All language subtitles for DIY Mancala Game Woodworking Router Project

I love playing this game of Mancala with

my kids but somebody left the board out

overnight it wasn't me and there was a

rain storm and it completely warped so

instead of going and buying anyone I

thought maybe I could try to make one by

myself so I found this piece of poplar

in the hobby section of Home Depot and

I'm going to try to make it out of this

let's see if I can recreate the game I

started off by marking up the poplar

board using the old warped game as a

reference for all the sizes the board I

was working with was 3/4 inches thick

about 24 inches long and 7 inches and

change wide I hate doing math so in

order to get the center of the seven and

change board I took my ruler put it at

the corner and set it at an angle and

put it at an even number which was 10 in

this case and then I marked off five

which is half of 10 and there I have the

middle of the board without having to do

any math this is a great way to find the

center of any odd sized board after it

was all marked up I got to working on it

the holes so I made a few failed jigs

and templates but what ended up working

was this scrap piece of MDF that I found

with a 5 inch hole saw cut into it and a

half inch core box bit in my router so

all I had to do was mark off the center

of where I wanted the hole to be on the

game and line it up with a center lines

that I made on the template so it was a

little bit difficult because after you

start cutting you're cutting away at

your lines so I just have to be really

careful about lining them up and see if

you could see a little bit clearer where

the lines are this was really just so

satisfying to watch as I was doing this

and I just kept lowering my bit until I

got to the depth that I wanted I

originally planned on using a Bowl

carving bit or a dish carving bit in my

router when I first thought of this idea

but I didn't like how big the hole was

when I use this five inch hole saw and I

didn't like how small it was when I used

the four inch hole saw

so these core box bit was the perfect

size it was about two and a quarter

inches wide but it leaves a very rough

bottom but I figured out a solution if

you keep watching towards the end of how

to sand the bottoms of this holes pretty

easily so if you could spot the

unintended irony here in this little

clip here comment below so just moving

right along the me and twelve holes are

basically very repetitive

and I just kept on measuring to see that

they were all the same depth now the

home are the goals or whatever you want

to call them be big ovals that are on

opposite sides of the board they were a

little bit different where I had to

connect the two holes from either side

so first I just used the router to make

the two opposite holes and then I moved

the template to the center and used in

my router to route out that middle part

in the center and I was like oh this is

like seems like pretty easy enough I'm

gonna just like without my chisel and

I'm gonna chisel away and make a perfect

little oval here but it didn't really

work out quite like as I thought it

would it was not as easy as I thought it

would be and I then decided to take my

router with an edge guide and just

smooth up those sides and make it

completely smooth and even this was

actually my first time using the edge

guide on the router and it's really

handy I'm definitely gonna use it more

often

all right so since I use this core box

bit and not the bull carving bit the

bottoms of the holes are not completely

wet if I would have used this bull

carving bit the bottoms would be super

smooth and I would have to do a minimal

amount of sanding but because I used the

core box bit there's the bumps and

ripples and I have to do a lot of

sanding to get it to be super smooth and

I do not want to do that by hand so I'm

trying to figure out an easy way to do

with one of my power tools so I have

this breast rod and this remnant from a

hole saw I'm gonna epoxy them together

put some sandpaper on the bottom stick

this up into my drill press and

hopefully that will stand out the holes

let's see if it works

so this is where my cording is actually

a really good thing I'd never throw

anything away and now I have these

remnants of hole saws and all these

brass rods and everything and I can make

these cool little jigs so I just cut the

sandpaper to size and I took off that

like felt backing that's on it so that

the double-sided tape would stick to it

a little bit better and then just cut

off the excess tape I actually have to

take it over to my belt sander and taper

it a little bit so if it did bottoms of

the holes and it worked perfectly I was

so happy with how it worked out I would

have sanded for days if I didn't put

this up in my drill press it didn't

eliminate all the hand sanding I had to

do I still had to like ease the edges

and all that but not a big deal then I

cut the board in half

trimmed it all to size the final

dimensions of the game is about 23

inches long and six and change wide and

the final step was to rat out the space

for the piano hinge

I used the edge guide again see I told

you I was gonna use it again um on the

router to create the space for the hinge

it worked perfectly and it's basically

done at this point I use two coats of

wipe on poly standing between each coat

and I just love how this poplar grain

pops you know poplar is such a regular

wood people just paint over it and every

once in a while you'll find these pieces

with these purples and these greens and

I just loved to stock up on those pieces

and do something special with it and the

last step was to put on the hinge so I

like to use double sided tape on the

hinge so it stays in place when I

pre-drill the holes and I also clamp the

two boards together so they stay

perfectly even with each other then I

just pre-drilled and put these screws in

I was using the existing hardware from

the old Warped game board but I'm sure

you can find this easily and then I put

the latch on and it is done this was

such a fun project I'm so happy with how

it came out I love that I could fold it

away hopefully the beads won't get lost

that way and I love the grain in the

poplar I love that such an inexpensive

wood could just look so cool like those

purples and that grain within those

holes there it's just really great and I

hope my kids will enjoy this for me just

to come let's see it in action

yes that was an awesome move buddy

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