Crokinole Boards - New techniques

[rpd]

Your post brought back some memories.
When I was young my cousins had a Crokinole board and we would play when we went to visit.
So I did a bit of searching on Google and found this site, Crokinole World - Making a Crokinole Board
They have a good description of how they make the outer ring and score the lines.

[reubenjames]

They have a good description of how they make the outer ring and score the lines.

Thanks, Ron! I made judicious use of the Hilinski brother's site when I made my first two boards, and, in fact, I was going back and reviewing their site *right now* when you posted this!

For my first board, I even e-mailed back and forth with the Hilinski brothers, as well as with another Crokinole maker, "Willard", (http://www.crokinolegame.ca/) and all three of them were very nice and helpful with their replies, and helped me work through some issues.

It's a great family game--I don't run into too many people who have played before!

[reubenjames]

Ah, but British Columbia...makes more sense. Those Canadians love their Crokinole!

[ERLover]

@ rubenjames
I Wikipedia it after my first post, many Mennonites and Amish play the game. Many in Iowa.
Since if I remember you are in Iowa, none of my business, but are you? Just affirming my intuition.

[reubenjames]

You are correct!

[JPG]

@ rubenjames
I Wikipedia it after my first post, many Mennonites and Amish play the game. Many in Iowa.
Since if I remember you are in Iowa, none of my business, but are you? Just affirming my intuition.

Purses, fashion, and now intuition?

[ERLover]

@ JPG and rupenjames > Purses, fashion, and now intuition?
You are correct!
just trying to stay mentally sharp, like a marble at best

[reubenjames]

Update:
Bought a sheet of maple ply this weekend, which will get me four boards + ditches. Had a request for a fifth, so will need to go back and buy another, maybe do an oak for change of pace.

I used my Milescraft router circle guide to mark cut lines (13" from center) as well as scoring lines (12", 8" and 4" from center). I routed the lines approximately 1/16" deep (my Skil plunge router accuracy is questionable) and I used the 1/16" carbide straight plunge bit, which gave me some satisfactory lines.

Two of the four boards:

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You may notice that the 4" radius scoring line is not in that picture. That is because the Milescraft guide can only be used on 5" radius circles or larger. I certainly would have hit this limitation on my first board, and I obviously came up with some kind of solution, but it was clearly an ugly hack as I neither remember it nor kept it.

To get around this problem, and to make routing these lines easier in the future, I made my own circle routing jig tonight. I used 1/4" hardboard and made a base to attach to the router, and extended it out with 1/2" holes marked at 4", 8", 12" and 13". The 1/2" holes are made to fit over the 1/2" plastic bushing that the Milescraft guide uses (no sense reinventing the wheel) and the bushing, in turn, is inserted on top of a finish nail.

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Happy to report, it worked like a charm, and I was able to get the final scoring circles routed on all four boards.

File_003.jpeg (714.35 KiB) Viewed 7862 times

Next up is the straight lines for the quadrants. On my first board, I think I used the Milescraft edge guide to make those straight lines, but it lacks a lot of stability and so I think I need to come up with another jig--a short carriage or guide to run my router in a straight line for four inches and stop. Hopefully won't be too difficult to create, but tomorrow I might be swapping my band saw table for the aluminum one, so the router jig for the Crokinole boards might have to wait until later this week.

I also ordered some materials this week to fill in the routed lines, using some of the suggestions on this thread. I think I'm going to try the following:

• Using an aluminum powdered metal inlay for one of the boards
• Making and using a walnut inlay for another board (I will use walnut for the outer rail for that board, too)
• Using a color-dyed epoxy filler for one board
• Using an epoxy filler with a UV reactive powder for the fourth board

On the fifth board, I own a Silhouette cutting machine, so I think I'm going to try creating my own stencil and using a dry brush technique for the lines.

After I get the straight lines for the quadrant routed, next step is to using the bandsaw to cut the boards a little proud (another reason I need to get the new band saw toys installed) and then use a flush cut bit on my router to finish them smooth. Hoping you all will keep me accountable and keep me moving on this!

[reubenjames]

I just typed a bunch and my stupid computer lost it all.

Short version--here is a not-to-scale, quick and dirty drawing of the jig I intend for making the quadrant lines.

The idea is a custom base plate with squared sides that ride in a channel with raised sides. The jig itself is basically a cross, clamped on each end, and centered by using the pin (finish nail) that is already in the center of the board from routing the circles. Holes are cut out in the bottom where the quadrant lines are to be routed. The jig should allow all four lines to be in-line with their opposing sides and perfectly perpendicular to their adjacent sides.

Any comments, criticisms, improvements, suggestions are welcome before I actually build such a contraption.

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[reible]

It would be easier to just route a template and use a guide bushing to do this. A piece of say 1/4" mdf as a straight edge and another for the template, and a 1/2" router bit to to make cuts the length you want plus the extra length so a guide bushing will result in making your lines the correct length. This is then a template and you put in the correct bit and the 1/2" guide bushing and away you go.

It might look like this:

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The template guide bushing will ride in the slot and limits the location and length of the cut.

Ed