Cribbage Board Project

I have been wanting to make a cribbage board for my family for a long time! It is something that can be made uniquely and the game has lots of memories associated with my family.

In the end, I decided to put my own unique spin on it:

The wood I chose to start my board was cherry. It has some really nice grains and was a hardwood that I desired for the board. The board was cut to the dimensions of 15"x 6"x 1.5".

The laser engraving process was one of the easier ones. A design was found online and through trial and error, the perfect speed and power were determined for the laser. For the design, I went with 100 Power and 50 Speed in order to engrave a deep enough hole for the pegs.

Like previously stated, cribbage is game greatly associated with my family especially when at the cabin. By laser engraving the back with my name I am adding my own personal spin to the board.

The routing machine was a tool that I was fairly new too. I had never used it before and took many attempts before I truly perfected the curved edges for the cribbage board.

The sanding was a very crucial step in the project. The sanding covered up any burn marks from the engraver and also made the sides of the board much smoother. I started with a piece of 80 grit and worked all the way up to the very fine 240 grit. The power sander assisted in diminishing the time it took to sand the board.

The ability to customize the layout of the cribbage board was very intriguing. I was able to drill a hole in the back using a router to create storage for the pegs and a full deck of cards.

Coming up with a design for the cardholder was one of the tougher design aspects for this project. The design I came up with, however, was to put magnets glued into the wood. I then put a metal sheet over the hole for the cards and made it a specific metal that was attracted to the magnets.

The stain color was another customizable touch that I added to the cribbage board. The color I chose was Varathane Penetrating Wood Stain Gunstock colored and put on three coats of stain in order to achieve full coverage.

The final step was adding a Polyurethane Protection after the stain dries. The addition of this helps seal in the wood and makes sure no stains are acquired in the future. The brand I chose was, Minwax Wipe-On Poly Clear Satin. I put on three coats to really seal in the wood.