Frank Pellow
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,743
Two years ago, I built my grandson Ethan a rign toss game for his fourth birthday. The plans for this are in the Reader?s Digest Children?s Games/Toys/Furniture book that I have used in the past to make several gifts. The game was made from small pieces of plywood and dowel left over from other projects. Here is a ?picture essay? of the project:
01) The rings were made from 5 millimetre plywood. Here they are being marked with a compass.
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02) After some experimentation with both a jigsaw and scroll saw, I decided to cut the rings with a thin blade on the jigsaw. The hole that I built into my workbench when I built it many years ago came in very handy here.
[attachthumb=#2]
03) Next, the interior and exterior edges of the rings were hand sanded.
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04) Turning now to the game case which consists of a duplicate top and bottom bases cut from 12 millimetre plywood. In the centre of each of these, I glued a small piece of 12 millimetre plywood. A hole will later be drilled through both of these to support the pegs over which the rings are to be tossed.
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05) Next, a rim was built around both bases by gluing on narrow pieces of 18 millimetre plywood.
[attachthumb=#5] [attachthumb=#6]
06) The corners of both bases were rounded using a scroll saw.
[attachthumb=#7]
07) The outside edges of both bases were rounded over with my router, then finger grips were routed into the interior edges using a cove bit.
[attachthumb=#8]
08) Using a couple of sanders, all surfaces of the bases were sanded with P-120 grit paper.
[attachthumb=#9]
09) All the parts were spray painted with a base coat. Notice the three small sections of dowels that are to be used as pegs (one extra).
[attachthumb=#10]
10) It was a beautiful day outside, so I was able to move the spray painting of the finish coats operation outside.
[attachthumb=#11]
11) The final step was to apply Velcro to the bases.
[attachthumb=#12]
12) Ethan opening the game with Isla looking on:
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13) Isla tossing a ring:
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Observations: The ring toss turned out to be difficult to use because the rings often bounced off the posts. The other problem was, as Ethan observed: [i]"This is a game for older children". [/i] [poke] [embarassed] Isla seems to like it, so I guess that the beginning age is about 6, not 4. I appreciate and encourage that type of honest constructive critism in anyone, especially in my children and grandchildren.
14) After the party, I took the game home and experimented with posts about twice as long, and they seem to work much better.
[attachthimg=#15]
01) The rings were made from 5 millimetre plywood. Here they are being marked with a compass.
[attachthumb=#1]
02) After some experimentation with both a jigsaw and scroll saw, I decided to cut the rings with a thin blade on the jigsaw. The hole that I built into my workbench when I built it many years ago came in very handy here.
[attachthumb=#2]
03) Next, the interior and exterior edges of the rings were hand sanded.
[attachthumb=#3]
04) Turning now to the game case which consists of a duplicate top and bottom bases cut from 12 millimetre plywood. In the centre of each of these, I glued a small piece of 12 millimetre plywood. A hole will later be drilled through both of these to support the pegs over which the rings are to be tossed.
[attachthumb=#4]
05) Next, a rim was built around both bases by gluing on narrow pieces of 18 millimetre plywood.
[attachthumb=#5] [attachthumb=#6]
06) The corners of both bases were rounded using a scroll saw.
[attachthumb=#7]
07) The outside edges of both bases were rounded over with my router, then finger grips were routed into the interior edges using a cove bit.
[attachthumb=#8]
08) Using a couple of sanders, all surfaces of the bases were sanded with P-120 grit paper.
[attachthumb=#9]
09) All the parts were spray painted with a base coat. Notice the three small sections of dowels that are to be used as pegs (one extra).
[attachthumb=#10]
10) It was a beautiful day outside, so I was able to move the spray painting of the finish coats operation outside.
[attachthumb=#11]
11) The final step was to apply Velcro to the bases.
[attachthumb=#12]
12) Ethan opening the game with Isla looking on:
[attachthumb=#13]
13) Isla tossing a ring:
[attachthumb=#14]
Observations: The ring toss turned out to be difficult to use because the rings often bounced off the posts. The other problem was, as Ethan observed: [i]"This is a game for older children". [/i] [poke] [embarassed] Isla seems to like it, so I guess that the beginning age is about 6, not 4. I appreciate and encourage that type of honest constructive critism in anyone, especially in my children and grandchildren.
14) After the party, I took the game home and experimented with posts about twice as long, and they seem to work much better.
[attachthimg=#15]
Fred
