This Christmas is going to look a little different in my family. Instead of spending a lot on gifts we decided to give above our normal tithe to our respective church's and MAKE our Christmas gifts.
Thinking of what to MAKE your family is no easy feat.
Cornhole is a crowd pleaser but costs a pretty penny to buy. It seemed fairly easy to make so I thought it would be the perfect DIY Christmas gift. I may or may not actually give this away. I like it too much…
Here is the pin I followed which will give you much more detail than I can but I will show you a few tweaks we made when building ours.
This project took about 2 hours in its entirety and the supplies ran me $35! Not too shabby
First stop was Home Depot for the supplies:
(4) 2X4 – make sure you check them for warping
(2) 1/2 thick 2X4 sheets of MDF – the tutorial says plywood but that is much more expensive
(4) 4 in 3/8 Carriage bolts
(4) 3/8” washers
(4) 3/8” wing nuts
I also used a nail gun and wood glue. You could use wood screws instead.
Since I bought two 2X4 sheets of MDF I measured my frame accordingly. As you can see I glued the edges and then shot some nails in with the nail gun. This keeps you from having to use clamps and takes away screwing in wood screws.
After the frame was put together it was time to top it with MDF. Again with the wood glue..
Once I had glued the top on I added some more nails to hold it in place until the glue dried. I will go back over these with wood filler before I paint.
Next up – the hole
The hole should be 12” from the side and 9” from the top. This will give you the center of your 6” diameter circle.
Here are two ways to create a circle if you don’t have a compass
I measured to the center of the circle (using the measurements above) and then nailed in a small nail in that spot. I expanded the measuring tape to 3” (the radius of the circle) and used the nail as a guide when turning my measuring tape. As long as you keep the measuring tape hugged against the nail you get a perfect circle.
The other was is to cut a piece of wood 3” in length and drill a hole for your nail. *** the length (3”) should be measured from the hole***
Again have the nail on the X (still same measurements from above) and put the pencil at the top of the wood and spin in a circle.
I drilled a large hole in the circle as a starter for the jigsaw and went to town.
The jigsaw was tricky to keep in perfect alignment with my sketched circle but any inconsistencies can be cleaned up with sand paper.
The legs:
I wish I could tell you an easy way to make the legs but it takes a bit of time. The directions I pinned give you as much info as I could
A few tips for the legs: Round with the circular saw instead of the jig saw and then sand! The directions say to stand the leg up next to the scrap piece of wood when drilling the hole for the carriage bolt. We found it easier to lay the leg down (with the curved end against the scrap wood) and drill your hole. This keeps the leg from moving around when you are trying to drill your hole.
The ends of the legs were cut at a 45 degree angle to set flat on the ground.
Next up – prep and paint!
If you follow between these instructions and these you should know everything you need.
Anyone else making Christmas gifts this year?
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