This is a recent project I took on for two purposes: one, to generate a little coin and two, to learn some new skills. The objective was to make a game board, but it is a little more involved than that. What I ended up with was a board with 143 (11 rows of 13) 1/4 inch deep circular depressions, mounted in a box frame. So I ended learning how to cut dadoes , a couple of different approaches to mitered corners, and the use of a router in a repetitive style.
The material is 1/2 inch oak cabinet plywood. The board is recessed 1/4 inch into the frame all the way around and as a result, the whole thing went together with no fasteners, just glue and lotsa clamps (does anyone ever have enough clamps?). I don’t have a strap or band clamp but a couple of bungee cords worked just fine.
The frame is finished with a cherry stain I had a little bit of (I think it came with the house) and the board was primed and painted with ordinary interior latex. It would have been nice to have that stained or left natural but I don’t know if I could have removed all the pencil marks.
The picture I worked from had little bumpers in the corners to deflect the game pieces — marbles — back into play, but it doesn’t look like I need them. All in all, I am pretty pleased with how it came out. I had to buy a router bit (at the world’s greatest hardware store) and of course some materials, but I still come out a little in the black.
