I volunteered to build two sets of cornhole boards for a company and was reimbursed for supplies. My plan was to do two sets that would marry and be able to fold up together. I was going to try to do the graphics myself using spray paint since it was just two colors.
To make the graphics I started by printing out the logo very large and creating a solid “sheet” of painters tape. With the logo taped over the tape sheet, I cut out the logo with an X-acto knife leaving a negative of the logo. The cutting went great and I left this to the side to work more on the boards.
The main guts of the boards were made from a 2′ x 4′ piece of 3/4″ sanded plywood and the skeleton was made of 2 x 4’s. Do not do this – it was way too freaking heavy. Next boards I do I will use 1 x 3’s probably.
I went for the classic cornhole board design with the triangle pointing towards the hole. I stained the sanded plywood with a grey stain and painted the rest white with Kilz (I think). I cut the holes with a 6-inch hole saw bit. This produced a much better result than what I saw people were able to do with a jig saw.
I researched all the best cornhole board features on the internet and decided I wanted to include a scoreboard and a measuring system for proper distances using a piece of paracord that was measured and marked with tape. I added some hooks to the underside of the boards so the cord would wrap up within the boards during carrying. I also added handles (rope) and “separable hinges for lids” from Rockler so the boards could be carried as a pair.
Next, I tackled the graphics…
I painstakingly placed the tape cut out on the boards. I tested the first one on the board painted white so that I could undo it more easily if it went wrong. And go wrong it did. The tape did not perfectly stick to the deck of the board and the little gaps between the tape and the boards that were there let the spray paint through and it created graphics that really lacked crispness. Thankfully, I thought ahead and was able to just sand down the graphics back down to the white base without ruining the plywood.
So I ended up going to Fastsigns. The Fastsigns graphics were awesome. They were a little pricey (~$150 for all four sets) but actually, if I were making my own boards I would probably just go right to Fastsigns first. The graphics came with little marks to help align the graphics and after applying them to the boards I applied 5-6 coats of Minwax Polycrylic.
