Ready For Playing

Our homemade Giant Jenga game is now ready for playing in our backyard!

After I finished sanding all the 2x4 pieces with 220 grit sandpaper (which was after 80 grit and 120 grit), I waxed every piece and then polished the wax until it was smooth and slick.  I also waxed the top of the leveling base.  Now every piece is very smooth and looks nothing like a typical framing 2x4 which is how this wood started!  Each of these pieces started very rough when I first cut the 2x4s to length.  Now they are looking nothing like a typical framing 2x4.

For some reason, I thought that the relatively easy process of applying wax and then polishing it would go very quickly but, as usual as my health worsens and I get older, I was very wrong in my time estimate.  I think the waxing required even more of my time than sanding with the last grit of sandpaper did and that took far longer than I anticipated!  I found that I could only wax and polish 12 of the pieces in an hour.  There are 54 pieces so the waxing and polishing required about four and a half hours spread over a few days.  

Every step of this small project required far more time and effort than I anticipated.  This project is now finished though and it is looking great so that is good news.  

I just remembered that I still have four small stone blocks to embed in the lawn where we plan to play this game.  The four flat stone blocks will provide a solid base under each of the four leveling feet of the game's leveling base.  I suppose we could use the flat blocks as coasters and just place them on the lawn wherever we want to play.  If I don't have these blocks under the small leveling feet, the feet will just sink into the lawn.  That wouldn't be ideal for keeping the base level.  The blocks will provide much needed support.  This giant game is heavy!  It might not look like it is heavy, but it is!

Here, below, is the game stored in its upside-down base.  This is a two person carry though.  The "L-shaped" wood rails on each of the long sides of the base make carrying this easy.  There is room for fingers under than L-shaped rail and your fingers won't be crushed by the game when placing the game down on the ground.   

This little project turned out very well.  The game is looking good and I'm looking forward playing Giant Jenga in the backyard through the summer!