The summer days might be winding down with kids being ushered back into the classrooms, but that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy some outdoor fun with the family!
That was especially true for the dad who built the amazing backyard game below, considering it was for his son's birthday party. The little guy convinced him how much the whole family would enjoy the larger than life-size version of "Connect Four," and he figured it would also be a great project for them to work on together.
The birthday deadline did force the dad to build late into the hours of the night, likely past his kiddo's bedtime, but the end result was totally worth it! I'm sure the neighbors will agree when they're invited over for an end-of-summer barbecue.
He also decided to document the whole process in case others out there might like to build their own!
After measuring out the location of all 84 holes — 42 each on two sheets of 1/4" beech plywood — and trimming the boards, he began drilling out the circles with a six-inch hole saw.
The tedious task definitely took a lot of patience and, as he wrote in the caption, his wrist "barely survived."
Once he was done with both sides of the board, he glued them together using 1/2" x 3/4" pieces of trim in between as the columns separating the rows.
After routing channels down the middle of two 1x3s for the frame at about 9 o'clock at night, he got to work staining the wood a cherry color.
Then it was time to combine perforated boards with the frame using plenty of wood glue on all sides.
Next up: spray-painting the checker pieces, which are actually 7-inch cork trivets from IKEA.
The bottom piece of the frame had to be crafted a little more carefully so that it could include a mechanism for catching and releasing the pieces throughout the gameplay.
For that, he milled openings in an aluminum channel the width of the checkers and did the same for the wood surrounding it, allowing space for a handle.
His son loved the final result, shown here giving the game its first test run before his party. I can already imagine how jealous his buddies will be when they arrive and see what an awesome gift his dad created.
I'm not even a kid and I would love to have something like this to pass the time!
Be sure to SHARE this amazing project with your friends!
