DIY Magnetic Board Games
What could be more fun than magnetic board games? They bring all the fun you know and love with a twist of magnetic attraction. If you’re remixing a classic game by mounting it up on the wall, or you’re just looking to create pieces for a more traditional set that don’t scatter and fall beneath the couch, magnets are the answer.
Read on for details on how to magnetize some of your favorite board games:
Magnetic Wall Checkers
Whether you want to put it in your kid’s room, the game room, or the kitchen for everyone to enjoy, magnetic wall checkers is almost like an interactive work of art! Supplies:- 48” x 48” thin panel board
- 16 feet of 1” x 2” pine boards
- 24 round wooden discs
- ½” x 1/16” adhesive backed disc magnets
- ⅜” x 1/16” neodymium discs
- 96 small magnets
- The dark and light paint color of your choosing
- Gray paint
- FrogTape or other painter’s tape
- Gorilla glue or similarly strong glue
- Prime and paint your panel board; once it’s dry, frame with 1” x 2” boards.
- Tape off the boards in checker design (eight rows of eight squares).
- Paint every other square gray; pull off the tape and allow the squares to dry.
- Tape off the outer squares on the board.
- Paint your round discs in alternating dark and light colors.
- Attach adhesive-backed magnets to each piece.
- Glue a magnet to the back of the board to attract a piece in each square. Make sure your magnets in the back are attracting the magnets on the game pieces. Double check that they’re all going the same way.
- Mount the whole board and play!
Magnetic Scrabble
With magnetic pieces, you’ll be able to play Scrabble wherever you want — in the car on road trips, sitting on a trampoline, you name it! You can even have days-long games without worrying about the pieces shifting. Supplies:- About 100 2 mm x 1 mm neodymium disc magnets
- 4 - 8 1" x 1/4" x 1/4" bar magnets
- Large metal baking sheet
- Scrabble board game
- Gorilla glue or similarly strong glue
- Find a metal baking sheet or piece of sheet metal roughly the same size as the board game.
- Use Gorilla glue to attach the board to the metal sheet.
- Glue one small neodymium disc magnet to the back of each letter tile; an English-language Scrabble game should have 100 tiles.
- Glue the bar magnets to the back of the tile holders; you can use one or two bar magnets per holder.
- Once the glue is dry, you’re ready to play!