My grandson (he is just two) making a house in my shop with the recycled Builder Boards
I’ve made quite a few sets of Builder Boards which are like big Lincoln Logs, only boards. Mostly I’ve used marine ply which we all know is getting more expensive, harder to find, and comes half way around the world. A while ago, after I made a work table for my wife, and had quite a bit of good plywood left over I began thinking about all that plywood left over from other projects sitting around in every woodworkers shop. What about a set made from left over, and recycled, plywood? Looking around my shop I found a surprising amount of 3/4” that would work, at least for the smaller pieces. I pestered a few fellow woodworkers, found wood at garage sales, Craigs List, and went to the Restore and Habitat’s store.
I now have enough pieces for a set. The hardest pieces to find were the 4’ long 10 notch pieces and for those I made some new slightly longer 4 notch and 6 notch pieces with straight ends. These fit together make a 10 notch piece but a few 4’ long pieces are still necessary to go over windows or doors.
If you try this I caution you to check the thickness of the plywood you find. 3/4″ plywood is not always 3/4.” I found out the hard way older plywood can be too thick to fit in the notch widths of my patterns. This is unfortunate because some of the best finds are old plywood with nice thick surface veneers. I took some of the reject two notch pieces cut them in half and carried them in my car so I could check any plywood I happened to stumble across.
A playhouse from recycled plywood. The roof is from my wife’s old desk.
Hi jack – there’s a problem with the boards. I gave them to my son last night after dinner and he refused to go to sleep. They were just too much fun!
What about using Sande plywood? Is that sturdy enough with chipping at the ends? I want my father-in-law to build me a small set for my Kindergarten classroom.
I’m not sure which Sande you are referring to. There is a Marine Sande which is pretty nice, not many voids, which is good, because the voids have to be filled. The finish isn’t too bad either. The only thing I don’t like about Sande Marine is here in the Northwest it is susceptible to mold. Around here if it gets any moisture on it some sort of mold will grow. If you keep it dry and get a sealer and varnish on it it seems to be OK. I’m not sure what would happen if you left it out in the rain for a week.
Home Depot has another Sande plywood which is not nearly as good as the marine sand. I’ve used the 1/2” for roof boards and they worked well. It is pretty light in weight and this is good for the kids. Seems to be few voids, and altho there were only 3 layers it seemed pretty strong. One thing I don’t like about the cheaper plywoods is the top veneers are very thin so you have to be very careful when cutting them, or they splinter. If the 3/4” is the same quality as the 1/2” it would be OK as long as you don’t live where the humidity is high. It is probably not as strong as marine but most plywood without voids will be strong enough as long as you fill the voids, supervise the kids, and don’t use the boards inappropriately.
Hi Jack, I am considering creating a set of Builder Boards for a local startup children’s museum here in Longview, WA. I have already ordered your book from Amazon Prime, but am anxious to get started. The first decision I need to make is material and was initially thinking clear pine boards or 1/2 birch plywood. I like working with the birch ply but am concerned 1/2″ maybe two flexible. Do I need to go to 3/4″? With the pine boards, which I think would be nice and light, I am concerned about ends breaking in use and I don’t really like the idea of placing a screw after each notch on the ends. Can you give me any advice. Cost is a concern though I do want to make sure the results will be fun to play with and last a while.
For a children’s museum I definitely recommend 3/4 plywood. I think 1/2 will bend too much. This happens with the roof boards sometimes. If you go to 1/2 all the notch dimensions have to be refigured. I tried 5/8 once but it didn’t quite give the wall boards enough room to land on each other. Pine would work I suppose, like cedar did for me, but, just like with cedar, you will have problems with the corners being knocked off when kids lift the boards up at and angle, which they will do. I’ve made a lot of stuff for kids and if I learned anything it is that it has to be nearly indestructible.
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Good luck with you project. I’m in Bellingham and pass thru Portland now and then. It would be good to see how you project is going. Also, There is a class of 6th graders in Portownsend who are building a set and they said they got good 3/4 plywood at Home depot. Doesn’t have to be marine for inside use, but don’t use plywood (especially the cheap imports) that have super thin to veneer. Often there isn’t enough glue to hold the top veneer down and it splinters; not good for kids.
Dave finished his set and delivered it to the Kelso, WA children’s museum. Nice job. And he had a different idea to hold the roof boards on instead of velcro: pegs in the gable end matching up to holes in the roof boards. I’ll try to download an image later.