This project is pretty straight forward, but I thought it was pretty sweet of Blue-Jae to go ahead and make it out of scrap plywood rather than going out to buy one. I didn't snap any pics of the layout, but she used a ruler and a speed square (just a right triangle, you can get them at any hardware store) to lay out the holes at angles instead of the typical rows. Why? Because she's badass and can't be contained by convention.

Step 1: Drill Your Holes

So, once she'd completed the layout, all that really remained to do was drill the holes. Choose your drill bit based on what you're going to use for the pegs, in this case it was rivets and some medium gauge wire. This was pretty easy, the hardest part was making sure the drill was straight up and down, and that we didn't drill all the way through. If you have a drill-press this step is a snap.

Step 2: Sanding

What can I say about sanding? Not too much. Use a pretty fine grit, anywhere from 100-180, and make sure you do a thorough job, both surfaces plus the edges. Also, be sure you don't need your pencil lines (the layout) anymore, because sandpaper...you know....is like an eraser.......dude. You can see she was using a palm sander; at $30-$40 bucks, palm sanders are a great investment, so you should get one if you don't have one.

Step 3: Have a Think.

It's always important to give careful consideration to your projects mid-stream. Is everything going according to plan? Will you need to improvise? If possible, take an oddly colored photo of dubious quality while pondering, you know, for historical perspective.

Step 4: Make Your Pegs

Here you can see Blue-Jae snipping some (pop) rivets in half for one set of pegs, and making some wire shapes for the other set. When I asked her why she chose plain old pegs for one side and fancy designs for the other side she said "Intimidation. The fancy ones are mine, opponents get the crappy ones."

Hell yes.

Step 5: Lay of the Land

So, this is the battlefield view of the project thus far. When making your pegs, keep in mind how much room you have for your pieces, i.e. how big you make them, etc.

Step 6: Make It Go Faster!

Anyone who's worth their salt will tell you, the key to speed lies in the flashiness of your paint job. Here, Blue-Jae is adding some tricked-out customization. The only problem at this point is she's going to have a hard time finding people who aren't too scared to play, what with the peg-coolness disparity and speedy decals.

She's using some Pigma Micron pens for the design, which looked pretty good. But be careful, she put a few coats of polyurethane sealant on the board after she was done and they bled a little bit. Honestly, the effect was excellent, it made the board look a little bit like a bloodbath, which is what cribbage is all about.

Charge!