What tool(s) do I need to make a Goban/Baduk board?
January 3, 2023 1:00 PM
I have what I need to cut and join wood to make a base (circular saw, table saw, mitre saw, biscuit joiner, plane). I have a Dremel Advantage (which I have no experience with; I've only ever used it with grinder wheels to cut off protruding screws/nails; it's long since discontinued, and apparently not compatible with the Dremel plunge router attachment). I'm capable of rough woodworking, and would like to make a Go board by cutting very straight grooves in wood in a grid, then filling them with a compound, then sanding and varnishing. What is best?
Money is not no object, but I'm not averse to spending a couple hundred dollars for the right tool, especially if I'm picking up some skills and can use it for other projects later. But I'm not sure if I should try to make the Dremel Advantage work with its dinky little depth stop and try to make some sort of fence, invest in a newer Dremel with the plunge router attachment, just buy a proper woodworking router (which would be less expensive than the Dremel and plunge router attachment), etc.
I'm specifically interested in making these game boards, but ultimately I could see wanting to carve other things into other things.
Money is not no object, but I'm not averse to spending a couple hundred dollars for the right tool, especially if I'm picking up some skills and can use it for other projects later. But I'm not sure if I should try to make the Dremel Advantage work with its dinky little depth stop and try to make some sort of fence, invest in a newer Dremel with the plunge router attachment, just buy a proper woodworking router (which would be less expensive than the Dremel and plunge router attachment), etc.
I'm specifically interested in making these game boards, but ultimately I could see wanting to carve other things into other things.
I was going to ask if you could use a dado blade on your table saw and then saw bondcliff's suggestion. Depending on the size of your grooves you could just use a regular blade or a dado one.
A router is nice to have but if you can make do with your table saw I'd say go with that.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:24 PM on January 3, 2023
A router is nice to have but if you can make do with your table saw I'd say go with that.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:24 PM on January 3, 2023
You could also use a guide for your circular saw and use that to cut the grooves if moving the board over the table saw feels like it will be too cumbersome. I'd avoid doing it this way because I worry either the guide or board would shift and mess the whole thing up but if you're able to make both the board and the guide absolutely immobile then this would be another way to go. I don't have a table saw or a workbench and have to use this method whenever I want to make cuts longer than what my mitre saw can handle and it is nerve wracking.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:01 PM on January 3, 2023
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:01 PM on January 3, 2023
My initial thought was the same at bondcliff but then I looked at some go boards and it looks like the kerf of a table saw blade would be a lot wider than the lines in a typical go board. They do make microkerf blades but the lowest I've ever seen is 1/16" which still seems wide compared to the images I've seen.
If you're looking to make one board, an option might be a maker space with a CNC router to cut thin lines if there's one near you.
If you're looking to make a bunch yourself then I think the best option would be a woodworking router mounted in a router table with a fence. If you think you'd only be interested in small bit work, you could get away with a trim router which would be cheaper / smaller than a full size router. The challenge with the router table is you'd need at least as much fence depth as 1/2 the size of the largest board you're looking to make which seems like it would be 10" or so? That's a fairly large router table size and I'm not sure any of the tabletop router tables that you can get at big box stores would get you that depth. Is building a router table something you're be open to? With a trim router, a sheet of good flat plywood and a few other part you could put it together for a couple of hundred bucks. And a full size router / router table set up would be more expensive / larger (not sure if you're shop size limited) but would give you a lot more flexibility / power for future stuff.
A quick google (no endorsement, just the first option I found) shows this plan:
https://www.keithjohnsoncww.com/shop/diy-trim-router-table-plans
That should give you an idea of what kind of project you'd be looking at. You'd have to customize it to support the depth you want so that's another layer of complexity but none of it is super hard cutting / joinery wise.
And of course if you want to go crazy you could look into desktop CNC routers of your own but then the cost / complexity levels go up fast!
posted by macfly at 2:14 PM on January 3, 2023
If you're looking to make one board, an option might be a maker space with a CNC router to cut thin lines if there's one near you.
If you're looking to make a bunch yourself then I think the best option would be a woodworking router mounted in a router table with a fence. If you think you'd only be interested in small bit work, you could get away with a trim router which would be cheaper / smaller than a full size router. The challenge with the router table is you'd need at least as much fence depth as 1/2 the size of the largest board you're looking to make which seems like it would be 10" or so? That's a fairly large router table size and I'm not sure any of the tabletop router tables that you can get at big box stores would get you that depth. Is building a router table something you're be open to? With a trim router, a sheet of good flat plywood and a few other part you could put it together for a couple of hundred bucks. And a full size router / router table set up would be more expensive / larger (not sure if you're shop size limited) but would give you a lot more flexibility / power for future stuff.
A quick google (no endorsement, just the first option I found) shows this plan:
https://www.keithjohnsoncww.com/shop/diy-trim-router-table-plans
That should give you an idea of what kind of project you'd be looking at. You'd have to customize it to support the depth you want so that's another layer of complexity but none of it is super hard cutting / joinery wise.
