Games on the router

Not going to lie… Making games was not on my mind when we got our shapeoko but… We are all in now!

First game board was mancala.

Second was a two person Chinese checkers.


Looking forward to making more/new games!

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I make tops and yoyos to give away to bored kids. Most modern kids have never spun a top or threw a top. If I am in a restraunt and the restless kids are there I go out to the truck and give the tops to the parents to give to the kids. A lot of fun. On my Shapeoko 3 XXL I have also made the games they have on the tables in Cracker Barrel. It is a triangle shape with golf tees. The object is to jump the tees and wind up with one tee.


I made a bunch of these for a restaurant I frequent and they have them on the tables.

Another “toy” was a cat toy. It was cut on the Shapeoko and you put ping pong balls in side and the cats go nuts batting them around.

So making games is a lot of fun and people really love them. Keep making games that you can share time with your kids.

So what are you going to use for the mancala game pieces. I had to look up what it was. Will you use stones or seeds?

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If I can find some small stones I will use that. I am going to make another one with bigger pockets and get some nice custom glass to go with it.

One of the first projects I did when I got the machine. I’ve also gotten requests to make a baseball & horserace board game. I might be motivated by $$ if anyone offers :slight_smile:


The Game of Ur (The oldest known board game ??)

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That looks great! What type of dice did you make? As I recall, GoU typically is played with D4 dice with pips on 2 of the 4 faces. I’ve made these with my laser and have used both slot-together and 3D printed dice.

Nice. I had to go look this one up as I have not seen it before :slight_smile:

I went with D6 with 3 pips. No 3D cutting, and they fit better in the pockets with the chips. It was a modified epoxy inlay. I mixed bondo with color :grin:

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Bondo Wood filler?
What do you use to color it?

Mixol liquid pigment. Seems to work well. First one I’ve tried.

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I love mancala. My son kicks my butt in it. Excellent job!

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Thanks. We are about to make another one this weekend and I will post when it’s ready.

Today’s game is a throw back to all the southern dinners I went to growing up. Peg games to keep us busy. I wanted to try out the ramp feature and had been meaning to make this game for a while. So I drew it up. Found a scrap cut off that was way too thick! And boom here we are…

Going forward I am going to change the radius a bit and make it worth a board that is not so thick :). More than likely shorter pegs. But good for quick prototype on the game :slight_smile:

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What are those golf tees made of? Bamboo?

Yeah. I just found some random golf tees on Amazon that would be here next day :wink:

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Designed a chess board and then made some checkers and a checkers box. I want to make some cool chess pieces like @TonyMurray, @gdon_2003, and @Varty5.

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That is awesome @JPsilo i want to make checker pieces as well! Is that just a pocketed circle with epoxy? The box is cool too!

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Appreciate it, I was glad it fit and closes so securely. Need to get a small clasp. Yes, 1/32” pockets and then 1/32” contour for the white line of star, with oil and blue stain and the rest epoxy. Then a v-bit to make the lines on the outer edge.

That is super clean did you make the file for either the box or the pieces? I am still working on the design of the Egyptian chess pieces and they are coming together slow and steady. I bought the file but there is a lot of gaps in the mesh.

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Yes, I’ve designed everything I have made so far. Although I want to import a cool STL file at some point to try it out, definitely for something like the chess pieces.

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That is so cool I don’t have the patience for some designing but have made some of my own. Mostly 2d things.