Cornhole Boards

Projects
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I made these cornhole boards and bags for some entertainment for our upcoming wedding. Popular in the USA, there are official specifications for competition level boards that seemed like a good starting point. Unfortunately these were imperial (2’ x 4’), but I begrudgingly stuck with them.

The construction of the boards is extremely simple:

  • The frame was made from lengths of 2x4 square-cut and pocket screwed together
  • The board face is simply 18mm ply cut to the appropriate size
  • The holes in the boards were made using the small palm router with the circle guide

There is also a standard size and weight for the bags too. The fabric used was a 0.65mm cotton canvas from AliExpress which cost ~£5 for a half-metre. When sewing the bags I left a small hole (2-3cm) on the bottom to fill the bags with corn. After that I used a ladder stitch by hand to close the bags.

The most difficult part of the project was trying to find something to fill the bags with! Traditionally the bags are filled with corn (hence the name cornhole). I had the challenge of trying to buy a small quantity of corn, which is generally sold for agricultural purposes in enormous quantities. Eventually I found a local equestrian and farm shop that sold 20KG bags of French Maize for ~£10. This has left me with 15KG of surplus maize, which is free to a good home if you can make use of it.

Lessons learned:

  • Don’t forget to use the radius, not diameter, of the circle when routing out the hole!
  • I applied masking tape to the boards to paint the circle, using a pan lid to cut around as a circle template
  • It can be difficult to give away 15KG of spare maize!
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P.S. Don’t forget to wrap your images in [grid] tags when creating posts like this!

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These look great! I’ve randomly been asked to make some for a wedding in may as well. If you’re looking for rental opportunities after the wedding you made them for (assuming pre may) let me know

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They look very neat and I’ve seen these at a few weddings/events recently, might have to give making a couple a go for my wedding next year.

Potentially silly question, but is the maize you bought any different from popcorn kernels you get from the supermarket?

Edit: although buying 5kg of corn that way would be a lot more expensive than the 20kg you managed to find

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To the untrained eye, the kernels look just like the store bought popcorn kernels. There is considerably more dust and debris which actually gives the bags a cool smoking effect when they land on a hard surface. I’m now tempted to pop the kernels to see if they turn into popcorn!

corn

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They look great @jwa ! Love the bright design, nice work :slight_smile:

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These looks fantastic @jwa! I’m also looking to build some following the Ana White plans, but it’s a very long time since I did any woodworking so I’m pretty apprehensive. Any tips?

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Hi @RobL - Looking at that link, it’s pretty much identical to the process I followed. The only material difference is I offset the legs from the back.

The most difficult part was cutting the hole with the palm / trim router. It requires multiple passes, removing ~4 mm of material at a time.

You’ve got this! V. happy to provide moral support / answer questions as you go

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