I admire your attitude.
What I'd really like to find is one of those dining tables that converts into a snooker table. Only ever seen two in my life. One in a flat in London and another on TV that prog Money for nothing or summat. In one case the dining table bit just lifted off the top of the snooker table and was put to one side, in the other the table rotated so there was the dining part on one side and the snooker part on the other. So in both cases each table was the same size.
Do you need to keep the basic table part for something? If not you could make a basic chassis out of box section, fit it to your table base and fit the top to that.
I have never looked for a secondhand table, so I don't know how easy they are to find, and I have a horrible feeling that full size ones might be easier to come buy as my ex s-i-l has found them and chopped them up for the hardwood. But if you could find a proper half size one it'd have a proper slate bed. When I was at school we got hold of one and put it together. The bits of slate were as heavy as heck but they sure gave a good surface.
I bet
@kevstar could get one if he put his mind to it!!!