Oversized Cribbage Board
Wanted to make a "large peg" cribbage board for my mom. Finally sourced some big-sized pegs and went to work. Thanks to DD for helping prep the Sapele hardwood board for the project.
This is the template, printed at 150% size. Based on the math, this was the correct scale for the oversized pegs I bought. 3/8 inch hole size.
Bought a low-end drill press for this project. What an awesome tool! Highly recommended! I make one more cribbage board and this thing has paid for itself in physio visits! :-D Also picked up a brad point drill bit for the clean cut edges on the holes.
The plan was to put painters tape on the board itself, then use spray adhesive to affix the template. Worked great. Probably could skip the painters tape I suppose, just leaves a bit of adhesive goop to remove from the wood after all the drilling is done. If I had sanded it properly afterwards, that likely would have taken care of all residue.
Here we are with template glued on, drilling in progress. I had planned on testing out the process a bit, and ended up spending the day on the board, drilled all the holes in one day. Took a few hours, but it was enjoyable work.
All drilled out! The middle row was a bit tricky, I had to get creative with the clamps and supporting boards, but I figured something out.
All ready for the big reveal! How did it turn out?
I could not have been happier with the end result. It looked so good, the holes were so evenly spaced, I was extremely pleased with this. I had used a 1" chisel to strike the lines between each 5-hole grouping before I took off the template and tape, those turned out really nicely. Next board I do using this template, I will definitely move the "score counting" block at the bottom WAY lower down - it is far too close and crowded to the actual pegging board.
This is after a fresh coat of "Tried & True Original" wood finish. Wow, did it ever darken the wood! And look at how the grain just popped out! Very nice, happy with that, too. I did find this finish to be quite wet, for days (weeks) after. Kept rubbing and polishing with dry cloth for days and days. I'd plan for weeks of drying/finishing next time I use this finish.
The finished product. I happened to have a perfectly matching, gorgeous box to hold the pegs to go with it. Although it took me a good 1.5 years from idea to final product (mostly procrastination), I am super happy with the final result.
The inaugral game on the new board! I won! Almost skunked her, too! :D
