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Before you read my instructions, the question. On a formica-type surface, any guesses on what might seal Sharpie and prevent its smudging?
Ingredients:
- One piece of spare wood, mine is 18''x18'' (45cmx45cm) (free, maintenance department)
- One pencil, preferably of the carpenter's variety (it's easier to draw lines with) ($0.23, Home Depot)
- One straightedge of at least the size of your board, a yard stick worked for me ($1, Home Depot)
- One ruler (my yard stick did double duty here)
- One black fine-tipped Sharpie marking pen (had it lying around, otherwise about $2)
- Eight hundred glass ends, of which half are black and half are white. ($10, craft store)
- A razor blade, or knife of some sort
- Optional: A T-square ($7, Home Depot)
On the poorer side of the board, see how well the sharpie marks. My board was obtained at the maintenance department of my school, and the surface is some sort of Formica table top, which fortunately seems to hold Sharpie pretty well. If the Sharpie won't mark, try some other types of pens, which can be obtained at craft/hardware stores. Practice making straight lines and drawing accurate corners.
Once you have a working marker, flip to the good side of the board. If you have the T-square, use it to assist you in making the corners approx. 1 inch from each side. If not, hold a ruler up to the edge with your finger and be as accurate as you can. Even corners are important. Measure twice to make sure you've been accurate.
Now, use the Sharpie to connect the corners. Go slow, so as to prevent mistakes. Small mistakes may be corrected by scratching them off with the razor, for large ones, you may need chemicals or a new start. Fortunately, I managed to avoid these. Now, to figure out where to draw your lines, calculate (width / number of lines-1) * line number. I used a spreadsheet to do this for me, so I could look at it and know exactly where I needed to put my lines. Make sure you measure each width, because if it's off an eighth of an inch, spreading that out among all the lines will look better than having the last square be a full eighth of an inch wider or narrower than the rest (this is from experience).
Once you have determined where all your lines should be, put the ruler up to the outside lines, and put small marks on the outside lines with your pencil where the cross lines will go. Gently, and slowly, start connecting the dots. I recommend not doing more than 5 at a time - doing more, you further risk smudging the Sharpie before it dries, and you may get careless.
Now that your board is done, you need pieces. For these, I recommend getting glass ends, available at any craft store worth its salt. Fortunately for me, my buddy found them at a flea market for me, where they were really cheap. They are a bit irregular, and some of them are not appropriate as pieces at all, so buy some extras.
Finally, you'll need to seal your board. On regular wood, this often means oiling it. You could varnish it, but many find the glare of the varnish unacceptable. I still don't know exactly how I'm going to do this yet. I'm too afraid that my Sharpie will smudge to play with the board yet.
Now, you should have a functional, fairly attractive Go set. Play some games on it, and enjoy.
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