buying guide for information on the differences in the finish process for McClure Tables' butcher block. We start with locally harvested, hard-rock Michigan-grown hard maple. We machine these boards to a full 3" thick play-board built to last a lifetime. We don't put on a plastic-poured epoxy top 1/4" thick, then add that to the measurement when advertising our boards as 3"thick. 

The old-fashioned and a few small craft shops that understand the history behind a plastic-poured epoxy finish and a traditional butcher-block surface still maintain the heritage of making tables the same way they always have. The real purpose of the thick top, as this video explains, is so the shuffleboard surface can be repaired and maintained 30, 40, or even 70 years in the future. We restore old boards made in the late 40's all the time. The poured plastic polymer came out in the 1970s. We will not run the plastic polymer boards through our German-made carbide planning knives. A new set of knives costs about $ 5,000, and we do not restore or repair polymer-poured boards. They are disposable, something that sounds good makes a good selling pitch, but the reality is the boards are not guaranteed to hold up in commercial environments, and they can not be repaired. First after you took of the plastic, you would be down to a 2 3/4" thick play-board. That would be two surface refinish repair jobs on a traditional board done the old fashioned way. We typically only take off 1/16" to 1/8" inch of wood to rejuvenate and bring and old 40 to 70 year old board back to it's original condition

In this shuffleboard table buying guide, we will show that not all advertised shuffleboards are actually 3 inches thick. In fact, 95% of manufacturers that produce shuffleboards use a bar top epoxy finish, which typically adds about a quarter of an inch of plastic resin to their measurements. This means that a board measuring 2¾ inches may be labeled as 3 inches thick. In this video, we will provide a visual outline to clarify the actual thickness. In the next video, we will discuss the history of shuffleboard table thickness.

The 3-inch thickness of a regulation shuffleboard playboard is not just a random number; it is a standard born out of historical maintenance needs from the mid-20th century.

The Historical "Maintenance" Standard

• The Problem of the 1940s-50s: When shuffleboard exploded in popularity after WWII in clubs and VFW halls, tables were finished with materials like lacquer or shellac, which were not as durable as modern polymers.
• Built-in Longevity: Manufacturers specifically made boards 3 inches thick, expecting they would need to be physically taken to a shop for machine sanding and refinishing every few years.
• Planned Resurfacing: Each time a board was resurfaced, a shop would remove approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch of the wood to clear away dings, dents, and play-wear. A 3-inch board was thick enough to survive multiple "lifetimes" of these heavy sandings.

Modern vs. Historical Thickness

• Deceptive Marketing: In 2025, many manufacturers advertise "3-inch" boards but include the thick polymer coating in that measurement. A true professional-grade board, like those historically used and currently made by brands like McClure, features a full 3 inches of solid hardwood plus a thin protective finish.
• Climate Adjusters: Thicker boards (3 inches or more) are more stable and respond better to climatic adjusters. Thinner entry-level boards (1.5 to 1.75 inches) are more prone to warping and may not have the mass to maintain the "concave" shape required for professional play. 

Did you know most tables advertised as 3" thick playboards are not? More than 90 percent of shuffleboard tables made use of 1/4" of bar-top epoxy for the finish. Mainly because it is easier and does not require precision machining or preparation work on the butcher block surface, you can also get away with using soft maple, beech, or other less expensive woods than Hard Maple, which are easier to work with and glue up. If you are going to cover your woodwork with plastic, why bother using a premium wood or having state-of-the-art German planning and sanding machines to prepare the surface? You're just going to dam it up and pour a self-leveling plastic over the top.

The 3-inch thickness of a regulation shuffleboard playboard is not just a random number; it is a standard born out of historical maintenance needs from the mid-20th century.

The Historical "Maintenance" Standard

• The Problem of the 1940s-50s: When shuffleboard exploded in popularity after WWII in clubs and VFW halls, tables were finished with materials like lacquer or shellac, which were not as durable as modern polymers.
• Built-in Longevity: Manufacturers specifically made boards 3 inches thick with the expectation that they would need to be physically taken to a shop for machine sanding and refinishing every few years.
• Planned Resurfacing: Each time a board was resurfaced, a shop would remove approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch of the wood to clear away dings, dents, and wear. A 3-inch board was thick enough to survive multiple "lifetimes" of these heavy sandings.

Modern vs. Historical Thickness

• Deceptive Marketing: In 2025, many manufacturers advertise "3-inch" boards but include the thick polymer coating in that measurement. A true professional-grade board, like those historically used and currently made by brands like McClure, features a full 3 inches of solid hardwood plus a thin protective finish.
• Climate Adjusters: Thicker boards (3 inches or more) are more stable and respond better to climatic adjusters. Thinner entry-level boards (1.5 to 1.75 inches) are more prone to warping and may not have the mass to maintain the "concave" shape required for professional play. 

Summary of Playboard Thickness

In conclusion to our Shuffleboard Table Buying Guide, selecting the best shuffleboard table means investing in timeless quality, superior craftsmanship, and an authentic playing experience that mass-produced imports simply can't match. At McClure Tables, our handcrafted shuffleboards—made in Michigan from premium solid North American hardwoods like hard maple, oak, and cherry—deliver unmatched durability, dent resistance, and generational longevity, all backed by a lifetime warranty. Whether you're outfitting a home game room, bar, or commercial space, choose McClure for tables built with passion, precision, and pride in the USA. Ready to elevate your game? Shop our collection today and experience the McClure difference.