Paper Dart Board

Living in a rented flat, I can't do activities that will damage the structure of the building. That rules out having a dart board up in the living room, because I'm not the best dart player, and even with a backing board, there's always going to be that one stray or ricochet dart that's going to cost me my damage deposit.

So, I came up with a paper dart version. It's in a rough state at the moment, needing a couple of coats of paint, but it works well enough to publish. It's also safe enough for youngsters to play, and simple enough that they can make their own set to keep them occupied in the holidays.

You will need a pair of round objects you can use to mould paper around, one large, one small, both with near-parallel sides. I settled on using a bucket and a drink bottle.

You will also need newspaper, thin card, PVA glue, something to cut the paper and something to spread the glue.

Take care when selecting your round objects - of the two coffee cans in the third photo, the can on the right is not suitable to use, as it has a small lip that would stop you getting the moulded paper back off the can.

Cut your newspaper into long strips, about 4cm wide. Cut lots, you'll need them.

You're going to be laminating the paper, and that works best if the paper is thoroughly soaked in glue. I mixed PVA with a little water in a small dish and dragged the strips through the glue to soak them all the way through.

Gently wrap each strip around your mould objects and set them aside to dry. You're going to need at least ten thicknesses of paper, but you should only start with two or three layers and then leave then to dry before adding more - if you go for all ten layers at once, you risk turning the whole thing into useless mush.

(If you don't have any thin card available, this is also the time to make some flat strips of laminated paper by gluing newspaper to a flat surface such as a chopping board and drying those at the same time.)

Once the paper circles are dry, check the distance between them, and cut 12 rectangles of card that are the same width as the laminated circles, and a little longer than the distance between the circles.

In my set, the distance was 8cm, so I cut 12 rectangles 4x10 cm.

You then need to score across the ends of the rectangles to make flaps for gluing - scoring 1cm from the end makes 8cm spokes with a 1cm flap at each end for gluing.

To aid in the "mass" production of the spokes, I drew a little jig on the card covering my workspace - I just put the rectangle in place, and scored where the marks indicated.

It was at this stage that things went somewhat kaka in at least two different ways, and I had to dismantle everything and start over.

Using PVA glue, fix the spokes to the inner circle - there are 12, so space them out every 30 degrees around the circle. I found it easiest (second time around) to mark a 12-pointed star of lines on my work-surface to guide the placement.

I also found that, as the glue soaked into the circle of paper on the first attempt, it softened and distorted, so for the second attempt I stood the drink bottle back in the centre of the circle and left it to dry.

Finally, as the glue soaked into the scored and bent card, it did its level best to un-fold again, which introduced a weird spiral kink to the spokes as they all tried to unfold in the same direction. In my second glue-up, I flipped the direction of the spokes every three spokes, so that a total of six spokes were facing clockwise, and six spokes facing anticlockwise, to cancel out the twist (this is most easily seen in the third photo).

Once the glue from step 4 is dry, you need to glue the spokes to the outer circle.

Leaving the spokes around the bottle, I applied generous amounts of glue to the outer end of the spokes, and slipped the outer circle over them. Inevitably, several of the spokes shifted position, but I simply used the guide-lines on the work-surface to move them back into place.

The paper dart board doesn't work well flat against the wall (the darts bounce off the wall and fall out too easily), so I cut four "legs" from the same thin card that made the spokes, and glued them in place around the board (I curved the card slightly to fit the curve of the board before sticking it on).

The stand-offs are just over twice as long as the width of the strips used in the board - there is no magic reason for that, and other lengths might be better, but it worked for me.

I also made a "double fin", connected at the top, to hang the board on the wall - it stiffens the standoff taking the board's weight, and the looped top let's me hang the board from a hook that is already in the wall, avoiding another thin that could cost me my damage deposit.

Note that I made a hole in the top of the hanging fin to match the hook on my wall. You might not have to do that, but, if you do, you will have to reinforce the remaining part to take the weight of the board (see the black strip of extra card in the final picture of this step).

Gluing was an issue here, since I was fixing the fin to the smooth, clay-coated surface of the card forming the stand-off, so I had to resort to using double-sided tape. If you end up in a similar situation, you could also use superglue or contact adhesive. Or, you could be sensible and use card that isn't coated on one side - using the thin card of an Amazon envelope for the spokes and stand-offs would have been ideal.

When the board was finally ready to hang and use, it didn't work - whenever I hit the board with a dart, it bounced off the wall!

It turned out that I hadn't allowed for the hanging hole, and three of the stand-offs weren't touching the wall and doing their job. I had to spend a little time trimming the hanging fin and the two side stand-offs millimetre by millimetre until they all contacted the wall equally, and stopped the board bouncing off the wall.

The newspaper and card I used don't look so good hanging on my wall, so I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of black spray paint.

The official reason I used black was to make the board stand out against my pale wall. The real reason is that it was the only paint I had handy at the time. If you have more paints, you might want to paint the inside of each part of the board different colours.

After painting, I stuck clear sticky tape over the ends of the standoffs, and the wall-facing edges of the hanging fin - I don't know that the spray-paint would leave marks on the walls, but I didn't want to risk it.

One unfortunate thing I noticed was that painting the board made the physical irregularities stand out a mile against the pale wall - just so you know.

I wasn't going to include this step, until I remembered how many people I have encountered over the years totally unable to fold a paper dart. Make sure all your creases are sharp - run your fingernails along them.

You could probably just work along the photos, but;

1. Start with an A5 sheet of paper (half a sheet of A4), and crease it sharply along its length.
2. Fold the corners in to meet the crease.
3. Fold in half.
4. Fold down one wing, then the other.
5. Fold the point of the dart in on itself to make a heavier, blunt tip, which makes the darts safe for younglings' eyes. Depending on the exact dimensions of your board, folding more of the tip in on itself will make the darts less likely to bounce off the wall and fall out of the board.

You could try darts of different styles and sizes, of course - players making their own darts is part of the game.

The simplest way to play is for each player to throw three darts at the board and see if they stick. Award one point for a dart sticking between spokes, and three points for a dart that sticks in the centre circle. Darts that ricochet off, or fall out, do not count.

You can either take turns to throw three darts, and add up the scores, or throw alternate darts, in which case darts falling out is a greater danger.

You can also give each space in the board a different value, just like in traditional darts, and then players take turns throwing darts to reach a pre-agreed total.

I always love it when people follow my projects, or take them a step further - if you make your own paper dart board, share it in the comments, as well as the rules of any special games you play,

If your method is different to mine, why not write your own instructable? If you do, post a link to it in the comments as well.