And of course if you want to go crazy you could look into desktop CNC routers of your own but then the cost / complexity levels go up fast!
posted by macfly at 2:14 PM on January 3, 2023
Good suggestions, thank you everyone -- yes, as macfly has observed, a goban isn't cut to the edge but is a square inside a larger board, and then a grid inside the square.
posted by Shepherd at 3:19 PM on January 3, 2023
posted by Shepherd at 3:19 PM on January 3, 2023
I'd probably still use the table saw to cut the grooves (if I was in my shop I'd use a radial arm) working outwards like bondcliff laid out. After filling the grooves but before final sanding, I'd wrap the grooved board with an edge trim in either a matching or contrasting wood species. Besides probably being the fastest, least hassle way of doing it (short of CNC) it would allow your field to be a nice veneer plywood which would be much more stable than a wide solid wood plank and cheaper to boot. Creating a bit of a lip on the bottom with edge banding that was thicker than field board would make the board more stable on a flattish surface. A person could even shape feet into the edge banding skirt so the board is only sitting on four points.
Normally you wouldn't cross cut with the fence, but I think if the blade is only protruding a little bit from the table you're probably not going to have to worry about kickback.
This is actually one of the most kick back prone cuts you can make. To start with all the cutting action is parallel in direction to the table top. Compare this to a cut where the blade is all the way up and the force of cutting is much more in a down direction. Furthermore if the stock is lifted by the outfeed side of the blade when the stock comes back down the tips of the teeth right at the top of the blade can get a good purchase on the stock which will fling the stock back at approximately the linear velocity of the blade tips.
If you make dados with a table saw you want to make sure to use feather boards to hold the stock and try not to stand directly in front of the saw so you aren't in the path of a kick back.
posted by Mitheral at 4:21 PM on January 3, 2023
Normally you wouldn't cross cut with the fence, but I think if the blade is only protruding a little bit from the table you're probably not going to have to worry about kickback.
This is actually one of the most kick back prone cuts you can make. To start with all the cutting action is parallel in direction to the table top. Compare this to a cut where the blade is all the way up and the force of cutting is much more in a down direction. Furthermore if the stock is lifted by the outfeed side of the blade when the stock comes back down the tips of the teeth right at the top of the blade can get a good purchase on the stock which will fling the stock back at approximately the linear velocity of the blade tips.
If you make dados with a table saw you want to make sure to use feather boards to hold the stock and try not to stand directly in front of the saw so you aren't in the path of a kick back.
posted by Mitheral at 4:21 PM on January 3, 2023
If you have a sword you could always do it the traditional way.
(Apparently the traditional way isn't grooves but slightly raised lacquer lines, so maybe not what you're looking for.)
posted by trig at 12:48 AM on January 4, 2023
(Apparently the traditional way isn't grooves but slightly raised lacquer lines, so maybe not what you're looking for.)
posted by trig at 12:48 AM on January 4, 2023
If you don't have a sword but do have a small vee gouge, I've done a grid using that and a metal straightedge. Your size would get a bit tedious, but doing anything 38 times is a bit tedious.
posted by away for regrooving at 7:40 AM on January 4, 2023
posted by away for regrooving at 7:40 AM on January 4, 2023
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Let's say you wanted 1" between the grids. Set the fence at 1" with the blade barely protruding from the table. Put the game board face down. Run the left side over the blade, turn the board 180 degrees, run the right side, turn it 90 degrees, run the top side, turn 180, run the bottom side.
Use something to push the board down when it passes over the blade. Standard table saw safety rules apply. Make sure as you move the fence you know where the blade is at all times.
Normally you wouldn't cross cut with the fence, but I think if the blade is only protruding a little bit from the table you're probably not going to have to worry about kickback.
Then, turn off the table saw and put the board back over the blade so that the (non-turning) blade is holding the board in one of the grooves. Loosen the fence. Put a 1" spacer (I use machinists 123 blocks) Between the edge of the board and the fence, and set the fence. Remove the spacer. Repeat.
You might even want to start in the middle of the board and work your way to the edge, and then cut the edges off at the final grid line. This will take care of any slight errors.
Unless you have a router table (and even if you have one) cutting perfectly straight lines with a router leaves a lot of room for error. One slight slip up and you've ruined the work. The slip up will probably come when you're almost done.
And my experience using a Dremel for a router has not been good. They're ok for carving irregular edges, like for doing inlay.
If you weren't planning on putting the grooves all the way to the edge, then just do it this way and then make frame to go around it with miters, as you would make a picture frame. You could even use some contrasting wood to make it all fancy-like.
Standard disclaimers apply. I am not a woodworking instructor, just an amateur woodworker. This is exactly how I'd do it though and I think it'd be pretty safe and be easier than using the router, as well as more accurate. I may be missing something though.
posted by bondcliff at 1:21 PM on January 3, 2023