DIY Cornhole Boards with Style | How to Make

What's up guys

I'm Brad Rodriguez from Fix This Build That and I've got a special guest in the shop today with me

John Malecki my co-host from the Made for Profit podcast today. We are making a set of cornhole boards

I've built a bunch of cornhole boards in my time

And I thought what better project to do with Brad since it's quick and easy and we can definitely show you guys some awesome tips

Absolutely stay tuned. We'll show you exactly how we did it

We made this cornhole set from just two eight-foot two by tens and a half sheet of plywood

You can also make these from two by fours

But the two by tens tend to be straighter and they have a clearer grain

We even had enough off cuts left over to make a ladder golf game over on John's channel

There's a link down below in the description for that video. So go check it out

After ripping each two by ten into three strips

I set up an extended stop block on my minor saucepan to reach out to four feet.

I cut the long boards for each set. Then I move the stop in and I cut the shorter ends

After a little style we went with an inset painted top in a dark stained frame

John set up to cut the rabbit recesses on the top of the frame to hold the plywood tops

He ran all the boards through to establish the bottom of the rabbet first

Then he moved the fence in and lined up the blade to make the side cut on the rabbet

John ran all the boards through again, and we had a perfect channel for the plywood tops to lay in

To cut the mitered corners for the frames, I went back to the miter saw and cut a miter on the end of each board

Then I set my stop block flip the board over and made the angled cut on the other end as well

using a wooden spacer block next to my metal miter stop help

keep the pointed in from the miter from creeping behind it and using

A clamp to hold the workpiece to the fence makes for a much smoother miter cut

After John was done with an impromptu gun show we glued up the frame

good help is so hard to find these days

We used a band clamp to hold everything together tightly and after making sure the assembly was square

We secured each corner with countersunk two and a half inch screws

To cover up the screws, I went back and plugged them with three-eighths of an inch dowels

I started off just putting the whole dowel in there and cutting it off, but I was a little bit too finicky

So I switched over to cutting the Dow's first and then hammering them in

But you might want to consider beveling the edges first to avoid this fail and the down vote.

I got them all in there and I cut the plugs with my flesh cut saw I finally got that sweet thumbs-up from John

Next we moved on to making the tops

I cut a sheet of half-inch plywood in half in the driveway and I brought it

inside to make the finish cuts on the table saw

With the tops being in said we could easily get two tops out of one half sheet and still have regulation-size

We test fit the tops in the frame and measure down and mark for the hole location

If you want the free plans for the bill, there's a link in the description

You can get them all it has all the measurements and step-by-step instructions for you.

So you'll know exactly how to set these up

To drill the six inch hole for the board's I picked up this massive hole saw now

I have a link down below in the description for this as well and all the other tools that we used

With such a large hole saw though

It's really important to be careful and to keep the drill straight and true while you're drilling it

If you don't it can bind up and if you're not careful

It can twist your wrist when it stops

Now using a handle on your drill or even a router to cut the hole or other good alternatives

They're a little bit safer than using this monster

after cutting the holes we ease the edges with a roundover bit and then sanded everything smooth or

150 grit sandpaper just to make sure it's nice and smooth for the

hand when you're putting it inside to grab the boards.

I painted each top with two coats of white paint and then we went back to the frame

Like I mentioned earlier two by tens tend to have better grain and less knots than a typical 2x4

So the sanding here goes faster and the finished piece is going to look way nicer

And also I could get used to having an extra hand in the shop

It definitely makes tedious tasks like applying stain go a lot faster

Now the last parts to make for the legs

I rip the legs down so that they would fold up flush underneath the boards

and had to account for the recess top that we put in

We marked a centered hole on the end of each leg one inch down from the top and

The tops of each leg are rounded to let them rotate freely to layout the curve

We used a little plastic cup and just traced around it

Next I drilled three eighths of an inch holes through each leg on the mark that we laid out

If you're using a hand drill here

Just make sure that this hole is as straight as possible so that the legs will fold up and down smoothly

jump tuck the legs over to the bandsaw and cut to the line that we laid out and this could easily be done with a

jig saw as well if you don't have a bandsaw to

Cut the legs to length we need to mount one of the legs to the frame for reference

We used a scrap of one by stock as a spacer

Then John used the leg as a guide and drilled a hole through the frame

We temporarily mounted the leg to the frame with a 3/8 inch bolt and

we use the paint can and some scraps to raise the

Top of the board's up to the regulation height of 12 inches and use

the edge of the workbench to mark the cut line

This will make it level at this height when it's on the ground

I dialed in my miter saw and I cut all four legs with the angle that we had marked and

then we knocked off the pointed ends of the legs, too

So now came the tricky part applying these custom logos to the board's

We just celebrated one year of our podcast made for profit if you're a listener. Thanks a lot for listening

So we got a set of vinyl decals for our new logo and my new F TBT logo as well

Then we centered and laid down the decal on the tops leaving the transfer paper as a protective barrier

After that we laid out some painters tape down the length of each board

so that we could do a gray accent stripe down the middle.

I rolled on two coats of the gray paint above and below the logos

I just painted right over the logos because they were protected by that transfer paper

After the second coat was down we peeled up the painters tape to try and

keep the paint from pulling away with the tape

After that second coat dried. It came off pretty clean

but the real chore here was pulling off the transfer paper from the vinyl the

Mate for profit logo wasn't too bad and it came up pretty cleanly and it was looking great

My logo was another story altogether

My logo has a ton of fine detail and some small strips of vile in it

And this proved to be extremely

Difficult to manage in that thin gray line around it ended up getting pulled and distorted as we worked our way around

Because it just really wanted to stick to the transfer paper

If I did it again, I'd probably just have them print a decal with a white background and then die-cut around the entire logo

When the tops were dry. We laid down a bead of glue and the rabbet of the frame. I laid the tops in place.

I secured the tops around the frame with Brad nails and I later came back and

filled those holes and covered it up with some touch-up

Paint I also gave each of the boards three coats of a water-based polyurethane

Now the last piece was to mount the legs to the frame

We pounded in a bolt from the outside and then placed the washer on both sides of the leg and a lock washer and nut

on the inside to hold everything secure

I love the way these boards turned out and I think the logos look really cool

If you're a cornhole purist you probably want a seamless top, but these boards still play fine

But they add a ton of style in class and the real head-turners

guys, if you're not already check out the made for profit podcast

We talk business in the shop and help you monetize as a maker

We've a weekly show where we talk about hot business topics and

interviews with the people that are making the biggest splash in our space

If you're not subscribed to the channel already

I'd love to have you as part of the team and make sure you check out John's channel as well

Until next time guys get out there and build something awesome