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Reply to "Wheel of Fortune-style Game Spinners"

Game Wheel Spinner

 

 

wheel 

 

 

 

 Game Wheel Directions

 

 

Notes:Overview of Base

  • The wheel is cut from a thick, flat piece of plywood, and mounted by a singe, large wood bolt to a sturdy base.  It is certainly possible to modify these plans, as we just used materials we already had on available.
  • Plywood comes in sheets 48" wide, so that may limit how wide a disc you can have without becoming more creative. The base needs to be large enough to be secure, and give plenty of floor contact to make a stable platform.
  • It is nice to have no feet "sticking out" from under the disc, except for the center foot that supports the flapper post.
  • Make sure the three 'feet' are the same thickness; otherwise it may not sit well on the floor.
  • Use flat and straight boards. If the plywood is not flat, it will bind when it spins.

 


Assembly:

  • Sizes of drill bits or screws are not specified, so you should use your judgement depending on the materials you will use.
  • Pilot holes should be drilled for the screws to prevent the wood from splitting and make for easy assembly.
  • You may also use glue, along with screws, to attach the 'feet' to the base.
  • Make sure that no screws protrude anywhere.
  • The hole in the disc for the wood bolt should be barely large enough to allow the bolt to pass without restriction, but just barely.  You don't want it to bind, but you also want to decrease the potential wobble.
  • When drilling the single hole in the base to accept the wood bolt, make sure that you do not drill this hole too large.  Once you adjust the tightness of the bolt, you want it to remain secure.
  • The washers need to be very smooth, with the center hole large enough to cleanly allow the bolt to pass without binding.
  • Use some lubricating oil on the washers.
  • Make sure the disc turns easily to where it can rotate a few times before stopping. If it is too loose, it will wobble.  Too tight, and it won't turn well.  This will require some fine-tuning with the tightness of the wood bolt, so have pliers or a wrench handy.
  • You may need to experiment with the number of washers above and below the disc for optimum performance.

 


Flapper:Flapper

  • The kerf in the longer foot is where the flapper is located.  It can be further secured with a screw from the side.  This will also enable the flapper to be easily replaced if worn out.
  • We found that the thick plastic from one of the sturdier baby wipe containers serves as a good flapper.  This is Tupperware-like plastic.  It needs to be pliable, but firm.  Tough, but not brittle. You might want to cut 2 or 3 extra in case....

 


Dowels:Dowels

  • Dowels that are smaller than 3/8" can easily break when grasped enthusiastically for turning the wheel.
  • The number of dowels will be determined by the number of 'wedges' you want on the wheel.
  • You want the pegs to be uniform.  A drill press, or some other jig, will help keep the holes perpendicular to the disc, so the pegs will all be straight.  I easily drilled the holes with a drill press after the wheel was assembled, simply spinning the disc under the bit to the location of the next hole....

 


Finishing:

  • Smooth rough edges and corners of the wood wherever possible.
  • Paint the wheel as desired.  We elected not to paint on numbers or letters.  To make the wheel more versatile, we used Velcro dots to attach cards with points.  We can change the cards to letters, or pictures, or words, etc.
  • We applied a rubberized non-skid material (carpet padding) for the bottoms of the 'feet' to reduce sliding when the wheel is spun.

 


 

Designed by Paul Derden

pderden@chartertn.net

State Street UMC

300 W. Valley Drive

Bristol, VA 24201

Printed from Rotation.org

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  • wheel
  • Game Wheel Directions
  • Overview of Base
  • Flapper
  • Dowels
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