Crox G
Member
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2012
- Messages
- 93
Executive Summary: I spent a delightful day last Saturday with two friends building Corn Hole boards with lots of Festools. No pics, though, so maybe I just dreamed it. We were having too much fun to stop for photos. You all know the tools, and there are plenty of corn hole websites if you care.
Corn Hole is a bean-bag type game. The object is to toss the bags onto a 2-foot by 4-foot (610x1168mm) slanted platform, and, even better, through a 6-inch (152) hole at the far end of the board. A player can toss with one hand and hold a beer in the other for balance. Walking from one end of the pitch to the other provides even more exercise, though marginally more than playing with an iPad.
The top is 1/2-inch (12.7) plywood, and the frame is often 2x4s (51x102), with legs at the rear to raise the back edge to 12 inches (305). We wanted to make two pairs of boards.
One friend is a casual woodworker and has admired my shop for years. The other friend is his son-in-law, who has no woodworking experience. It turned out to be a perfect project, using nearly every tool in the shop. I'd do an operation once or twice, and then they would try it.
I sanded the plywood with my ETS 150/3 before the lads arrived, to save a bit of time at the front end. We had a full 4x8 sheet, so the first step was to cut it into 2x4 sheets with the TS 55. I used a 24-inch rule to position the guide rail back from the factory edge, so the panels were 24" minus the kerf width. After the fourth cut, we had a perfect full-length 2mm thick offcut--no cumulative error!
I had also used the cordless Carvex to cut a plywood routing template for the 6-inch hole. I had some trouble with the circle-cutting attachment wandering, but after I switched to a narrower blade and a pendulum setting of 3, I made a near-perfect hole, 6 inches plus double the guide collar offset.
We clamped the template to the underside of the panels and with the OF 1400 plunged a 3/8" (9.5) spiral upcut bit in two passes. Sweet. We then followed with a 1/8" (3.2) roundover bit, top and bottom to break the edges of the hole. No scrapes or splinters when we reach in the holes to retrieve the bags.
We had several options for the frame corners: screwed butt joints, typical, but ugly; dovetails, impressive, but slow; pocket hole screws, quick, not bad; and miters with Dominoes and the mighty XL. We chopped the miters on an old faithful yellow chop saw, and joined them with two 8x50s at each joint and plenty of Titebond III. The lads took to the XL quickly, and it didn't let us down. Used the first pin on each side, with three tight holes and one loose. With clamps and some firm-but-gentle mallet persuasion, the joints closed up nicely.
We glued the tops to the frames and fastened them with 1-1/4" (32) brads in my Grex Green Buddy. Not Festool, but pretty close colors, and a joy to use. We then ran around the tops and the corners with a 1/4" (6.4) roundover bit in the OF 1400. The roundover is a Freud "Quadra-Cut," which left a nice finish.
The back legs are fastened to the frame with 4-1/2" x 1/2" (114x12.7) carriage bolts. We used my Ti 15 to drill the holes (great drill, IMHO), and the Carvex to round the tops. We finished up by sanding the tops and the puttied holes with the ETS. After they left I sanded the nasty 2x4 sides with the RO 90, starting at 60 grit in rotary mode, ending at 120 in r.o.
They were impressed by the lack of dust, lack of noise, and ease of use of all the tools. I enjoyed showing off the tools and how they could produce predictable, repeatable results with only a little preparation. The guys made friends with the TS, the OF, the ETS, the XL, the Carvex, and the homemade MFT and clamping options. I'm hopeful the newbie will continue with woodworking.
Cheers,
Crox
Corn Hole is a bean-bag type game. The object is to toss the bags onto a 2-foot by 4-foot (610x1168mm) slanted platform, and, even better, through a 6-inch (152) hole at the far end of the board. A player can toss with one hand and hold a beer in the other for balance. Walking from one end of the pitch to the other provides even more exercise, though marginally more than playing with an iPad.
The top is 1/2-inch (12.7) plywood, and the frame is often 2x4s (51x102), with legs at the rear to raise the back edge to 12 inches (305). We wanted to make two pairs of boards.
One friend is a casual woodworker and has admired my shop for years. The other friend is his son-in-law, who has no woodworking experience. It turned out to be a perfect project, using nearly every tool in the shop. I'd do an operation once or twice, and then they would try it.
I sanded the plywood with my ETS 150/3 before the lads arrived, to save a bit of time at the front end. We had a full 4x8 sheet, so the first step was to cut it into 2x4 sheets with the TS 55. I used a 24-inch rule to position the guide rail back from the factory edge, so the panels were 24" minus the kerf width. After the fourth cut, we had a perfect full-length 2mm thick offcut--no cumulative error!
I had also used the cordless Carvex to cut a plywood routing template for the 6-inch hole. I had some trouble with the circle-cutting attachment wandering, but after I switched to a narrower blade and a pendulum setting of 3, I made a near-perfect hole, 6 inches plus double the guide collar offset.
We clamped the template to the underside of the panels and with the OF 1400 plunged a 3/8" (9.5) spiral upcut bit in two passes. Sweet. We then followed with a 1/8" (3.2) roundover bit, top and bottom to break the edges of the hole. No scrapes or splinters when we reach in the holes to retrieve the bags.
We had several options for the frame corners: screwed butt joints, typical, but ugly; dovetails, impressive, but slow; pocket hole screws, quick, not bad; and miters with Dominoes and the mighty XL. We chopped the miters on an old faithful yellow chop saw, and joined them with two 8x50s at each joint and plenty of Titebond III. The lads took to the XL quickly, and it didn't let us down. Used the first pin on each side, with three tight holes and one loose. With clamps and some firm-but-gentle mallet persuasion, the joints closed up nicely.
We glued the tops to the frames and fastened them with 1-1/4" (32) brads in my Grex Green Buddy. Not Festool, but pretty close colors, and a joy to use. We then ran around the tops and the corners with a 1/4" (6.4) roundover bit in the OF 1400. The roundover is a Freud "Quadra-Cut," which left a nice finish.
The back legs are fastened to the frame with 4-1/2" x 1/2" (114x12.7) carriage bolts. We used my Ti 15 to drill the holes (great drill, IMHO), and the Carvex to round the tops. We finished up by sanding the tops and the puttied holes with the ETS. After they left I sanded the nasty 2x4 sides with the RO 90, starting at 60 grit in rotary mode, ending at 120 in r.o.
They were impressed by the lack of dust, lack of noise, and ease of use of all the tools. I enjoyed showing off the tools and how they could produce predictable, repeatable results with only a little preparation. The guys made friends with the TS, the OF, the ETS, the XL, the Carvex, and the homemade MFT and clamping options. I'm hopeful the newbie will continue with woodworking.
Cheers,
Crox
