I have now finished my first try to make my own Goban, beechwood, 21 kg.
I had access to a large workshop, where they had a milling machine, so the 9 pieces that the board is made of are equal in size. The board is glued together with ordinary white glue for wood. I used the values from Equipment Dimensions.
I bought the legs in a furniture shop, but they were very expensive. I found some special screws that had a thread for wood on the outside and thread for metal on the inside. With 4 of those in the board and 1 in each leg, and a metal thread bar in between, it is possible to unscrew the legs.
The lines are drawn with an overhead pen, and the whole board is painted with oil.
The only thing that is missing, is the pyramid like hole on the bottom side. Does any one have the meassure for that?
Tamsin: That looks really gorgeous. I hope you get a lot of pleasure from it. Well done!
Karl Knechtel: Agreed. Impressive.
Eratos: How much could I pay you to make me another? :)
JamSon: I can only agree to the statements already written here. But how did you solve the "sound-problem". Did you work in some "sound supporting" technique to compensate for the fact it is not made out of the traditional japanese wood? If you or some other already enlightened person could answer, this would be great. I also do wonder that you only glued the pieces together, did you really not apply some woodworking techniques? Pictures of the underside are appreciated, too. I want to thank you very much for already sharing your knowledge. Best wishes. Regards, JamSon.
Kjeld Petersen: What do you mean by WoodWorking? Normal white wood glue is strong enough to hold the parts together even when there an area this large which is glued and pressed together. They will never fall apart. About sound: Well!!! I just made the board, and I can say now, that if you tap on the board with a stone, it doesn't sound the same all over it. But maybe a pyramid like hole at the buttom will solve this problem. I still haven't found the size for the hole.
Another problem is the glue. It has to dry out. And because there is this big surface, there is also a lot of moisture in the glue. So finally now, after a year, the board is fully dried out, and I can finish the surface with sandpaper. I'm a little afraid that if I put oil on again, that the glue line will start swelling up again.
JamSon: Great that you answered that fast. Maybe I can inspire you with this (honorcode: I am in no relation to the company you will reach by following the link. The sole intention is to show out that there exist some innovations which lead to the traditional sound with non-traditional wood. So everybody can try to re-engineer. I added this honorcode, because the author is selling his product there and I donīt want to do his marketing. So be warned.) link. This site is in German. The author is telling there that he builds in a sound "thing" to compensate that it is not made out of a traditional japanese wood.
As you mentioned that it took you over one year for drying your glued piece I wonder if one can speed up production by using better glue or by drying in a drying room. Is this possible? -- JamSon
Kjeld Petersen: Somewhere I read that a board should have some strings (like a guitar) on the underside, so when you place a stone the strings would start to vibrate, but I don't know if this is true. There is also a story about the hole at the downside. It should be large enough, that if you lose, you can turn the board up-side-down, and you can use it when you decapitate your opponent. The head would then fall into the hole. But I think this is just a story.
About drying: I didn't have access to any other glue at the time I built it. But I think I could have used less glue. Not pasting the whole surface, but only 2-3 cm around the edge, and it would still hold perfectly. Don't forget that when you put on glue, it has to run out when you presses the pieces together. Then you will get best solution. Otherwise there is a risk that there will be some open gaps between each of the 9 pieces.
JamSon: Do any of the Sensei's Library users have a traditional goban? If yes could you be so nice and take the measure, as it seems to be one of the yet open questions at Sensei's. If you do a good job fame is almost guaranteed ;-)
By the way, a nice story. Thank you very much for realizing your project and informing others less enlightened of it. -- JamSon.
Bob McGuigan: The dimensions of traditional boards vary from maker to maker. See Equipment Dimensions and sources referenced there for more information.
PatG: I think JamSon? was referring to the cutout in the underside of the Goban which helps give the right sound. The equipment page doesn't appear to give any dimensions for this. It would be a useful addition to get even a rough estimate of the dimensions for the sound hole.
JamSon: Please excuse my inaccurateness. Both Bob McGuigan and PatG are right. People already have done a good job on compiling data about goban(s), but the question of the sound hole still remains. I wonder if there is really nobody with a traditional goban.
yacdaiel: Hi, I'm making my own board too and while looking for some equipment on internet I came in to a Korean site where it's said that the hole in the underside of the goban should have a length and width of 8cm. I don't understand Korean, but that's the most I could read from the online badly translated page. It seems to be a discussion or some kind of argument about whether or not the hole should be made. Here's the page link. They sell boards and stones also, so this is not intended to be marketing, but the page has a photo of the sound hole that I hope will be very useful. The board appears to be made from three glued pieces and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Best wishes to all.
Ben Shoemaker: Here is a page selling used gobans: Shogun Gallery.
If you click on the numbers by each goban, there are sets of pictures from all angles, including the bottom. Most of the holes cut in the bottoms appear to be the same size. 8cm could be quite close.
Kjeld Petersen: Thank you for the reference. I tried to print the pictures, and take some measure of them. It looks as if the size of the hole is 0,30 x 0,25 shaku. (Very closely actually.) That is 90,9 x 75,75 mm. The top inside is close to 0,192 x 0,16 shaku. There is about 0,125 shaku from the center to the bottum of the fold. If the fold is about 0,05 shaku, then the angle of the out-side fold is close to 45 degree. (but that is only guessing).
Can somebody confirm my calculations?
You can make this drawing, with the side length of 0,3 and 0,25 shaku:
I have made a copy of this on a piece of paper, so I can use it for reference. I also made some triangular edges around the outside, with a height of 0,05 shaku. I want to use them to measure if I cut deeply enough.
--ApyCop1
Here's my contribution to this page.
I've also finished my own Legged Goban, it's made of Framire for the board and Oak for the legs, weight 19Kg. Dimensions L:455mm W:425mm H:180mm(board) 300mm(with legs)
I've made the board with three Framire pieces (each divided in three to avoid too much wood working) and glued together (one week of pressing and drying). Framire is a beautiful yellowish wood, but a true nightmare to work with (doesn't have straight grain) so i haven't done the pyramid on the bottom (but i plan to make it on an Oak board)
The finishing was quite long, sanding the board from grain 80 to 260 (glass like surface), application of two preparation coating (witch caps wood grain), then three uncolored varnish layers (with sanding grain 600 between each layers, don't forget to put away the dust). I've made the tracing with a Rotring Rapidograph 1mm on a perfectly unpolished surface. Then, three final varnish layers to protect the tracing.
The legs are made out of Oak and sculpted with wood scisors, wood grater, saw and muscles ;) The finishing was made with Light Oak varnish (three layers)