Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
Hi All Lumberjocks,I decided with Summer just around the corner I wanted to add to my expanding yard game collection by making this Giant Jenga set. My son has loved playing the small version of this game over the winter period and when we played with it last year on Summer vacation I made a mental note to make it for him.This project could not have been any easier and I used a lot of plywood scraps I had lying around for the storage box.As I always do I made a very quick set of plans to determine how much plywood I needed for the box and the Jenga blocks.Design
MATERIALSI estimated that I needed a half sheet of 3/4” plywood and about 6 8' lengths of 2”x4”.JOINERYThere was little to no joinery involved in this project the little I had to do was cut to rabbets into the front and back box pieces for the sides to fit into and then its basically all glue and screws. I did cover up the screw holes with some walnut dowel I had laying around. The base of the box is basically glued and screwed into the box frame parts.
SHAPINGI added some visual aspects to the box with some cutouts in the front and back and I also cut out some handholds on the sides, I eased all sharp edges with a round over bit and router, after all kids will be playing with it and the last thing I needed on a sunny summers day is pulling splinters out of neighbors kids hands lol
BOX COMPLETEWith the box complete as far as woodworking went, still needs paint but that is the wife's department. I sand the box through the grits starting at 100 grit upto 220 grit and also rounded every sharp edge on it with my palm router and it was time to turn my attentions over to the Jenga blocks themselves.
THE JENGA BLOCKSYou will need 54 blocks to play the official game and they are basically 2” x 4” x 10-1/2” so I cut all these out of 6 lengths of 2×4's. I spend an age sanding them utilizing all my sanding machines from the belt sander, to the oscillating belt sander and finally the orbital sander this took a long time but the effort was worth it even cheap construction grade lumber can feel nice to the touch after the effort is put in.
My cheap Harbor Freight Belt Sander I used 100 grit on this
Next up was my Ridgid Oscillating Belt/Spindle sander I truly love using this machine, having it has allowed me to incorporate so much more curves into my work.After all that work the blocks were finished, just all need to be painted so I will wait until the fine weather is officially here and finish this off and give to my son.I do have free plans available to make this as well as a complete blog on my websiteWell that's all I have for now I hope you enjoyed reading this and look forward to any and all comments, is anyone else looking forward to the summer???