# Making a Game for $5.00



## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

*Starting Out*

The Bible study I am a part of is having a party for Christmas. Each person is supposed to bring one gift, spending no more than $5.00. I saw this as a challenge. $5.00 isn't much and I wanted to offer something of higher value. Lucky for me, my wife recently brought home some free pieces of wood.

She works at an art gallery and they were getting rid of some random things. She saw some wood they had used as plaques that were going to be tossed. As she is industrious and thoughtful, she decided to bring it home to see if I could use it. I decided to try to make some sort of game out of the stuff, giving me a head start on the cost as it was free.










I was looking through the games on Lumber Jocks for ideas and came across the Math Game made by scrollsaw. This reminded me of a similar game called Shut The Box I had seen in the past that was a lot of fun to play. I decided that this was going to be my gift.

I wanted to add in a bit of contrast with the wood I was going to use for the game. I decided to use some oak for the tiles and what I think is possibly redwood for the box, though I am not sure as I am still learning the different types of wood.

The first thing I did was to cut strips out of the oak to make the tiles. Then I cut off the routered edges of the redwood.










I didn't have much time to work on it the first night so that's about as far as I got.

Check back tomorrow to see my progress.

Also, if you follow these posts, please feel free to offer advice. I am a beginning woodworker. I have a very limited knowledge of techniques and I often just make stuff up when I don't know what I am doing.


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## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting Out*
> 
> The Bible study I am a part of is having a party for Christmas. Each person is supposed to bring one gift, spending no more than $5.00. I saw this as a challenge. $5.00 isn't much and I wanted to offer something of higher value. Lucky for me, my wife recently brought home some free pieces of wood.
> 
> ...


Welcome to LumberJocks. You found a great place for information and inspiration. 
I am looking forward to following your post as Shut-the -Box is a game I am interested in makng in the near future. 
CtL


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## Cantputjamontoast (Jan 1, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting Out*
> 
> The Bible study I am a part of is having a party for Christmas. Each person is supposed to bring one gift, spending no more than $5.00. I saw this as a challenge. $5.00 isn't much and I wanted to offer something of higher value. Lucky for me, my wife recently brought home some free pieces of wood.
> 
> ...


shut the box is a great idea and a great game!!!!!!!

nine man's morris is another ancient game.

how about score four?


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting Out*
> 
> The Bible study I am a part of is having a party for Christmas. Each person is supposed to bring one gift, spending no more than $5.00. I saw this as a challenge. $5.00 isn't much and I wanted to offer something of higher value. Lucky for me, my wife recently brought home some free pieces of wood.
> 
> ...


Scrap games are always winners…

My former neighbor found a HUGE collection of old golf tees at a yard sale, and decided to make a bunch of clones of that jumping game thing you see at Cracker Barrel as Christmas gifts last year. The wood was scrap, the golf tees I think were $1.00 for a bag of maybe 150 or so. Oh, they were all white so he colored them with a sharpie, not sure how much three colored sharpies cost…

I have an official one, and aside from the cheesy finish on the tees, he did a bang up job on the games… They really went over well and are hard to tell from the real one…


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## nmkidd (Sep 18, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting Out*
> 
> The Bible study I am a part of is having a party for Christmas. Each person is supposed to bring one gift, spending no more than $5.00. I saw this as a challenge. $5.00 isn't much and I wanted to offer something of higher value. Lucky for me, my wife recently brought home some free pieces of wood.
> 
> ...


Can't wait to see the finished game…..and the material price was great.

Welcome to LJs


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

*Starting to Take Shape*

Last night I was able to get the box all ready to put together. I cut the sides and the base each at a 45-degree angle. I also cut the sides at 45-degrees on the ends where they fit together.










I am kicking myself for cutting the base and the sides like that as I think it is going to be hard to glue together. Are there any techniques to make it easier?

After I got all the pieces cut, I sanded everything down. Here is what the box will look like when put together.










I also stopped by the hardware store last night and got a few things. I bought some washers to put between the tiles. I also got a 3/16 inch steel rod to put the tiles on. I was thinking about using a wooden dowel but I didn't think it would be as strong. Finally, I bought some stencils to help me draw numbers on the tiles. I have a few paint pens and am hoping there will be enough in them to get all the numbers drawn.










Here is a summary of what I have spent thus far:

Wood - Free
Brass Washers - $.96
Steel Rod - $1.26
Stencils - $1.43

*Total so far - $3.65*

Tonight, I am going to be working on the tiles. I need to decide on how many numbers (10 or 12) I am going to use, then figure out the measurements, cut them up and drill the holes. I might also put some walnut oil on them so they will be ready for me to start assembling the box tomorrow.


