How to Build a Shishkaball Ball-Drop Game

By: Jennifer Stimpson, This Old House online

Shopping List

Supplies You Will Need

½-inch birch-veneer plywood

  2x4 for the legs

  4-foot welded-wire garden fencing

  2-foot bamboo plant stakes You'll need at least 90

 Plastic pit balls Get about 100

220-grit sandpaper

Stain-blocking white primer

Spray paint in three colors

 ⅞-inch wood screws

 2 ½-inch trim-head screws

 Wood glue

 Wood filler

Painter's tape

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Tools List
Tools You Will Need
- Jigsaw fitted with scroll blade (for plywood) and aggressive blade (for lumber)
- Drill driver fitted with ⅛-inch bit and ¼-inch bit
- Linesman pliers
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two men preparing materials to make shishkaball game

Photo: Wendell Webber

1. Lay out the rings

 To create a lip for the base and lid, you'll sandwich together two plywood rings—one an inch wider than the other. First, to mark circular cuts this large, make a compass from a piece of scrap wood at least 12 inches long. Drive a finishing nail through the center of the strip near one end, for the pivot. To create the radii on the cut list, mark points 7, 9, and 10 inches from the pivot and drill a ⅛-inch hole for a pencil tip at each one. Using the nail to pivot the compass, poke a pencil tip through each radius hole to draw the circles on plywood according to the cut list. To create the goal slots for the base, tick off perimeter points at 12, 4, and 8 o'clock. Draw a line from each tick mark to the center, then make parallel lines 1-inch to either side of those lines to produce 2-inch dividers in the shape of a peace sign.