If you’ve ever carried a pair of cornhole boards, you know that they are not the easiest thing to carry. A set of cornhole boards built from 3/4” plywood and 2x4s, like our standard cornhole board plans, can be quite heavy cumbersome. While we can’t really change the overall size and maintain regulation specs (4” off the ground in the front, and 12” off the ground in the back), we can offer you a set of lightweight cornhole board plans. Well, ”lightweight” may be a slight misnomer here, but we’ve gotten so many questions and requests as to how can we make these cornhole boards lighter we decided to add a new post to show a good option for doing so. By changing out the 2x4s to 1x4s, you can shave off about 1/3 of the overall weight. Just make certain to choose the select grade pine 1x4s that are nice and straight. You could also choose the pre-primed fingerjointed pine if you’re planning on painting the entire frame (including underside).

If you have any questions about building your own cornhole boards, feel free to reach out to us through the comments section below. If you do build your own using our plans, we’d love for you to show off your finished product by sending us some pics and telling us how your build went through our submit your build page.

Tools:

• A saw: circular, miter, or table saw. Or a hand saw if you are really ambitious.
• Drill/driver
• Kreg pocket hole jig
• 1 1/4” pocket hole screws, weather resistant
• 6″ Hole saw, router, or jig saw
• 120 grit sanding block

Materials

• 2 – 24″x48″ sheets of 3/4″ smooth plywood
• 4 – 44 1/2” 1x4s
• 4 – 22″ 1x4s
• 4 – 12″ 1x4s
• 4 – 3/8″ x 2 1/2″ lag bolts, washers, and nuts
• 8 – cornhole bags (Well, these aren’t really required to build your cornhole boards but they are required to play the game. There are tons of options for bags out there, but I really do like the ones that have a “slide” side and a “sticky” side as they add a little extra element of strategy to the game. These might not be regulation because of colors (ACL says both sides have to be the same primary color) – but does that matter when you’re playing in your backyard or at a tailgate?)

Step 1: Cut your cornhole board material

Cut all of the materials to size. For the 3/4″ plywood, you can save a little money by buying a 4×4 sheet and cutting it yourself. If you don’t have a table saw or circular saw to make the cuts yourself, your local big box store should have some pre-cut pieces in the lumber section.

Cutting the 1x4s for these lightweight cornhole board plans pretty straightforward as all cuts are square 90° cuts. It is easiest to make these cuts on a miter saw, but you can do it with a circular saw or even a handsaw and miterbox. However you’ll want to ensure to plan your cuts ahead of time to use your materials as efficiently as possible.

Step 2: Cutting the hole.

I like to cut the hole before I secure the frame, it’s just easier to move the plywood around. Measure down 9″ from the top, and 12″ from the side – this is the center of the hole. The quickest and easiest way to cut the hole is with a 6″ hole saw attached to your drill.  An alternative method is using a router with a straight bit and a circle cutting router jig.

Though I realize not everyone has a 6″ hole saw or a router, so I’ll provide an alternate method. Draw a 6″ diameter circle, with your mark measured above as your center. You can use a compass, a ruler, a piece of paper with a thumbtack in the middle and a hole for a pencil 3″ out from the thumbtack, or a 3″ piece of string to draw this circle (or many other methods). Once you have your circle, drill a 1/2″ hole on the inside edge of the circle. This will allow a starting spot for a jig saw. Now just follow the inside of the line all the way around the circle. You may have to follow up with some sand paper to smooth out the edges of the circle.

However you cut your hole, you’ll want to ensure to take your sanding block and sand the hole nice and smooth – you don’t want any splinters hanging onto those bags. Though try not to round over the edge too much; the edges of the hole should be as square to the face of the board as possible.

Step 3: Assemble and attach the frame

Next up is building and attaching the frame. Start by drilling 5 pocket holes along the long edge of each of the 44 1/2″ boards, and three pocket holes along the long edge of each of the 22″ boards. These will be used to secure the frame to the plywood after the frame is assembled – but it’s much easier to drill them now.

To attach the four pieces into a frame, you can either use 2 pocket hole screws at the end of each long board, or you can screw from the outside of the short boards into the end of the long boards. The pocket holes are the method that will provide the strongest hold. NOTE: As you are assembling, just ensure all of your pocket holes that were drilled to attach to the plywood are aligned in the same direction and located on the inside of the frame (so they are hidden when complete).

A good tip for keeping your corners tight when building your frame is to use pocket hole clamp (also called a right angle clamp). These are designed to pull your boards tight while you are screwing them all together.

After assembling your frame, you’ll need to drill the holes for the lag bolts which will be used for attaching the legs prior to assembling the frame. These should be 3/8″ holes (to match the 3/8″ lag bolts. They should be centered on the long boards, 1 3/4″ from a short edge of the long board.

Finally, use the 16 pocket hole screws to plywood. This frame should be 2″ shorter and narrower than the plywood. So you’ll want to inset it 1″ from each edge.

Step 4: Build and attach the legs

This is probably the most complicated step, as you have to cut two half circles, as you can see in the diagram to the right. I provide fairly exact measurements in the diagram based upon my own experience and set up jigs.

Cut your 1×4 pieces to 11 1/8″ in length, with a 80.4° angle (set your miter saw to be between 9° and 10° from square). DO NOT CUT THE ROUNDOVER YET. Now, on the square end, measure 1 3/4″ in from each edge. This is where you will drill a 3/8″ hole to correspond to the hole you drilled in the long boards of the frame.

Once you have the holes drilled, now you will need to cut the arc around the hole to allow the leg to rotate inside of the frame. Use a compass, ruler, string, etc… to draw a 1 3/4″ radius half circle, starting from the center of the hole, and then cut the arc with a band saw or jig saw. The arc doesn’t have to be perfect, as it will always be hidden from view. You just need to create clearance for the legs to rotate inside the frame.

Finally, you can attach the legs to the frame using the 3/8″ carriage bolts. You may have to either spin them through the holes, and then use a hammer to fully sit the bolt head flush against the outside of the frame. Once inserted, temporarily secure with a matching washer and nut (wingnuts allow you to tighten with your fingers instead of needing a wrench).

With your boards assembled, if everything went according to plan, the back of the board should sit exactly 12″ off the ground – this is ACA regulation height.

Step 5: Sand, paint or stain your cornhole boards

This is the fun part, the part where you get to customize your cornhole boards the way you want them. You’ll want to ensure your new lightweight cornhole boards are as smooth as possible. Start by sanding with 120 grit sandpaper and progressing to 180 and all the way to 220 to get a super smooth surface.

Accessorize your cornhole boards

One of the best things about having your own cornhole boards is making them yours. You can easily paint a custom design on your boards, I opted for some custom vinyl wraps, but there are also lots of other great options to make yours unique. Here are just a few of our favorites:

• A Magnetic scoreboard that easily attaches to your board.
• Free standing scorecaddy with built-in drink holders
• How about taking to a whole new level with some LED hole lights for your board?
• Or maybe LED board lights for around the outside?

However you choose to customize your boards, we hope you’ll share your designs with us by sharing a few pics and letting us know how your build went.

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