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## zlatanv (Jul 18, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting to Take Shape*
> 
> Last night I was able to get the box all ready to put together. I cut the sides and the base each at a 45-degree angle. I also cut the sides at 45-degrees on the ends where they fit together.
> 
> ...


You can tape the side and bottom edges together and put glue on the miters then fold them up, that will keep the joint corners tight. Marc on the woodwhisperer has a video on this type of joinery on one of his projects but I can't remember which one it was. Lots of clamps. Good luck.


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## getneds (Mar 18, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting to Take Shape*
> 
> Last night I was able to get the box all ready to put together. I cut the sides and the base each at a 45-degree angle. I also cut the sides at 45-degrees on the ends where they fit together.
> 
> ...


do what zlantav does for the bottom and use "C" spring clamps on the sides. These are a specialty woodworkers tool typically used for picture frames. These work great for that too. Also when buying tape look for the specific "V-Fold" tape. It must be that I think it's scotch 266 or something. This tape stretches and acts as a clamp. It has top be that and not shipping tape. #1. the residue from packing tape is crap #2 Packing tape don't stretch near as far as v-fold does.


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Starting to Take Shape*
> 
> Last night I was able to get the box all ready to put together. I cut the sides and the base each at a 45-degree angle. I also cut the sides at 45-degrees on the ends where they fit together.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like I might have to go look for some tape this morning.


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

*Prepping the Tiles*

Last night I worked on getting the tiles cut up and prepped for painting the numbers.

I decided to go with 12 tiles as opposed to 10. I wouldn't have enough room to put the numbers on 10-12 if I made all the tiles the same size as they would bee to small to get two numbers on. I remedied this by making two different sizes. I made nine tiles sized (7/8 inch) for numbers 1-9 and three (1 9/16 inches) for numbers 10-12.

After I finished all the measurements, I used my miter saw to make the cuts.

Then I used my drill press to get the holes. I used a 13/64 inch bit as this allows the tiles to move freely on the 3/16 inch rod. I used a small vice to hold the tiles in place. I put some saran wrap in the vice to keep the tiles clean as it is a bit greasy.










I am a little disappointed on how this part ended up. I didn't take the time to ensure consistency in hole placement so I ended up with the tiles sitting unevenly on the rod.










Then I used my orbital sander to sand the sides down as I hadn't done that after cutting the tiles up.

After that, I put some walnut oil on. I am pretty pleased with how the oil made the grain pop out and I think it will look good against the darker base.










Today, I have been working on getting the numbers on the tiles and tonight, I plan on gluing the base together. Then tomorrow, I can finish up by putting walnut oil on the base, leaving enough time to let it soak in and be ready for the party on Monday night.

I didn't spend any more money so my total spent is still *$3.65*.

Check back tomorrow for another update.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Prepping the Tiles*
> 
> Last night I worked on getting the tiles cut up and prepped for painting the numbers.
> 
> ...


Can't you tape the tiles together and run them through your tablesaw to even them up.


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Prepping the Tiles*
> 
> Last night I worked on getting the tiles cut up and prepped for painting the numbers.
> 
> ...


That would help a little, but I didn't quite get all the holes in the centered on the sides so some stick up a little more than others. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## dlmckirdy (Oct 27, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *Prepping the Tiles*
> 
> Last night I worked on getting the tiles cut up and prepped for painting the numbers.
> 
> ...


Leave them on the rod, clamp them between two pieces of wood, and sand them even. Then turn them over and sand the other end even.

Looking good!


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

*Putting it Together*

To summarize for those of you are just joining this series, I needed to find a gift for $5.00 for a Christmas party. I thought it would be fun to see what I could make, using what I had and spending no more that $5.00 on anything else I needed. I decided to make the game Shut the Box. Thus far, I have spent *$3.65*. For a more details, check the other posts.

The oil was dried from the previous nights application so next task was to get the numbering on the tiles. I used the 1-inch stencils I purchase a few days back. I also had an old silver paint pen that I thought would work well. I tested out the pen using the stencil and it didn't turn out all that well as the paint leaked under the stencil. I then decided to use a pencil to trace the numbers and then fill it in with the paint pen, which worked much better.










