Check out my homemade Settlers of Catan board!

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

01/12/2011 11:20:35 PM · #1

I'm pretty stoked about this. I have schemed about doing this with a friend for three years and it's finally come to fruition. I don't have a ton of fine woodworking experience, but with the help of some people in this thread (especially

thompp1) I used a router and other tools I have or borrowed to make a Settlers of Catan board out of exotic woods. It probably took 10-15 hours of labor.

I have some sanding and protecting to do, but I thought I'd share. For those interested, I used the following woods:

Ore - purpleheart on a crosscut
Wood - sycamore on a crosscut from a tree that was chopped down in my parent's backyard
Sheep - poplar
Grain - lacewood
Brick - redheart
Desert - tree of life

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

01/12/2011 11:30:54 PM · #2

It's really a handsome looking board, with all the different types of wood pieces in it. I never heard of it before, though. What sort of game is this?

Pug-H

Pentax K10D

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax

01/12/2011 11:37:01 PM · #3

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

It's really a handsome looking board, with all the different types of wood pieces in it. I never heard of it before, though. What sort of game is this?

He's used boards of different types of wood to make a board game. ;-Ã�

Seriously, Settlers of Catan was a revolutionary boardgame from Germany which is far superior to the old American staples like Monopoly and Clue(do).

bspurgeon

Fujifilm x100

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

01/12/2011 11:37:03 PM · #4

Happens to be my favorite game! My brother in law and I talked about doing this a few years back. Well done!

IndigoButterfly

Nikon D7100

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

01/12/2011 11:42:47 PM · #5

I'm sure I underestimate what it took to do this, but the design of all the different woods is beautiful.

01/12/2011 11:52:26 PM · #6

There is no staining involved either. The different colors are the natural hues of the different woods.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

01/13/2011 12:00:01 AM · #7

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

There is no staining involved either. The different colors are the natural hues of the different woods.

Where is your sensitivity? This horrifies some.

spiritualspatula

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

01/13/2011 12:24:14 AM · #8

Awesome work!
I'm glad you came back and posted the finished product.

MelonMusketeer

Nikon D7000

Nikon MF 50mm f/1.4

01/13/2011 12:52:52 AM · #9

If I was playing that game, "wood" I get "board"?
Lovely work. Wood is a very enjoyable medium to make beautiful things from.

mpeters

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

01/13/2011 01:05:14 AM · #10

Nice Doc! I'll send this link to my two sisters. They and their husbands are somewhat fanatical about Settlers. They'll get a kick out of it. Now for some hand hewn castles and houses.

adigitalromance

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

01/13/2011 01:09:00 AM · #11

That is very cool! Even the woods have interesting names - purpleheart, lacewood, redheart, tree of life...

How did you make the little round number disks, are they from the actual game?

01/13/2011 01:22:47 AM · #12

Originally posted by adigitalromance:

That is very cool! Even the woods have interesting names - purpleheart, lacewood, redheart, tree of life...

How did you make the little round number disks, are they from the actual game?

Those are from the actual game (as well as the little houses and roads). In phase two I am thinking of using a forstner bit to drill a shallow hole in each hex so I can place the number disk inside it (and maybe I can make those out of pre-cut wood plugs).

smardaz

01/13/2011 03:55:09 AM · #13

my kids talk about playing that game at their moms house...what IS that game....does it involve dressing like wizards and 12 sided dice......and living in your moms basement?

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax

01/13/2011 04:07:30 AM · #14

Originally posted by smardaz:

my kids talk about playing that game at their moms house...what IS that game....does it involve dressing like wizards and 12 sided dice......and living in your moms basement?

Doc will deny this, but "Settlers of Catan" is thinly diguised code for "Kettlers of Satan"

Pug-H

Pentax K10D

01/13/2011 04:41:22 AM · #15

Originally posted by smardaz:

my kids talk about playing that game at their moms house...what IS that game....does it involve dressing like wizards and 12 sided dice......and living in your moms basement?

Well, dressing as wizards is a matter of choice, but other players might look at you askance. ;-Ã�

Settlers. I've never actually played it right through properly. It's a bit hard when the cards are in German or Japanese, I found...

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

01/13/2011 05:07:03 AM · #16

Shoulda known...

giantmike

Canon EOS R6

01/13/2011 08:16:02 AM · #17

That's amazingly cool! All it needs is the harbors in the ocean, and you're all set!

pamelasue

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

01/13/2011 09:43:11 AM · #18

I've never heard of that game ... did some research and found a site (catan.com) that gives you a great tutorial ... based on that, I ordered one! We love to play games ... thanks for turning me onto a new one!

wolf

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

01/13/2011 09:47:25 AM · #19

Awesome! I love this game :)

Very cool wood with the wood board!!

01/13/2011 10:38:34 AM · #20

Originally posted by pamelasue:

If you like games I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's probably one of my favorites along with Ticket to Ride which is a ton of fun as well.

sjhuls

Canon EOS-7D

01/13/2011 11:06:51 AM · #21

very cool board. My dad makes all sorts of things out of different colors of wood, I never thought of a Catan board. I might have to talk him into making me one. BTW I love this game. I have the board game and on my computer(just because it is so hard to find others who can spare a few hours to sit down and play).

smardaz

01/13/2011 11:38:37 AM · #22

milleborne anyone?

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/13/2011 12:03:10 PM · #23

Originally posted by smardaz:

milleborne anyone?

milleborne cards out of wood would be a bit clunky, don't you think? :)

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

01/13/2011 01:24:59 PM · #24

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

I don't have a ton of fine woodworking experience ...

Nice work. If you're into woodworking you'll probably like Woodgears.ca -- a cool site put together by a Canadian engineer ...