Your lawn looks empty as the summer sun bounces off the blades of grass. You want to put your lawn into good use and make it your home’s recreational spot. The situation would be easier if you had a bigger budget. A tennis court or a swimming pool would be in the place of your lawn if you had enough cash. Fortunately, there is a sport that is just as fun as tennis or swimming without the need to build expensive structures on your lawn. You can make your own croquet set and instantly turn your lawn into a competitive croquet court.
Croquet is a popular lawn game. Its rules are simple and it can be played alone or against others. Best of all, you can play the sport almost anywhere as long as you have a croquet set. If you have a croquet set, you can simply set up the wickets and pegs in your lawn to begin your game. Good croquet sets are expensive, but if you have a good supply of wood and wire, you can just opt to make the entire set yourself.
The Croquet Set Primer
A croquet set consists of six wooden mallets, four polymer balls, nine wire wickets and an 18-inch wooden stake. Building all the components can be quite tedious. You can ask a few buddies to lend you a hand so that you could cover more ground in the shortest amount of time. Besides, they will probably be your croquet opponents once the croquet set has been created.
Materials Used:
5 sheets of medium density plywood (2 x 2 meters)
4 polymer strips
9 metal wires (0.250 inches in density)
hammer
nails
handsaw
chisel
wood plane
wood glue
pliers
tape measure
pencil
paper
mechanical drill
paint
varnish
paintbrush
film laminate
Acquire the Materials and Equipment
First, go to a lumber shop and order the five plywood sheets. If you own a pick-up truck, you can simply load the wood and bring it home; otherwise, you can just have the wood delivered to your place. Proceed to a hardware store and purchase the wires, the polymer strips and the carpentry tools that you do not have in your toolbox.
The Wooden Mallets
When you have all the materials and tools prepared, you can get your pencil and trace the outline of your mallet on a sheet of plywood (7 x 2.5 inches for the head, 24 x 1.5 inches for the handle). Saw the outline of your mallet until you get both the head and the handle. Use your wood plane to remove any excess layers of wood then use your hammer and chisel to etch the playing grooves of your mallet. Remember that a groove that is made too deep can affect your shot. Make the grooves carefully.
When you have etched all the grooves, bore a hole in the center of the mallet head with your mechanical drill. Etch out layers of wood from the tip of the handle so that it can perfectly fit the hole on the head of the hammer. Once done, apply wood glue on both the hole and the tip of the handle to reinforce the connection. Paint some of the grooves and cover the rest with varnish to make your mallet look like an item used by the pros.
When the paint, varnish and wood glue dry-up, you can test the connection between the mallet head and handle. Give the mallet a few playful pokes. If the connection between the head and the handle fail to hold up, you can drive a few nails into it to strengthen the connection. Once done, cover the mallet with laminating film to give it a slick finish.
Now that you have finished one mallet, you can simply repeat the process five more times to create a set of six mallets.
The Polymer Balls
Polymer balls are made with expensive state-of-the-art equipment. In this case, you have no other option but to have a professional create the balls for you. List the dimensions of the ball (2.34 inches, 1 lb in weight) on a piece of paper, and bring your polymer strips to a plastic manufacturer. Within one or two days, you can pick-up all four polymer balls. Run a few quality tests on the balls. If they pass, your polymer balls are good to go.
The Wire Wickets
Get your pliers and bend a piece of wire in accordance with the standard croquet wicket dimensions (5 x 11 x 0.250 inches). Remember to do this procedure with a lot of precision because your polymer balls might have problems entering misshaped wickets.
The Wooden Stake
Sketch the outline of your wooden stake (18 x 2.5 inches) on a sheet of plywood. Saw the outline then use the wood plane to remove any excess wood on the stake’s surface. Once done, use your hammer and chisel to etch out grooves on your stake. Make sure that all the grooves are identical in size. When the grooves have been made, you can paint some of them to make the stake look stylish. Apply varnish to all the unpainted portions. Once the paint and varnish settle, cover the wooden stake with laminating film.
Now that your croquet set is finished, you can play croquet anytime and anywhere. You can even say that the entire world is your croquet court at this point.