Barnwood Cornhole Boards
I had a customer who wanted cornhole boards. I don’t make a lot of these so I wanted to do something cool. I was able to get some old barn wood from a horse stable a few miles north of my house. I thought it would be cool to use this for the frame and legs. The top would be 3/4” plywood. And to complement the whole thing, a barn wood vinyl decal wrap would be applied to the top.
Construction
I milled up the barn wood using the jointer and planer. I’m pretty sure some of these boards had horse manure on them (#smelly)! Underneath the dirt and grime, there were some beautiful oak boards. I know that a lot of people would want to keep these as rustic as possible. I wanted a balance - mill them smooth, but still show the nail holes and cracks.
I made the cornhole boards to the dimensions stated on the American Cornhole Association website. Mine are approximately 48” long x 24” wide. The front is approximately 3.5” tall and the back is approximately 12” tall. The construction was fairly simple. I used the table saw to cut rabbets and notches to form a frame. The frame is glued and screwed together using pocket hole screws. Before assembling it, I used my CNC to route out handles. I thought this might be a cool feature.
With the frame done, I worked on the top. The top is 3/4” thick plywood that I bought from the home center. It’s not necessary to have a cross beam underneath if using thick plywood. I thought it would be cool to add some barn wood edge banding. This will make the top appear to be the same material as the frame. I cut some 1/8” thick strips and glued them along the perimeter of the plywood. The final step for the top was to cut out the hole for the bag. I used the CNC to do this, but in the past I’ve used a router and circle jig.
Legs
The legs are made from more of the barn wood. I routed out legs that are about 3.5” wide and 1” thick. The top is a simple circle with a hole drilled in the middle. I drilled a complementary hole in the frame and attached the legs. Using a spray can, I propped up the boards so that the back end was 12” high. This let me mark the angle of the legs, which was then cut at the table saw. I added a cross beam between the legs to make it easier to lower and raise them.
Vinyl Decal
I applied a wipe-on varnish to the boards, including the plywood top. The last step was to apply the vinyl decal. I picked this one up on Etsy. There are a ton of sellers and options to choose from. This process only took about 15 minutes per board. The easiest way for me to do it was to peel back one edge and use a foam drywall knock down knife like a squeegee, slowing peeling and pressing the decal down the length of the board.
I think these turned out pretty cool! As I said, I don’t make a lot of these so when I do I want to do something fun. This definitely checked that box for me.
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