cribbage players

well, I do have the square designed as well, and yes, designed to be on the flip side of the hexes...... thus the reason I said 1/2" MDF, 1/4" would get wobbly I think.  Hard board would be a possibility, but that stuff is pretty thin.

as for custom designs lasered in, always as an extra-cost item!

my daughter just this week got a cricut, so stickers is also a possibility.

Maybe some nice mahogany or something pretty as a boarder with the game board sandwiched in between. 

expensive, and I know the type of nerds that would frequent the 2 local stores I might be able to sell through..... (cheapskates)

Maybe some wonderful pine for the cheapskates then! 
Cedar fence boards are cheap and can clean up nice....

yeah, I don't work with cedar (anymore).  years ago I made a cedar planter for the wife, then next day my hands looked like balloons, so, no, pass on cedar!

yah probably a good idea. Hard to code with balloon hands! 

had an idea for making the map board more 'stable', to keep the tiles from moving after being placed.  1/8"+ hole in the center of each tile, 1/8" hole in the main board, and using pieces of 1/8" dowel in the board to put the tile over.  lots of ideas, all need to be tested for feasibility.

here is the small test version of the board.  12x12, hexes 1" across the flats, the tiles are made from tempered hard board.  tried to mill them out after laser burning the paths, that stuff doesn't mill for crap, so I then laser cut them out.  If this idea works out, the hexes will be 1/8" plywood hexes, precut into hexes from Amazon.  I do have some on order, but the 1" across the flats weren't from an Amazon dealer, just a shopfront, so it's going to take a week or so for them to show up.

That looks pretty sweet! love the color contrast. 

If your drilling holes for retention, then magnets are the next logical step! And only require a bit of glue. 
Also, it would probably make it so the tiles stack up for storage too. 
Bigger magnets inserted from the back side of the board would keep the front looking sexy as well. 

yeah, that gets into WAY expensive for cheapskates.  lots of manual labor involved in that, pushing the price way up, up, up!

(1) mill the holes for the magnets, twice as deep as they are think, plus some for glue.

(2) ALL magnets must stack the same way (or all the tiles won't work in each location)

(3) glue in the bottom of the hole, then a stack of 2 magnets in the hole (only the bottom touching the glue, hope it doesn't squeeze up at all!)

(4) glue on the top of the top magnet

(5) center the tile on the magnet, then let it all dry

It would be 120 holes + 240 magnets just for that one I pictured.

Yeah, that's a LOT of manual labor and a LONG time making any set up of size (say, 21"x21", the best side for my machine to give me a nice cleanup).

Last night, after I shut off the machine, I started altering the tile file.  Like I said, the milling wasn't working, so I laser cut them out.  Well, they can be butted up touching to laser them, that gives 0.010" (roughly) spacing between tiles placed on the board, should work just fine, and it saves a lot of board.  I can get 2.7mm thick plywood where I get my normal wood, 4x8 sheet is $23, and I can get over 3600 hexes out of a sheet (1" across the flats) or 4800+ with 1" across the points.  I don't have any hex mats to see which way they are made, and that info isn't on Amazon!  It would take time to cut them, and I think I would like the whiter plywood over the darker hardboard.  But, I won't make any big units until the one I have is play tested, if it doesn't seem to be viable, then no point in wasting time & material.