Giant Jenga game #1

I was asked a couple weeks ago if I could make up a giant Jenga game.   I have to admit that I did not know what a Jenga game was.    Come to find out - we do have the smaller version in the closet and the grandkids play the game once in awhile.   But me being me I did not know of the "giant" version.    So to make the picture a little more clear (at my age a clear picture is nice)  this youtube video was sent to me:                                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruxBBB03nFk&feature=youtu.be 

  After watching Mr. DIY Dork (That is the name the guy uses in the youtube video above)  build this I thought I would give it a whirl.   First, I have a lot of various pieces of wood in my scrap pile, but no 2x4's.    That meant I had to make a trip to my home supply store and load up on some new lumber.    I found myself digging through the pile of 2x4's at the store trying to find straight boards with as few defects as possible.   That sounds like it should not be so difficult, but you would be surprised.

I picked out eight boards 96 inches long.   Out of those eight boards I cut 64 pieces 10 1/2 inches long.   10 1/2 inches is the same distance as the thickness of 3 2x4's laid side by side.   At this point I had more than the required number of pieces to play the game.  (I guess a true game is played with 54 pieces.)

 
       Next I took those pieces and ran each one by roundover bit at my router table.   That step helped take the edge off of those pieces.  

  Even though I did my best to pick those boards that looked straight and looked to be without defects I discovered that there were some pieces that still had some flaws.   The next step was my favorite.   I sanded each one of those lovely little chunks of wood.    I had 10 extra which could be played within the game or could be replacement boards if some of those flawed boards were impossible to use.

   People are always asking me "What are you working on now?"   I soon discovered that even though I consider myself being part of the human race I seemed to be one of the few that did not know what a giant jenga game was.    The neighbor kids came over and I thought I would impress them with this new game that I was making and come to find out they having been playing this games for a few years now.     It sounds like some of the games that they played were with unfinished boards and some of the boards were painted up pretty nice.

    I did take each board and applied two coats of marine spar varnish.    It sounds like this game is going to be played at the camp ground and I wanted to make sure it was protected from the elements a little.   I did sand between each of the coats (because I just plain love to sand wood...)    and the last step was I rubbed each one with a coat of paste wax.    I'm hoping this will allow the boards to slide between themselves a little when the game is being played.

  This is the final result.   I'm very curious as to how it works.     I know the game is to try and pull one board from the pile and restack it on top until finally the pile collapses, but it could be tricky to get one of those to slide out easily.  I guess that is the goal of the game.    Since this is my first time making this game I will have to follow up later on and see how it worked.


Next week - we build the box that will transport these little buggers.    In the meantime I will be watching more of Mr DIY Dork's youtubes to see what else he does.