Homemade Skeeball Game

Deep down, we all secretly wish we had a Skeeball game in our own homes. If you're unfamiliar with this, it's a bowling-type of game where you get nine balls to roll up a ramp and off of a jump, trying to get the them into different holes for different amounts of points. It's a fun and simple game, and very addicting.

But to buy your own they're just too darn expensive.

So I decided to make one. It uses golf balls and has no electronics whatsoever (by design). It has an automatic ball return system which places the balls in separate lanes to indicate each ball's score, which is visible through a plexiglass window at the bottom of the ramp. A ball-drop lever is pulled to release the balls back into a storage compartment at the front of the game.

This was a fun and challenging project. The finished size is 86 inches long, 17 1/2 inches wide, and about 49 inches tall. It weighs a lot and is awkward to move, but it's sure fun!

I had an idea of how I wanted to make this, but when I began to plan out the details it became much larger in size than I had imagined. It also proved to be much more challenging than I had expected.

The entire structure is designed to accommodate the size of a golf ball. The plan I laid out uses two 49" by 97" sheets of MDF (one 1/2" thick and the other 3/4").

I also used some 1/4" MDF, a few pieces of PVC, an old plastic mudflap, a piece of used plexiglass, and a handful of other little things.

These photos are of the plans that I sketched out. Many things changed as the project progressed, but you can get an idea where it all started.

The side pieces are made from 3/4" MDF, and use up one entire sheet of the material. I designed it this way to maximize size, and minimize waste.

The pieces were cut out with a jigsaw. I clamped the two pieces together and sanded them so all edges were flush.

There are two ramp sections. This is the bottom one that the balls return on. It is made from 1/2" material.

There needed to be six lanes. I used a router and a homemade straight-edge guide to cut slots to fit the five lane dividers.

At the end of the return ramp there is a hinged section that swings down to release the balls back into a storage compartment.

The hinges were attached by predrilling the holes, squirting a couple of drops of super glue into the drilled-out holes to stiffen up the material, and then screwed in place. (This is an old R/C airplane modeling trick.) I'm not sure if it was needed in this case, but I've learned not to put too much trust in MDF. It can be tricky stuff to work with.

The basic frame was assembled with a combination of clamps, glue, screws, and nails.

Various support pieces were added for the ramps and the ball return ramp was glued and nailed in place.

The lane dividers for the ball return are made from 1/4" MDF strips that were glued into the slots made with the router.

These were all stacked together and sanded flush before being individually glued to the ramp.

The window that shows the scoring for the balls was made out of an old piece of 1/4" plexiglass. There were a few scratches that I tried to buff out with some scratch remover stuff. It worked okay.

The main ramp is made from 1/4" MDF. It slides into place from the back, on top of pieces that were added to the ball return ramp underneath to support the main ramp and the plexiglass piece.

Side rails were built using scrap material. A slot was prepared on the front of the right side rail for the ball return lever.

The ball drop lever mechanism was made with dowels, a section of thin metal rod, washers, and a few pieces of model aircraft linkage.

This part was tricky, and took a lot of trial and error to get it to work right. The lever is under tension from some rubber bands and is attached to the hinged flap with the linkage, which holds the flap up in place until you pull the lever. It actually works very well.

The target board is 1/2" MDF. The target holes are made from PVC. The PVC for the larger holes is 3 1/2" and the smaller holes 2 3/4" (outside diameter).

The larger circle and half-circle are made from pieces from the old mudflap.

The photos show the method I took to get all the pieces together. All the cuts in the board itself were done with a jigsaw.

To make the jump I cut out individual pieces of material with a jigsaw and glued and nailed them all together. The entire piece was covered with wood filler and then sanded and shaped down to make a jump. It took quite a bit of testing and modifying to get it into a shape that would work well.

At this point I made some other pieces that created a smooth transition from ramp to jump to target face.

After some testing I made an opening in the main ramp where the jump fits in, in such a way to allow for adjusting and fine tuning of the jump.

I filled all the nail and screw holes, and any blemishes with wood filler and sanded it all smooth.

I primed the entire thing a couple of times, sanding between coats.

A thorough priming is necessary when working with MDF because it won't take a good coat of paint unless it is primed and sealed really well, especially the cut edges.

The entire target board was spray painted with a coat of white, and then the board portion was painted yellow by hand. Spray paint was used for the rest of the game, although many parts had to be masked off and painted in specific order.

A piece of black foam was glued to the bottom of the ball compartment with spray adhesive.

The numbers on the plexiglass that indicate score for each lane were painted on the underside of the plexiglass.

I began by marking with tape where each lane divider was, and used a sharpie to draw the numbers where I wanted them on the top side of the glass. Using hobby paint, I painted the numbers on the bottom (backwards), tracing the marks I made on the front side. When they were done I cleaned off the sharpie numbers with denatured alcohol.

These photos show the different pieces that go together to make the transition from ramp to jump to target.

In order to paint everything nicely, I had to make this in a way that could be pieced together for final assembly. Once everything was in place there was no going back. However, as mentioned before, the jump was made to be adjusted so I could tweak the trajectory of the balls.

The front edge of the jump is attached to the ramp with a piece of masking tape. (The color of the ramp and jump was chosen to match the tape.)

The ball chutes that take the balls to the return ramp were made from stiff single-ply cardboard and lots of hot glue. This was an interesting challenge all by itself. I considered using pipes or a wooden structure of some sort, but nothing else would work in the amount of space I had left.

Once all the ball chutes were completed, a back panel was installed to finish it up.

After I was all done, I realized that I needed to add some sort of cushioning to the target board to absorb the shock of the balls, otherwise half the time they bounce right off the board and come back down the ramp.

I added a layer of craft foam with spray adhesive to the target board and the PVC holes. Now it works much better.

For competitive purposes, I've established some house rules. If a ball rolls back down the ramp you can replay it. If a ball bounces off the board and lands on the floor it cannot be replayed. You get eight white balls, and one colored ball which is the "money ball" and is worth double points.

I apologize if there are some parts of the project that I don't cover completely. There was so much trial and error and constant modification involved that it was difficult to document any sort of cut-and-dried process. If you are interested in trying something like this, I think this will give you a good idea of what to do, but there will still be a lot you'll have to figure out on your own.

Thanks for looking!

The current high score is... 730.