Build Your Own "Table-Soccer" Game

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Fun-loving MOTHER-readers will, no doubt, remember down-easter Glenn Willett's ten-minute cure for cabin fever: the nickel hockey game featured in MOTHER NO. 72 (page 70). Well, a couple of MOM's researchers—after they knocked together their own hockey board just to see how it worked-figured they could take the whole boredom-beating concept one step further and work up a game that'd just flat keep the whole household busy through those long winter evenings . . . and probably right into the following cold season as well.

They decided, basing their choice on both practicality and potentially low cost, to produce a plaything similar to the popular Foosball game . . . which, as any devotee of table sports can attest, is great for developing eye-hand coordination, strengthening wrists, and-let's face itjust having a good old time.

COLLECT YOUR MATERIALS . . .

A bit of snooping on the part of our staffers revealed that professionally built table-soccer games range in price from $359 to more than $600 . . . but our crew wrapped this version up for just over $100. (And that's a real bargain, considering the fact that the shop-made specimen is a nearclone of the typical arcade models . . . and uses mostly new materials, some of which you could probably replace with scrap.)

To put together your own indoor soccer field, you're going to need [1] the materials specified in the accompanying illustrations, [2] tools . . . including a circular or table saw, a drill with an assortment of bits, a coping saw, a hammer, a screwdriver, some finish-grade sandpaper, a pair of wire cutters, a hacksaw, a compass, and a tape measure, and [3] the better part of a weekend ... plus an evening or two beyond that, perhaps, depending on how handy a woodworker you are.

The major components of the project can be cut from a 33" X 48" sheet of 3/8" plywood . . . a 40" X 48" sheet of 3/4" plywood (or, better yet, one 10-foot and two 8-foot lengths of 1 X 6) . . . a pair of 12-foot 2 X 4's . . . three 3-foot lengths of 1" dowel . . . four 10-foot sections of 1/2" electrical metallic tubing ... a 36" X 66" section of white Formica (or some other) plastic laminate and a 30" X 89" piece with a wood-grain surface. (The wood-grain veneer, which we used to cover the outer walls of the playing box and its support frame, is optional .. . by omitting it, and simply staining those surfaces instead, you can probably slice the cost of your project by as much as one-quarter.)