I was worried the paint would come off easily. After it dried, I decided to use some clear spray finish I had from a previous project (which created a small problem when I glued the box together - more to come about this in the final post). I hung the tiles up outside with some wire and sprayed away.










After that, I drilled the holes in the sides of the box that would hold the rods. I was much more careful this time in ensuring proper placement of the holes than I was with the tiles (lesson learned!).










Then, I glued the box together, using almost all the clamps I had. Some users mentioned in comments on post #2 in this series about using a special tape to help hold the pieces together but I was not able to find any of the V fold tape at either of the hardware stores in town (which was a good thing as it would have put me over my budget of $5.00) so I did the best I could in getting it together. It was pretty messy and I tried to get as much of the extra glue cleaned up as possible. Hopefully I can get what I missed with some sanding.










Finally, I purchased some dice for $1.31 bringing the total spent up to *$4.96*. This should be the last thing I need to purchase and leaves me just under budget. Any ideas on what I could get for $.04?

The last thing I need to do is clean up the glue, give it a final sanding and put some Walnut Oil on, which I will post pictures of after I am finished.


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## Deela40 (Dec 11, 2009)

*The Finished Product - Shut the Box*

This blog series is about my task to find a gift for $5.00. I decided to make the game Shut the Box purchasing what I needed, spending no more than the $5.00 limit, along with using materials I already had. This is the final post in the series.

As mentions in post #4, I had not planned on spraying the tiles with a clear finish. I decided to do this because I was afraid the numbers I had painted on would easily wear off. When I used the spray, I created a problem as it made the tiles just thick enough to hinder them from being flipped up and down easily. So when the player would want to put a tile down, three, four or more would go down with it because they were too tight.

To fix this, I drilled a hole on each side of the outside of the box where the rod was being held. Then, I pushed the rod in through the side so I could take the tiles off. I took the two washers that were on the outside of numbers 1 and 12. I then put the rod back on and used a dowel and glue to fill in the hole I had made. It worked great as the tiles now move freely; and it added a little something to look at on the outside of the box.










After the glue dried, I rounded off the corners of the box and then sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper, making for a pretty smooth playing surface.

Next, I started to put walnut oil on the box. The image below shows part of the box finished, with the other part still oiled free. I think the oil really helped make the wood look great.










I should have put the oil on before I put the tiles back on, as it was tough to get it under and behind the tiles. I used some q-tips to accomplish this, which worked out nicely.

Here is the finished product. I was trying to bring in some contrast by using different types of wood for the box and the tiles. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the results being the first project I made without plans and for the price.










Once I purchased everything I needed, I spent *$4.96*, just shy of my limit. Here is a breakdown of all the main elements I used.

Wood - Free
Brass Washers - $.96 ($.07 each)
Steel Rod - $1.26
Stencils - $1.43
Paint Pen - Already Owned
Dice - $1.31
Walnut Oil - Already Owned










Thanks for following these posts and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Casey


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *The Finished Product - Shut the Box*
> 
> This blog series is about my task to find a gift for $5.00. I decided to make the game Shut the Box purchasing what I needed, spending no more than the $5.00 limit, along with using materials I already had. This is the final post in the series.
> 
> ...


Good job Casey, especially for $5. The kids will have a lot of fun with it.


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## PetVet (Nov 7, 2008)

Deela40 said:


> *The Finished Product - Shut the Box*
> 
> This blog series is about my task to find a gift for $5.00. I decided to make the game Shut the Box purchasing what I needed, spending no more than the $5.00 limit, along with using materials I already had. This is the final post in the series.
> 
> ...


Kids heck. We play this all the time at parties. Make people put in a quarter to play, and then the winner takes all. It really is a fun game. Good idea!


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## Cantputjamontoast (Jan 1, 2009)

Deela40 said:


> *The Finished Product - Shut the Box*
> 
> This blog series is about my task to find a gift for $5.00. I decided to make the game Shut the Box purchasing what I needed, spending no more than the $5.00 limit, along with using materials I already had. This is the final post in the series.
> 
> ...


That cameout reallynice!


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## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

Deela40 said:


> *The Finished Product - Shut the Box*
> 
> This blog series is about my task to find a gift for $5.00. I decided to make the game Shut the Box purchasing what I needed, spending no more than the $5.00 limit, along with using materials I already had. This is the final post in the series.
> 
> ...


Casey Sorry for not commenting earlier. Like the way it turned out and you did a great blog series on it, thanks for that as it will help in the one I would like to make. 
Hope they liked the gift and look forward to seeing the new one you are going to make for yourself.

CtL


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