DIY Catan Board

This is how I made my own Settlers of Catan board game.

First I want to point out that I have never seen a Catan board in person. I've seen what I could on the internet and what's hear on instructables. In fact, before I built this board I had never played it with a real person before. I first learned how to play on the Settlers of Catan ipod touch app. I enjoyed it enough that I wanted it to play with my family, so I looked into buying it. Being the cheapskate that I am, I couldn't shell out $50 for a boardgame. And that's just the basic Settlers edition. You could well spend $300+ to get all the expansion packs. So I looked around and found what others had done here and on other sites and decided to make my own.

Step 1 Measure twice, cut once. Sand, sand, sand.

The first thing I needed to do was figure out the dimensions of a perfect hexagon. After I did that, I made a template out of 1/8" masonite (a.k.a. hardboard, et al.)  I used this template as a pattern to cut out the rest of the pieces with my bandsaw so that they all were relatively similar in size. I also used some 3/4" maple board I had laying around to rip road, city and settlement blanks on my table saw. These would later be cut into individual pieces. The cities aren't shown, but they were shaped like a castle; square with four towers at the corners. I did this by cutting 3/4" maple cubes and running them over the router with a 1/2" straight bit from both directions.
[_]-------[_]   Kind
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[_]____[_]   this.

Comments

[jeffeb3]

Did you attach the hexagons to a board or something? Maybe I missed that.

[twilcox3]

No, as in the original game, all of the board pieces are loose so they can be reconfigured for each game. The resource values (2-12) are all random, as well. It makes the game more interesting.

[CHARLESCRANFORD]

Never mind.....I saw the roads and settlements, when I looked again. Good job.

[CHARLESCRANFORD]

Pretty good, especially if you have never seen one in person. Have you made the roads, settlements, and cities? Have fun playing.