DIY Outdoor Connect Four Game

I volunteered (why?) to attempt to make this game for our Cub Scout Day Camp. I'm hoping (along with the program director) that this game is something the boys will enjoy playing for years to come. I took pretty detailed notes, mostly for my own future use, in case I want to make another one. I decided to post them here so other people can use these instructions if they want to. All I ask is just use these for personal use, and give credit where credit is due.

I Googled and searched Pinterest for pictures and game instructions, and pretty much made this whole thing up. There are some instructions here, that I very loosely based my plans on, but some parts were so confusing, so I just made my own. 

Supplies Needed:
1 - Sheet 8'x4' - 1/2" thick MDF
2 - 2x4x8' for side supports
2 - 1x4x8' for spacer boards
1 - 1x12x10' for game pieces

Galvanized 4" bolts + washers + nuts to attach 2x4's to game
Galvanized 4" Tee hinges
Sash or some sort of locking mechanism to hold the release board up
Paint. Colors I chose were all from Lowe's:
  1. Pantone Universe "Solar Power"
  2. allen + roth "art district"
  3. Eddie Bauer Home "Mineral Blue"

Screws, glue, nails, etc
Tools needed: Band Saw, Miter Saw, Roto-Zip Circular Cutting tool, Drill, Sandpaper

First Step: Make your game pieces.

Get your 1"x12"x10'. I had it cut down at the store, since I was a little nervous with it hanging so far out the back of my truck. If you need it cut down have them cut it at 62". I tried to do the math and asked for 61", and it ended up being 1" too short to get all the pieces out of this one plank. So, you should be able to get all 42 game pieces out of this one piece of wood if you don't cut it down, or cut it at 62".

Instead of cutting the board down, you could use a hole saw. But those get expensive.

  Cut 5 1/2" wide pieces. You should have 21.

 Cut each of those pieces into 5 1/2" squares. 

That's pretty much directly in half, plus 1/16" of an inch.

 Mark the centers of each piece of wood.

Now, you can use a protractor to draw a circle and use a band saw or a hole saw with a drill or whatever suits your fancy. We ended up using the circular cutter attachment for a Roto-Zip. Our band saw is old and a little finicky, so the Roto-Zip was a more consistent option. For that, we had to drill a hole in the center of the board for the attachment to pivot around. 

 Sand and clean your pieces and now you can paint!

All done!

Now to make the game board. 

You will need to make horizontal and vertical lines on your piece of MDF. Use the ugly side, since this will be on the inside of the game board. 

Starting at the bottom, draw horizontal lines every 5 1/4" inches. I was planning on a 5 1/2" space for the horizontal lines, but about half the game pieces ended up being more like 5 1/4" across, from mistakes in cutting and sanding the rough edges. So, if your pieces are perfect 5 1/2" circles, then draw the lines every 5 1/2". If they are a little smaller, draw the lines every 5 1/4". You don't want a game piece visible in the hole below it, so that is why my spacing is a little smaller than what I cut the game pieces out at.

So, horizontal lines every 5 1/4". You will draw six lines. 

For the vertical lines, draw a line 1" from the edge. It doesn't matter which side you start on. From your 1" line, draw vertical lines every 6.5", all the way across the board, to make 7 columns. Then draw another line 1" after that. Cut off the excess, which should be about 1.5" - 2". 

The size of your game board should be 47.5" wide and 34" high.

At this point, you can lay your game pieces on the board like they will sit in the game once it's built, to check for spacing. I did this after I had drawn up the center X lines, only to realize that I should have drawn the horizontal lines every 5 1/4". So I had to redo the center marks, and the horizontal lines. Fun stuff. At least I caught that before I cut anything!

Mark the center of your squares so that you know where to cut out the circle. We used the RotoZip circle attachment. We weren't able to cut through both game board pieces at the same time, so we drilled through the center X's with the boards stacked on top of each other. This eliminated the need to draw out the grid twice.

Side note: I couldn't find anywhere online with very detailed instructions, and the ones I could find had drawn out a grid to find the centers. If you don't want to draw the grid, and you need the 5 1/4" spacing, here is where you need to draw your X's to cut out circles:

(if you are using the 5 1/2" spacing, the numbers below are going to be a little bit different, but I don't know by how much. I'm not a mathematician. Maybe just add 1/4" vertically for each circle that you will be cutting. The first row is also going to be a little higher off the bottom. The width between game pieces isn't going to change, just the height.)

