We’re ready to finish out game boards. I’ve put on the finish coatings while the boards are apart, and they have dried enough that we can now mount hinges and our case magnets for holding the lids closed. The first thing I’m going to do is set up my drill press to drill out the holes for the rare earth magnets that I use. These are 1/4″ in diameter and about 1/16″ thick. They’re very strong for their size, and using two at each location pulling toward each other makes the case stay closed well enough. Here is a video showing how I set up my drill press and drill out these holes.
Next we glue the magnets into the case. I use super glue and press the magnets into the case and clean off extra glue that comes out. Once this is done you should wait long enough to make sure all glue is dry before proceeding to the hinges.
Next we are going to mount the hinges on the back of the case. This is the edge that is opposed to the magnet edge. These hinges need to be placed very exactly so that the case opens and lays flat on the table. Misaligning here makes the case not open nicely. I use brass hinges and replace the screws that come with the hinges with shorter brass screws. There are pictures below that show what I get to do this task with.
The hinges can be found at Lowes, the screws from Micro Fasterners.com. Be careful when using brass in hardwoods, they twist off easily if you do not drill large enough pilot holes.
Here is a video of putting hinges on.
Nowt the case is complete. We need to either buy or make playing pieces to go with the board. I make my own chips and doubling cubes. I buy dice to go with these from Amazon. I happen to prefer Chessex dice as they are the best quality I have found for the price.