Game Board Reproduction

 A little fun in the shop reproducing a game board my cousin brought over one night to play after dinner. I had not seen this game before but had a great time playing it. The horses are numbered 2 through 12 to correspond with the dots on the pair of dice used in the game. 7 is in the middle slot, 2 and 12 on the ends. This relates to the odds on the crap table by the way, given the number of combinations it takes for a 7 and the 2 and 12. Object of the game is to be the last one with with chips or coins remaining after a horse has "won" the race. Cards are flipped to move the horses forward by the number of squares corresponding to the value of the card. Winner gets the pot at the end of the race.

 The overall size is 12" x 15 1/2", top and bottom panels are oak veneer plywood finished with a clear poly coat. Lettering came from the scrap booking section at a craft store and the other designs were added with felt tip markers. Each horse has a number applied to each side. The original game was produced in a far away land of unknown wood species, I was thinking I could do better.

Inside of the game board with felt applied to panel prior to gluing the top on the cherry frame.

Bottom view of top panel showing game piece supports

Each horse is glued into a slotted guide

The patterns for the game are shown above. I used various woods for the horses, some cherry, oak, cocobolo, and other wood pieces from my pen blank box, I cut the shapes out on my scroll saw. Each piece is poly coated and waxed.


Fun project to build, now on to bigger things in the new shop.

Shop Is Ready

My wife and daughter bought this sign for me, it's on the door to the  basement area. I carved that little guy years ago .

Well, it has been a busy few weeks since my last post but the shop is at the point where the tools both hand and power are back in a place where they can be found, and more importantly used. 

Overall view walking into the shop area

I had finished two of the walls with bead board plywood and thought I would stop there but after looking at it, I decided to remove the blanket insulation on the two concrete walls.

Removing blanket insulation

Replaced the blanket insulation and replaced it with the rigid panel insulation, added fir strips to attach the panels. The outlet/wire mold went in earlier and the lights now operate on a switch at the bottom the the stairs. Two circuits were added by way of a sub panel in another area of the basement. (Thanks Cuz)

Fir strips and rigid panal insulation

Another view during construction

Turning area, chair patterns, etc

Carving bench & clamp storage 

Carving on the wall above the bench

Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome, what you don't see is utility tube I added on the backside of the wall where the lathe sits. There was plumbing in this area for a roughed in bath, and given we have 3 already, this worked out to be a great area to add the tub (evidently builders don't add those anymore). The other added benefit to that area is gives me a lot of area to store wood and other suppliers. Even with the one window, there is plenty of light. As mentioned in an earlier post, the first big project is building the new workbench. The dust collector is on order but the shop vac is working as a back-up for now. I haven't decided on the ceiling yet, maybe later, we'll see.