Starting on the left side, at the bottom, draw an X 4 1/4" in and 2 3/4" up from the bottom. Continuing along the bottom, draw an X every 6.5", 2 3/4" up from the bottom. For the next row, start in 4 1/4" from the side, and 5 1/4" from the center of the bottom row of X's. Repeat until you have 6 rows, and 7 columns. Leave 4 1/4" on both sides, from the center of the X's, and cut off the excess. For the top, measure 5" from the center of each X, and cut off the excess.

Moving on: You are going to drill 4" holes, centered over each X on the board. Sand any rough spots.

Cut the 1x4 into lengths 34" long. 

Cut each of those lengths into pieces 1" wide on a table saw. You will need 8 pieces 1" wide.

 For the side supports, cut two pieces of the 2x4 48" long. Cut two more pieces 24" long for the horizontal brace. The 24" long piece will sit on the ground, bolted to the other 2x4 piece. 

 In the center of the 48" long 2x4, you will nail/glue/screw one of the spacer boards (1"x3/4") in the center of each 2x4. Paint the 2x4's with the spacers attached.

 Before assembling everything, paint the holey boards. You will be able to see the inside of the boards, so you will want it painted. Make sure to not paint the vertical lines marking where your spacers will go. Or attach your spacers first to one side, and then paint. 

Once you have it painted, and the spacer boards attached to one of the holey boards, attach the other holey board, using nails into the spacers.

You should have left your vertical lines unpainted. Center the spacers on those lines and attach.

NOTE: In the above photo. the spacer boards are on the WRONG way. I originally thought that they needed to be attached with the 1" side on the board, so that there would be a 3/4" gap between the two boards. HOWEVER, the game pieces are 3/4" thick, so that doesn't work. I had the two boards attached, and then tried to put a game piece through and it wouldn't fit. So I pried it apart, and rotated the spacers 90'. You should have a 1" gap between the boards to allow the game pieces to just slide right down.

Before you attach the two boards to the spacers, you need to prepare your side supports. Grab a 2x4 and cut two pieces 48" long. Attach a spacer board as seen below. You are going to lay the spacer board on the 2x4 the opposite way that you laid them in the game. Paint before you are ready to attach.

Cut two more pieces of 2x4 24" long. These will go perpendicular to the side pieces.

To attach the spacers to the side supports, I used 1" staples, and then later the game fell apart. SO, you can use 1" staples to tack it together, but it would probably be best if you attached the spacers with screws. Pre-drill so that you don't crack the small spacer boards. Place one end of the spacer flush with one end of the 2x4 and attach however you wish.

Once you have the spacers properly, ahem, attached, you are ready to put the game together. You will probably need an extra set of hands here. Again, I used the 1" staples (no problems falling apart later). Lay the 2x4 on the floor on the short side, and the game board piece with the spacers attached on top of that. Try to keep everything flush with the top. Once the first side is attached, flip it over and place the other game board on top, making sure the staples go into the spacer boards. 

Center the side support with the 24" piece of 2x4. Line them up how they are going to stand and clamp/have someone hold them while you drill a 3/8" hole for your bolts.

 Line up the holes and insert the blots with washers and nuts. Finish painting if you need to. :)

Now to attach the T hinges. The ones I used are pictured above.

I used two, and that is plenty. These ones are pretty beefy. Center them, trying to get at least one of the screws in the spacer board, through the MDF. 

You will need to rip your 2x4 at 2" wide. You will want it exactly the width of the game board. You will probably need a third hand to hold up the stopper while you mark holes and attach the lower screws.

Now for the locks on the other side. I really had a hard time deciding what to use, but ultimately went with two sash locks. Attaching them was a little tricky, getting them to line up exactly. 

Sash locks. 

The total size of this game is 48" tall and 53" wide. 

Update: The game was a hit! The only thing that didn't work out so well was the sash locks. For some reason, I didn't test the game with all the pieces inside, which would have shown me that they weren't strong enough. So at Day Camp, they ended up using the basket I bought for the game pieces to hold the bottom support up. Other than that, it worked great! My boys were a little sad that we weren't bringing it home from Day Camp.

**In place of the sash locks, you could just cut a piece of 2x4 to stand vertically under the bottom support, and then pull it out when you want to release all the game pieces. There are other ways that you could support that piece as well. If you have suggestions (or questions!), leave them in the comments.