Portable Ring Toss

Growing up on the coast we where never short of beautiful things to look at but we often found ourselves short on things to do. Seeing that it was also a small town there wasn't really anywhere to go either. Don't even get me started about the internet either. I had dial up speeds until the 2010's. That being said we always found a way to keep ourselves entertained. One of my favorite things to do in the summer was to walk to the marinas and watch the boats come and go for the day. While there though one thing always seemed to suck up all my time. That thing was ring toss.

Now back home it seemed like everywhere you went they had a ring toss set up. Every restaurant and bar, ever marina, even stores. I even know people who have ring toss set ups in their homes, and I'm not talking on the porch. For me growing up this was such an ingrained part of my summers and culture that I still find it strange more places don't have them.

For those that are unaware the ring toss I am referring to is a simple, but addictive, game often played outside with friends with little to no more goal than to get a ring on a hook. Usually the hook is mounted in the wall slightly higher than waist height and the ring hangs from a hook suspended from the ceiling about three to four feet out. The name of the game is to find the perfect speed at which to toss or release the ring so that it effortlessly mounts onto the hook as it swings by. Over the years I have known many people who play by many different rule sets, but most commonly the winner is who score first while passing back and forth. The real fun though, much like any form of competition, is the smack talk. As simple of a game as it is you will be surprised at how worked up it can get you.

Now that I have moved to the hills and have found myself longing for home I decided what a better time than now to build a portable ring toss so that I can carry a little piece of home with me wherever I go. Plus, with it being summer, what a better time than now to get my nieces and nephews hooked on something I hope they will go on to love forever as well.

For this build I didn't really need to get to much put everything together for myself. The goal was to try and do as much with what I already had, so all I had to grab was something extendable and a hook. I originally looked at picking up a telescoping back scratchier, but I found this telescoping magnet at harbor freight for cheap. Although I had some items laying around the full list of items are:

An telescoping back scratchier, magnet, or mirror

A sizable hook

4 small magnets

String

a thumb tack

Super glue

A 3d printer or access to a 3d printer

TinkerCad

For those who may not have access to a 3 printer I always tell people to check with their public library. The library system around where I live now has a great program that provides free printing services to anyone who is a library member. I have even heard from some friends that my sleepy home towns library even got a 3d printer recently. There are loads of options available without having to purchase a printer yourself. If you do ever decide to pick up a printer I cannot recommend my Voxelab Aquila enough. It is definitely a hobbyist machine, so make sure if you pick one up you have the time and patience for trial and error.

Before I got to involved in the build I knew I needed to pick up the telescoping magnet and hook. There was no point in getting everything planned out just to have to change the sizes later. That being said I played around with some ideas of how to make it in my mind so I could be ready when I got all my supplies. I knew I wanted to make it small enough to fit into the small front pocket of my backpack and have a closing lid. I also wanted to make sure it was an all in one package that I could pull out, pop up, and play. Thought I changed my design by the end, I think I ended up capturing the ideas I started out with. Make sure if you decide to make this yourself to either find the exact size hook and magnet I used or adjust the design to fit the items that you have.

I started out my design by boxing out the total area I knew I would need to hold everything together. While this doesn't seem like most fun work, it honestly reminded me of a puzzle with all the problem solving. Once I had the basic Box, I used hole to make the cut outs for the interior and pole. I played around with different angles to make the hole for the pole, but eventually landed on 35 degrees as it just looked right. After this I made another block that would go on to hold all the supplies at the bottom. Like before I used the hole tool to make cut outs to make the shape I needed. On the left I started out by adding a hole for the telescoping pole to slide into when stored, but eventually switch that later down the line. In the middle I made a shape with a rounded bottom that I would use to mount the hook.I made sure to round the bottom to avoid any interference as you let down the hook.After this I used two different diameter tube to make a hole that I would use to make the cut out to hold the thumb tack. The offset tool on the ruler helped out with this a lot and I recommend getting to know it. Once I had that All made I used the alignment tool to make sure everything was lined up before moving on.

Once I had the basic design down I used the align tool to center everything to the base. I also used the alignment tool to use a small hole to make a cutout to push the thumb tack too. After that I added up my magnet holes and that was it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I am finished. The I printed a test print. I quickly learned I had some design flaws and went back to the drawing board. I decided to change the way the hook mounted and changed it from an insert to just a slightly oversized hole for simplicity. I also decided some little pegs to hold the string while store up would look nicer as well. I also decided to add some little guides for the telescoping pole to rest on so it didn't shake around as much in storage too. At this time too I decide to cut the top of the box down to a square and duplicated the basic shape and pole hole to make the lid. Lastly I used the over all size of the thing to eyeball calculate the size of the ring. Luckily for me I was happy with the size. Please pay no mind to the random block as they are only for alignment.

Once I had everything done all I had to do was print.

Assembly was straight forward for the most part. I used a small pair of pliers and a sheet of felt to press fit the magnets into place. Looking back now if I were to do this again I might add a dab of glue to the magnet to help them stay in place. I was happy with my new design with the hook hole. This time the hook term much more freely and didn't feel like it was going to break the case when I turned it. I then used an old piece of bowden tubing to hold hold the hook holder into place. I originally designed this to use a plastic printed peg but changed my mind when I broke the peg. With my no waste mindset I used the broken piece to cap off my tube so it wouldn't fall out. Next I unscrewed the magnet from the telescoping tube and tied my string around it. After playing around with string length for a while I found a size I liked and threaded the other end through the hole in my ring. Lastly I glued the pegs into place before putting everything together and seeing how it closed up.

Over all I am very happy with how my designed turned out and how portable it is. I'm still rather new to 3d design, but TinkerCad had been making it easier for me to start to better understand the basics. Not only has this brought me hour of fun, but it has become a hit amount all the little ones running around as well. I even took it home last time I went to see friends and family and they all loved it. who would have guessed I could have packed so much fun and summer childhood nostalgia into such a small package. In the future I would love to revisit this idea when I have acquired better modeling skills, but for the time being I couldn't love it more.

If anyone is interested in downloading the files I am going to post the link below. It still is a little rough around the edge, so feel free to edit or adjust it to how you like. Sorry it took so long to get it posted, its crazy how life can come fast.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/portable-ring...

Peace and blessing

-ReallySrry