Holey Boards

We had a party a while back so everybody that came to the Corn Hole build day could show off their finished boards. There were a bunch of people over so I also pulled out my other game, Holey Board. After the party, some of the attendees started asking when we were going to schedule a Holey Board building day.  So 8 of us recently got together and had another day long building event.

This SketchUp file can be found on my Plans & Designs page.

Here's the SketchUp drawing with the measurements and every thing you should need to get your own set started. This board is pretty simple, it's just a carpeted 1'x4' sheet of plywood on a box with some holes in it. Then you have to go find yourself some washers.

One thing I didn't put on there is the Diameter of the holes which are 4".

When going to the hardware store make sure you take your list with you and about $30 for the supplies and another $30 for the washers unless you find a good deal.

Here is everything you'll need to make a Holey Board set from start to finish:

• 1 2"x6"x10' board.
  • You'll rip this right down the middle and use half for one board and half for the other.
• 1 sheet of 3/4" plywood .
  • Really you only need 1/4th of a sheet or 2'x4'.
• 1.5'x 9' of indoor/outdoor carpet.
  • Home depot has it for about $.49 per sq ft.
• Scrap piece of wood for a scoreboard.
  • I used 3/4" pine that I had lying around.
• Spray adhesive.
• 10 3.5" Pitching Washers.
  • I haven't seen any of these at Home Depot or Lowe's but did find them at Ace Hardware for a pretty penny. If you live in a rural area you can find them at a tractor/farm store for pretty cheap. For our build day I found some powder coated ones online at River City Washers for just as much or cheaper than Ace Hardware's bare ones. They gave me a nice bulk order price since I ordered 80 washers.
• Miscellaneous tools.
  • Drill, saw, staple gun, 4" hole saw if you have one.

We pretty much set up an assembly line. We had one set of people ripping the 2x6 boards in half, another set of people cutting them down to size and then another group assembling the boxes.

After the boxes were all put together and a scoreboard and washer holder had been built into half of the boards we started drilling the 4" holes. This is where a beefy drill and a 4" hole saw come in handy.

   After cutting the carpet to size, spraying the boards with adhesive and stapling the carpet on the sides, we cut the holes out and torched the newly cut edges of the carpet. You don't want to burn it too much, just enough to keep it from fraying. It will of course fray after a year or so of use so just get the fire back out and touch it up.

Even though you only see 5 score boards, we actually made 8 Holey Board sets. One of my friends was having a party before I had a chance to take the pictures so he took his set home.I've seen a few different ways of storing the washers and scoreboard but I think this one worked out pretty good. All this one is missing is a little latch to keep the board in if you happen to carry the board bottom up.

Here's the finished product(s). This was actually the night after the build day because the staple gun we used didn't quite cut it so I went and purchased a pneumatic one that could handle 1" staples. That did much better than the little hand one we originally used.

Holey Board Rules

•  How to play: Standing on the board, the team that scored the most points in the previous round (+ or -) will throw all 5 of their washers at one time. When they are done and before their washers are removed, the other team will throw all of their washers onto the same board.
• Scoring: The holes are worth 1, 3, and 5 points from front to back. If a washer from one team is in the same hole as another, they will cancel each other out. (Same hole only.)
• Winning: You must reach 21 exactly. If you exceed 21 then you must move backward from where you were at the beginning of the round.
•  Distance: The distance between boards should be 7-10 feet.
• NOTE: You must re-throw your washer if it doesn't hit the board first.
• NOTE: Your toes must not go over the edge.

Lessons Learned

1. When using a large hole saw, make sure you use a larger than normal drill. When I was building my first set a few years ago, I broke the chuck on one drill, burned out the replacement and barely made it by with the replacement's replacement.
2. Take it slow when ripping the 2x6 boards. Most table saw's have a hard time cutting through this much wood even with a newer saw blade.
3. Use a lot of glue around the holes and on the edges. We tried to make one can of adhesive spray last for all 16 boards but it didn't work out too well.. The carpet around the holes didn't stay down very good so I went back with some liquid nails and finished the job.
4. Get or borrow a pneumatic staple gun. Those little hand guns can't handle large enough staples to do the job. Plus they make your hand hurt after a while.
5. When building 16 Holey Boards, no matter how many people you can fit into your garage, the more prep work you can do the better.