How to Make a Boardgame Big Box

I got into boardgames recently and fell right into print and play (PNP) stuff. One of the challenges was to make an adequate box for the printed out game or for a compilation of games + expansions the volume of which was greater than that of the individual boxes. I understood that there was a lack of tutorials on this and voilá!

I strongly recommend expanding the images since they have more details than those shown in the smaller thumbnail pictures.

Materials:

- metallic ruler (I cannot stress enough the metallic part);

- box cutter (circular cutter or anything capable of delivering precise cuts in depth);

- dense cardboard (2-3 mm);

- white glue;

- brush;

- painter's tape or kraft tape;

- label paper (laminated if inkjet printed or optional if laser printed).

If you can't acquire thick cardboard, good news, you can easily make it yourself.

Grab old cereal boxes and cut them to size. It must be a material that is porous enough to allow the glue to seep in (plastic-like surfaces won't do).

Mix wood white glue with a little bit of water (just enough to make it workable).

Spread the glue mix with a brush along the surface of the cardboard. If you feel it is necessary, spread on both sides to be glued together (double glue technique). Repeat the process until you have the desired thickness (generally, 4 layers are necessary for a 2-mm thick cardboard). The reason for a much thicker than usual cardboard is to make it sturdy enough to withstand the game's weight, which can be significant.

Place the combined pieces below a stack of books and allow the glue to dry and harden.

After one day, it is safe to remove it from the stack of books. You have to leave to dry without anything on top. However, to do so, you may leave it openly exposed but be sure to flip it over once in a while to avoid excessive warping.

And there you have it! One thick cardboard for boardgame box making. Now, onto what matters.

I recommend a previous step wherein you join your whole game together to see the required volume of the box. This will give you the measurements to cut everything to size.

First, fix the lateral thick cardboard elements together with painter's tape or kraft tape. Repeat the process on all four sides, but leave the last one opened.

Make sure the "lid" has the exact same size as the area occupied by the four sides.

Now place a thin line of glue on each of the sides of the lateral panels that will connect with the adjacent panel. This is probably not that understandable and I forgot to take more pictures of this stage. The corresponding image has more pointers.

After connecting all surfaces, make sure to close firmly with the painter's tape.

After making sure that the lid coincides with the lateral panels, place painter's tape all around the lid as in the fourth image.

Place a thin line of glue on the top part of the lateral panels (fifth image) wherein the lid will be placed.

Place the lid and make sure to correct all sides fixing them firmly in place with the use of the painter's tape.

Clean all excess glue. If you leave a small strip on the edges, that's fine. It will contribute to the box's sturdiness.

After leaving the glue to dry for a while, time to place the artwork.

I print everything myself in my inkjet printer. Because the final finishing is not of that high quality, I finalize it with lamination. I usually produce my artwork to size in Inkscape and print it on label paper. I laminate two pages of label paper at once (facing the opposite sides of the laminate pouch). This process gives you a laminated durable high-quality finish print that can be adhered to a surface.

I usually produce cross-like surfaces to be adhered, which then fold to the adjacent surfaces. Since this is a bix box, I was limited by the size of the printing space to an A4 sheet. Therefore, I had to start with the corners where the main surfaces will be laid upon.

In the first image, I made sure that the artwork was equidistant from the ends.

Then, fold the label paper to the adjacent surface (second image).

In the third image, you'll see what defines the finish quality of the box. You'll have to cut a small strip and fold it to the edge of the adjacent panel. After that, fold the remaining paper to the inside of the box.

In the label paper in contact with the "lid", just cut along the corner and fold one on top of the other (fourth image).

Repeat on all four corners.

In the first image, you will see that the artwork of the panel's surface is coinciding with the corners previously placed. You will have to remove a small amount of the back of the label paper to place it properly and then remove the rest.

Afterward, fold the excess artwork to the lid and to the inside of the box. Repeat on all four sides.

Now comes the top artwork. Again, since this is a big box, I had to print the top in two pages. I later joined them with the help of label paper and then I glued the whole thing on top of the lid making sure that all sides coincided and with the help of painter's tape.

You may stop at the previous step and have yourself a box with good (external) aesthetics... But let's go for the extra mile and do the whole thing.

This step is similar to step 4 but for internal corners. Measure the size of the strip you desire to cover the internal part (first image). Make sure to have two strips on the bottom that will fold on top of the other and on the inner surface of the lid.

Repeat for the four corners.

Cut the internal artwork to size. Remove a small part of the back of the label paper to position it. In this case, it is right on top of the previously placed internal corners (first image). Repeat for all four sides.

For the inner surface of the lid, I did the same procedure as in step 5 (two previously glued sheets onto a strip of label paper).

And there you have it! One part of a big box. I had previously made the bottom part for this box containing all of the contents of the game.