Making a Wooden Foosball

Hello!!

First of all, let me make this clear that the idea and design for making a 'foosball' is purely and totally out of my brain. I didn't watch any video or took any reference on google.

About a month ago, I really wanted a foosball of my own after playing with it at a friend's place. But my father suggested that instead of buying me the foosball he will give me some money to create it on my own. And the idea of making a foosball caught me. I wanted to make a low-price and efficient foosball at home.

That is when the journey of designing, correcting and creating started and it was enough to keep me occupied for a week without any screen time.

I prefer to do all of my work with my own hands, but you can use power tools if you want to. The specialty of this project is you don't need any extravagant power tools or high quality plywood or a special workshop. This project can be carried out in your backyard with some basic tools and packaging plywood, which is easily available.

I hope you enjoy making your own foosball!! ;)

List of tools you will need -

1. Hack-saw
2. Hack-saw frame
3. Hammer
4. Hand drill/ Electric drill machine
5. Finishing file
6. Tri-square
7. Screw driver
8. Screws and nails (Polished nails are preferred)

List of material you will need -

1. Big plywood piece
2. Wooden batons
3. Wooden sticks
4. Oil paint (As per your wish and preferred color)

I will give the dimensions of wooden parts in the steps itself.

Material - wooden baton

Dimensions - (Main body)

1. Length- 11 cm
2. Breadth- 3 cm
3. Thickness- 1.5 cm

Dimensions - (Hands)

1. Length- 4.5 cm
2. Breadth- 1 cm
3. Thickness- 1.5 cm
4. Distance from head- 2.5 cm

Dimensions - (Cut in main body)

1. Depth- 1 cm
2. Wide- 1 cm

*Same cut should be made in hands, after/before attaching them to the main body with 3/4 inch nails.

*You can use a vice to hold small parts for cutting or filing.

Notes -

(i) : Only one nail is enough to attach one hand on either side. Hammering more nails or hammering too hard can result in splitting of wood.

(ii) : 9 players are needed in each team. Total 18 players are required.

(iii) : You can make the edges smooth or just leave them as they are for players to look sharp.

(iv) : Wooden baton should be polished for brightness of the wood.

Here, I have chosen the teams as 'Belgium and France'. But you can choose teams of your wish.

You can draw different expressions on the players as seen in the pictures. Paint them with oil paint.

OR you can let your creativity explore more decorative ways here. :)

Material - Wooden sticks

Dimensions - (Stick)

1. Length- 63 cm
2. Breadth- 1 cm
3. Thickness- 1.1 cm *Thickness is slightly greater than the cut we made in players because now the stick will wedge itself in the cut.

Dimensions - (Hand Grip)

1. Length- 7 cm
2. Breadth- 1 cm
3. Thickness- 1.1 cm

*Attach each grip on either side of the stick (only on one end of the stick).

*You will need total 8 sticks.

*You should attach a stopper at the other end of the stick. (But do this only after putting/passing sticks in the stadium).

GOALPOSTS

Material - Plywood

Dimensions - (Main body)

1. Length- 39 cm
2. Breadth- 11 cm
3. Thickness- 1.5 cm

Dimensions - (Goalpost)

1. Length- 10 cm
2. Height- 5 cm
3. Distance from each end of main body- 14.5 cm

*Decorate in your own way. Here I have chosen to paint names and flags of the two teams.

*Two goalposts will be needed.

SIDE PLYWOOD

Material - Plywood

Dimensions - (Main body)

1. Length- 88 cm
2. Breadth- 11 cm
3. Thickness- 1.5 cm

Dimensions - (Cuts or holes)

1. Distance of the 1st hole from the start of the plywood- 9.5 cm
2. Diameter of a hole- 1.5 cm
3. Distance between two holes- 8 cm
4. Distance of the last from the end of the plywood- 9.5 cm

• You can drill holes if you have big enough drill bits. But here I have cut a square of 1.5 cm.

Material - Wooden batons

Dimensions - (Main body)

1. Length- 42 cm
2. Breadth- 3 cm
3. Thickness- 1.5 cm

Dimensions - (Holes)

1. Distance from the start/end of baton- 13 cm
2. Distance between two holes- 1 cm
3. Diameter of holes- 0.5 cm

*You will need two score boards for each team and a small piece of a ice-cream lolly stick to put in the holes for indicating current score.

Assembly of stadium

• Attach the two goalposts and side-plywood with 1.5 - 2 inch screws or nail them together with 4-5 nails(2 inch) .
• Now put the sticks through the holes on either side of the stadium and attach stoppers at their end.
• Attach the score board on each goalposts with the of nails.
• After this, attach the players on sticks with screws or nails. Following these dimensions --

Dimensions - (For goalkeeper)

1. Distance from either end of the stick- 33.5 cm

Dimensions - (For defenders)

1. Distance from either end of the stick- 25 cm
2. Distance between two players- 10 cm

Dimensions - (Mid-fielders and stickers)

1. Distance from either end of the stick- 23 cm
2. Distance between two players- 6 cm

Important Note (i) -

Attach a 21 cm long baton slantingly from end point of goalpost to the side-plywood. Do this on each corner of the stadium. I have not uploaded a picture of this. But this will give your stadium better support and avoid the ball from getting stuck in the corner.

Important Note (ii) -

Use a big marble as the ball. You can also order the ball online, but it is much costly and using a marble is much more easy and it makes no difference. In fact, the ball sometimes gets thrown out of the stadium because of its light weight, but marble is much heavier.

• Use screws wherever possible as they provide better stability and don't come off easily. But they are more time consuming than using nails.
• You can attach a big rectangular plywood at the bottom as field. But it is unnecessary as we play on flat tiles in our house and it increases the cost.
• You can also make legs for your foosball.
• You can add or decrease number of flanks of players in the game.
• You can make a better hand grip of rubber/leather/fiber.
• You can also design a whole new foosball based on this idea.

- Making a foosball can take up to a week if you work daily and tackle each step in a day.

ENJOY THE PROCCESS OF MAKING A FOOSBALL !!!! :D