Fast Track - Pitt State

For this project the game being made is Fast Track. It is a board game that moves marbles around a track and plays a lot like other popular games like Trouble or Sorry. The process, as we did it, involves the use of a woods lab, a CNC router, and a laser engraver. For those who make it themselves, these machines are not required but for the process of trying to make a game for intermittent manufacturing production, this is the way we decided to make it. Listed in the supplies are all the machines we used as well as the material that we chose to make it out of. Attached here are the drawings for each part of the game with added dimensions.

Machines: Whirlwind up-cut saw, Planer, Jointer, Table Saw, Wide belt sander, CNC Router, Band saw, Router table with a flush trim bit, Laser engraver, fume exhaust booth, and 3D printer. (optional: printer and laminator for rules sheet)

Materials: 3 Bdft of White Ash (or any , other hardwood), PLA filament, 6 colors of marbles with 4 of each, 2 dice, a canvas bag, leather, twine, 6 colors of acrylic paint, and an entire can of clear spray lacquer. (optional: card stock and laminating pockets)

For making the blanks to put into the CNC you have to take your rough stock and make it to the correct dimensions. The blanks required for each game are 2 blanks at 3/4"x5"x18" for the sectionals and 1 blank at 3/4"x8"x20".

1. We started with the board we got from our supplier that was 11" wide and 12' long. This was well more than is needed for one game, this is just what the teacher I know who mills his own wood had available.
2. We first made a rough cut in it's length because to make all 3 blanks from the board it required 40" long by 11" with some waste added.
3. After making the rough cut, we took it to the planer and planed it to 13/16" or 0.8125". We did this so that we could sand to final thickness taking off any knife marks from the planer.
4. After we planed it to rough thickness, we took the boards to the whirlwind saw to cut to the lengths of the blanks with one half being made 18" long and the other being made 20" long.
5. From there we used the table saw to cut the two 5" wide blanks from the 18" long board and one 8" wide blank from the 20" long board.
6. The last step in prepping the blanks is to take them to the wide belt sander and sand them to 3/4" or .75" for finished thickness.

This step is for those who have CNC routers. If one does not have the capabilities or machinery to do this, a bandsaw and a steady hand could make the same product.

1. The first part of this process is to make the part program for each blank. Attached is the CAD drawings for each group. The sectional program has 3 parts per blank which corresponds to the 3/4"x5"x18" blanks. The bases program makes all 3 base variations out of one 3/4"x8"20" blank. The tools I used in making this were a 3/8" solid carbide up shear ball nose bit and a 1/4" solid carbide up shear endmill. If you were to use a bigger endmill then you would need to accommodate the extra size in the widths of the blanks.
2. After you make the part program, post it as a g-code using the corresponding post processing software to your CNC.
3. Bring it to the CNC router, ours being a 4-axis fixed bridge Onsrud. Bring it up in your controller and make sure the corresponding bit lengths and diameters are set in the correct areas. The way we went about doing it was having it be on the table itself, programmed to make an onion skin on the contours so that it doesn't cut into the table. We have a nemi grid that we gasketed off to hold down the parts via vacuum table.
4. After you have the parts, program, and setup ready, the parts can be ran on the CNC.
5. After the parts are ran, blow the blanks off before removing them from the table so that if it needs adjustments everything is still set in place.

This is the part of the build process where we got everything ready to have finish put on it. Due to differences in finishing needs, there will be a part where the parts split up to go down different routes.

1. First thing that is needed to be done after running the blanks on the CNC is to cut out the pieces with a bandsaw. If you're flush trim is like the one we used you'll need to cut off all excess wood that isn't the onion skin so that the flush trim bit can fit and reach the onion skin.
2. After using the band saw, the parts are ready to be taken to a router table to be flush trimmed. Make sure to put the bit only as high up as it needs to go to avoid chatter causing defects in the parts.
3. The last thing done as a group is hand sand the faces, curves, and edges. The reason we chose hand sanding instead of a belt or spindle sander is because we wanted to make sure we were more in control of how much we were removing at once. We hand sanded the parts in segments of 120 and 220 so that they would be smoother and more susceptible for finish.

That is the last part done as a group. From here the 4-base and 5-base parts don't require any more work before spraying finish.

6-Base:

1. Place the 6-base in the bed of the laser engraver and (if made) put it in a jig to hold it in a specific spot.
2. Laser engrave the negative of the game logo onto the front face of the base.
3. Sand off any burn marks from the laser. It should now be ready for finishing.

Sectional:

1. Cover the front face of the part with painters tape. You don't need to cover the entire part, just the areas where go past the areas that will be painted.
2. Laser the tape using a setting for paper cutting along the red lines in the photo above.
3. Weed out the parts you cut out .
4. Paint the un-taped areas with the corresponding colors to the marbles. After the paint dries and you get enough coats of each color they should be ready for spray finishing.

This are the last steps in making the bases and sectionals for the game.

1. Spray an even coat of clear lacquer over the parts. Make sure to spray one face as well as the edges and set off to the side to dry. If available do this in a finishing booth to avoid fumes as they can be toxic and flammable.
2. After each coat dries flip over and spray the other side. We did this until we had both sides covered in an even two coats.
3. After we finished spraying, we hand sanded the parts to 320 grit making sure to sand everything even while also not sanding through the finish on the wood. From here, these parts are ready for the finished product.

From here on you make the accessory parts and get everything ready to be put in the storage bag.

Marble Cap

1. Get a 3D model of the part you need. After getting the model export it as a .stl (stereolithography) file so that you can open it in a post processor.
2. Open your post processor for your 3D-printer. For ours we used Cura.
3. Get the parameters of the print set and export the g-code onto a micro SD card.
4. Put the micro SD card into the printer.
5. Make sure the correct color filament is ready for the job and hit print. If it doesn't fail then within roughly 40 minutes a marble cap should be printed. For a full set you will need to print 6 of the corresponding marble colors.

Leather Tag

1. Get your leather ready and spray the front with clear lacquer. This is to prevent scorching from when it gets cut out of the leather.
2. Get the logo ready with an hoop attached so that twine could be threaded through it.
3. Get your leather and put it into the laser.
4. Set your material properties and hit print. It will fire up quite a bit but unless the flame persists in one area it should be fine.
5. After it is done printing spray the front and back with lacquer until you get two even coats on both sides of the leather.
6. After it is dry, use about 6" or more of twine to thread the tag and tie it around one of the drawstrings in the canvas bag.

Once all of that is complete, all you need to do further is add your marbles to their proper color sections and get your dice ready. From here on you are ready to play Fast Track.

These optional steps are for printing and possibly laminating your own rules sheet to keep with your copy of Fast Track.

1. Get the document open on your computer and get the settings you'd like for printing ready. These are if you want it to be in color or printed on both sides.
2. Get your paper ready in the printer. For extra durability we used card stock but that is not a necessity.
3. After it gets printed, put it in a laminate pouch and run it through a laminator to add extra resistance to being destroyed by being in a bag with a lot of wooden game parts.