Plinko Board Build, Day 1: Dado Cuts and Layout

So you may or may not have guessed: we’re building a Plinko board for Halloween. This project involves a lot of newer things we haven’t done before (angled cuts, dado stack)… but we felt like it would be a good challenge. And a good opportunity to stretch our skills a bit.

As a reference, we’re using this great tutorial by Bob Clagett (of I Like to Make Stuff).

First up – setting up dado blades. This was very nerve-wracking for me, as this was my first time/attempt. Part of me worried that I’d start up the table saw, and these blades would just shoot around the room.

I lost the spanner wrenches that came with the table saw, so I ended up hacking my way around removing the main blade and installing the dado blades.

I made several practice cuts on the same piece of plywood. This is Liz, trying to see how well they line up to the cuts I made.

Liz, laying out the slots and the start of our dowel rod rows.

Reducing the height of the rows.

Some photos of the cuts I made for the frame, using the dado stack. I was really nervous doing these, but they turned out fairly well. And look pretty good.

The cuts are… ok. You can see a slight bow to the cut, and I’m not sure if this is due to the blades, my install of the blades, or my implementation (perhaps I wasn’t putting enough even pressure from the top).

All in all, a good night’s work. I still have all ten fingers, so let’s count this in the win column.

Which I can do and count. Because I still have my fingers.

Related:
Shopping and Prepping for Halloween
Secret Plans

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