Broom Shaft Bar Skittles for the Garden

In this Instructable I will show you how I made a Bar skittles set out of a couple of new broom shafts, and an old bamboo chopping board.

We had been invited to a BBQ the following day and I wanted to take a gift the whole family could use.

I will use one broom shaft for the ball and line to swing from and the other shaft to make some skittles.

My thinking is that I make it so it can be used on a table top more or less the same size as a standard skittle set

Again with a basic idea of what I'm going to do, its on with the show!

Ps: purely for speed, I will be using the CNC machine to cut recesses for the skittles and pole, but this could all be done with sandpaper and files etc and for the recesses Forstner bits could be used.

Please use all the necessary Protective equipment for cnc operations.

Ear and Eye protection

Dust mask rated for the work you are carrying out

2 Broom shafts

Suitable wood saw

String or twine for the line.

Wood for the base and score board.

Ball to knock the skittles(Golf Ball?)

8mm Bolts( Ballast for the skittles)

Paint(Optional)

Some type of ball

Medium sand paper

Blackboard paint

Oil to finish.

We need nine skittles for the set and initial thoughts were that I would make the skittle base 400 x 400mm so the skittles would need to be at least 100mm, I wanted to make them bottom heavy so they wouldn't blow over if it gets a bit windy, so with this in mind I decided I would use the thread off some 6 or 8mm bolts in the bottom of the skittles as ballast.

I cut 9 x 100mm sections of shaft with a chop saw taking care to keep the cuts as straight as I could and then drilled the bottom of each skittle 6mm for the thread.

The diameter and length of the bolt thread decides the hole dimensions, and the bases were all drilled to suit, I opted for 6mm thread at 30mm long, this should be ample ballast.

The thread was Secured with CA Glue, and wood chippings were placed in the holes, CA Glue to Stabilize, sanded and put to one side.

I later painted a green band around the top of each skittle.

I am using an old bamboo chopping board as the base, we will need edges to the board to stop skittles from flying all over the place, I've seen various types of skittles sets, some have the skittles on a podium some don't, I went with the latter and let see how it goes.

To start with, I did a design in Vetric Cut2D the sketch included 9no 2mm holes @28mm these are recesses for the skittles to sit in, then I made another smaller hole which was supposed to be for the upright pole, I ended up not using this.

The final part of the sketch was to create a profile cut with tabs to cut out the base from the chopping board.

I had to fill one of the sides of the base with chippings and CA Glue as there was gaps between the bamboo.

I never had the time to take photos during the base build but it was pretty straight forward, I cut some lattes of wood about 40mm in diameter and made a mitred frame to encompass the base, theses were screwed in place, then a small oak plate was glued into position for the pole to sit on, this then had a hole drilled through it so the pole could be screwed in place.

The next job was to make the piece where the line would go through, I used a GT2 pulley for this with 5mm bar into the top of the pole, then 8mm dowel rod cut to about 200mm and CA glued to the pulley, 3no 3mm holes were created towards the end of the shaft where the line down to the ball would go.

I wanted string length and where the string passes through the rod to be adjustable, so using a junior hacksaw, I created a slot at the end of the dowel, when the desired length of string is met, its pulled tightly into the slot in turn nipping it and stopping it from moving, I also created 3 Holes for the string to pass through in the dowel rod.

To finish off, I made a little domed cap which was glued to the top of the pulley, then painted the dowel rod with Green paint

When I was in the diy shop picking up the broom shafts, I asked the guys if they had anything like a golf ball, all they had was ping pong balls, I had to think of a plan to add some ballast to the ball.

I had an off cut of Hexagonal brass @ 10mm diameter, I turned this down to make a round shaft with a hole in the top for the string to pass through, I then drilled a hole in the ping ball and filed to suit the brass shaft, this was then CA glued in place, I painted the ball green and put to one side.

For the cribbage style peg board, I created an array to equally space out the holes in an off cut of spruce, the holes were 3mm and then a pocket cut was used to drill out the holes using the CNC machine.

I had previously routed the edges of the peg board and forgetting about this the holes to the rear of the board were a little too close to the edge, but this will be ok.

Time to put the whole thing together and see if it works.

Wow! it actually worked very well to my surprise, not only could the string length be adjusted easily, but also the distance for the string to pass through from the pole could also be adjusted in 3 positions.

Here are the rules of the game:

Play
Since the game is a miniaturised version of Skittles, the game is played in the same way. A coin should be tossed to see who takes the first turn. The skittles are only reset at the beginning of a turn or when all nine have been knocked over. Three throws per turn are allowed so that the maximum score in one go is twenty-seven. The ball must be start its revolution around the outside of the board so that it hits the skittles upon its return towards the player. The ball is permitted to go around the pole only once for each throw - the player should catch it as it returns so as to prevent it going round a second time.

Usually, the objective is to be the first player to reach a score of one hundred and one although, if a cribbage board is being used to score, the game would be played to Sixty one. If you bust return to 92 (or 52).Alternative Scoring For a competitive alternative scoring system try the agree a number of legs and utilise the "on and off" system of scoring that is often used in Northamptonshire Skittles. This is one of those concepts that sounds much more complicated than it really is. To begin with each player starts each leg with five "lives". Each player takes a turn and the player who scores the lowest loses a life. So far so good, but if the score is equal then the next turn is worth two lives instead of one. The first life is decided by the first throw of the next turn and the second life is decided by the sum of all three throws. In this situation the score is quoted as a double number e.g. if the first throw scores 5 and the total of three throws scores 8, the score for the turn is "5 - 8". If either of these two "lives" are drawn, then the next turn is also worth two lives decided in the same way and so on

In the rare example where a two-life turn produces two draws, house rules apply but it is suggested that the next turn simply carries on in the standard two-life fashion.

In the even rarer situation where both players have 1 life left and the next turn is worth 2 lives, both lives must be played out before adjusting the score. If it's a life apiece, then play continues to decide the winner.

Have fun!