cribbage players

I enjoy playing cribbage!

it is a fun game, perfect for long cold winters and nights at deer camp!

Exactly. What kind of wood do you use? Maple? A Minnesota or Finland cribbage board would be cool.

most of what I've done has been either red oak or poplar.  couple reasons for that

they are available in 1x12 (0.75 x 11.25) all planned and sanded (80 grit) and pretty much always available.  other species are hit-and-miss on availability for wide pieces.

they are the cheapest (except for pine) so if I screw it up, it mostly costs just my time.  They run about $7.50/foot so not too bad, northern white pine is around $3.50/foot.

my 2nd shift guy scanned his pistol grips to have me cut replacements out of bubinga.  I tried, but I won't mill bubinga ever again.  it is gummy and it actually sucked the bit out of the holder (and I know how to tighten the holder!), they didn't come out at all.  then he got me a chunk of cherry, that worked pretty good.

I've done some stuff out of glued up poplar to get bigger pieces, but I don't do the glueups, I get them from the same place I get the dimensional stuff.

I don't think I would like trying to make something out of an expensive piece of wood just to screw it up.  but, every project is a learning experience (except for cribbage boards, those are see-spot, see-spot-run for me) and I've only been doing this just over a year in my spare time but over the last 30+ years I've designed about 200 cribbage boards.  I have a Michigan board (with all the counties, see image above) designed but not yet cut, the tracks go around outside the profile of the state.  I did cut a USA board over the weekend out of some glued-up poplar, instead of 10"x15.5 it is 12.75"x19.75".  might not seem like a big difference, but it really is.

Interesting so you must then machine the lettering vs laser marking? I have seen some of the state boards people have made online and its nice to look at when you see many of the different cities.

I laser them for the most part.  it eliminates the 'nasty' that you can get if the wood has any warp in it.  the laser has some forgiveness for the Z axis, the tool bits, nope.  0.020" of bow/warp really shows up when using a V-bit.  all the pix above were done with the laser, either single lines or a cross-hatch pattern.

here is one I made yesterday.  1/4" holes (not the normal 1/8" holes) for bigger pegs.  board is 11.25" x 18.75".  there are a couple .22lr rounds in holes, I'm thinking some of the bigger rifle rounds will fit for pegs, but I don't have any .22-250 since I couldn't hunt with that round where I hunted.  .22mags would fit good as well and give a bit more to grip.  not stained, $40.  has about 0.1" of bow, made out of northern white pine.

I'd buy it

shipping can kind of suck since I don't have a business account with any shippers.  USPS Ground Advantage is the 'best' deal, but it is damn hard to figure out the cost on their web site.  'size' and 'weight' and 'bigger' and 'more' etc.  they suck for clear direction IMO.

Flat rate boxes! 


Also maybe some items for the special inspector in your lives. 

all too small for that board, it is almost 19" long!

They come bigger, just cost more 

They come bigger, just cost more 

there in lies the problem!  shipping sucks!

Over the weekend I purchased a big 'set' of 3D dog heads along with plaques you can combine them with.  Heads average about 6" in the biggest XY direction.  I scaled them down to 2" in the biggest and nested them inside a 2.8" shallow dome and am working on cutting them out as display samples.  16 heads to a 12"x12" piece of wood.  54 heads to cut, so there will be 3 full boards of 16 heads and a 4th with the last 6 heads and a full scale head as well to show the fine details.  here is the 1st panel of 16 heads (still part of a long board and still clamped on the machine):

here are 3 full size dog heads I did for people here at work, I have a 4th done but no picture of it.  rounds are roughly 10.375" and the heart is roughly 10"x10"

You are not helping me not look at the CNC router listed on marketplace for $1300 with everything for a turn-key operation... 

go for it, if you are interested in that kind of work.  BUT, keep in mind, a small one will be too small as soon as you get it setup at your house!  There are bigger ones than the one I got.  I got the biggest one they made (at the time) 25"x50"x7".  They now have one that is 50"x50"x7", BUT, it doesn't have a table of any kind, so you have to fab up a table that is 'flat enough' and mount the hardware to it.  Mine, all I had to do was put the bridge on it and tighten 12 screws (6 each side) then tram the spindle in (and plug in the wires).  I've almost sold enough to have paid for the machine you mention, not including the cost of the wood used, and I am not even doing it 'professionally' yet.

Very true. It's a 33x33 with a Z axis (and an unused upgraded Z axis kit) with a tool setter. 
It would be fun, and with the low entry fee of $10 a weekend at the local farmers market, I'm sure my adorable children could sell enough witty signs to pay for it eventually.  (after using them for child labor to feed the machine in the first place of course) 

that's a decent size XY, but what is the Z travel?  at that price and size, I would be a little worried about the stiffness of the machine for 'heavy' cuts.

the place company I bought from has a 'starter' unit that is 12x13x4 travel, with control software (you supply router & bits) for $800.  and, if and when you decide you want bigger, they will give you something (not sure how much) to trade it in on a bigger one, then they re-firb it and donate it to a school somewhere.

I was thinking the same thing. Have not looked at any reviews for it, probably won't make it past my "accounting department" anyways...

Looks fine for... engraving and maybe some lite carving, and stuff... The one I'm looking at has the ball screw Z axis already. Definitely a light duty machine. 

shapeoko, 33x33 shows 4" in Z travel.  good enough for most things, but to me, that is short.  It uses belts to drive and uses rollers (wheels) to move X&Y.  mine has bearings in X & Z and drive screws.  the Y axis has a drive screw as well, but the bearings are different, solid metal rods and bushings for for the travel.  I had looked at Shopbot first when I started looking at these things, and they looked good.  BUT, the Shopbot were smaller ad more $$$ while appearing to use all the same drive/bearing mechanism.  The nice thing about having that 7" in Z travel is I can get 4th axis units to mount to mine, turn it into a CNC lathe.  I don't have that, probably won't get it, but I do have a 7w laser for it that chucks up into the spindle, so as long as I don't bend the laser mount, it lines up with any bit I might use.  You can also get a SCANNING probe for mine, uses Renishaw (or knock off) probes for scanning.  I also have a 3hp water cooled spindle, and let me tell you, night & day compared to a router.  When the spindle starts up, it is whisper quiet, it only gets loud when actually cutting.

made three 3D flags over the weekend.  first one I screwed up, my Z origin was the top of the stock.  well, after I did the rough cut, there was no 'top' any more, so I picked up on the table, then FORGOT to comp up for the nominal stock thickness, so the finish bit plowed into the piece.  You can see the plow in the bottom-right cover of the big flag in the back.  I then cut a small one, WITHOUT screwing up the pickup.  After that, I made another big one, but not quite as big as the first one.  1x12 stock isn't perfect, so I scaled it down enough so I could cut all the way around to a nice cleanup.  The good big one isn't in the picture.  The big one is 11.25+ tall (due to stock variation), the little one is 10.25" wide.