Fire Station Marble Boards – DIY

Marble boards are a fire station tradition. As a rookie, I played a lot of marbles. Somehow at my new station, the marble board must have disappeared over the years. Fire Station marbles utilize a Wahoo style marble board. I’ll show you how I made my template and how you can re-create this project. This can be a great Christmas gift to your firefighter or a great addition to the fire station.

I made my template by utilizing a scrap piece of chalkboard. However, thin plywood would also work. You don’t necessarily need to make a template if you are only making one marble board. However, I plan to recreate this project numerous times. The template is worth the effort, even if you plan to make only two boards. Also, I found that other people will want to borrow your template, if you have made one. So that makes it even more worth the effort to make a template.

I just marked my boards where I needed my holes drilled and utilized a spade bit to make the template holes. I found that a 5/8″ spade bit allows a big enough hole for the marble drill bit to seat completely for a clean divot. When I utilized a 1/2″ spade bit, the marble drill bit sat on top of the template and allowed some movement where some of the holes looked misshaped.



I purchased my marble game drill bit from Rockler. Here is the link: https://www.rockler.com/marble-drilling-bit




Not every marble board needs to be trimmed out. They look just fine without the trim. However, the trim can add a very useful lip to the board to keep the marbles from sliding around if disturbed. Getting a run in the middle of a game and everyone scurrying to the fire apparatus can cause a disruption. Sometimes even an intended disruption by someone losing the game. Ha! In my case, I created the smaller size boards with a specific goal of how I would gift them. I wanted them to be utilized as gifts for members in the hospital or with family in the hospital. I was stuck in a rut of giving either a cross or a plant. To be honest, sometimes it felt that neither was a perfect gift. Instead I wanted a gift that would pass the time or create some good memories of a hospital stay, if there is such a thing. The trim lip on this piece needed to be just big enough to keep marbles from hitting the hospital floor and small enough to not be cumbersome in a carrying bag.

I found the perfect size bag on Amazon for easy containment of the gift to and from the hospital. Here is the link: Axe Sickle 4PCS Canvas Tote Bag Bottom Gusset 16 X 16 X 4.6 inch Heavy 12oz Tote Shopping Bag and the super stacker crayon container was the perfect size for the marbles and some dice. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Super-Stacker-Mini-Boxes-Inches-40315/dp/B00O48FOSW/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=super+stacker+crayon&qid=1570993551&s=home-garden&sr=1-2
You can personalize your board in so many ways. I plan to create an upcoming post that will show you how I customized mine so that you can also re-create these customized boards as well. Here are the three boards I have created to date.

Fire Station Marble Board that I created for donation to the Firefighter Ball.


and in the middle of the night… I decided on how I wanted to customize the bag!