Making Your Own Blocks

       In our Topics section at the bottom of this page we provide a link to instructions for making your own blocks (or click here).  If you are an accomplished woodworker or if your school has a woodshop, you can use these instructions to make a set of blocks from scratch.  Most of the task involves creating molding in the five basic profiles required for a set of blocks.
      Alternately, the Hard Maple molding below is already extruded with rounded corners and a smooth surface all ready to be chopped into the required lengths.  You can make standard unit blocks with little more than a table saw and a sander.  This is exactly the same material that we use to make our own blocks.  Your pieces will be inspected to avoid any pieces with cracks or other surface defects, but is otherwise right off the top of the pile. 
      The pieces are four feet long.  The corners are rounded in the long dimension and the material is smooth to about 150 grit.  The table (below) shows the approximate number of pieces of various profiles required for the two best selling sets in our repertoire: the Beginner A16 and the Base A16.  You can view the list of parts for these sets by viewing them here (Beginner A16) and here (Base A16) respectively.

End Shape	Type	Price 4 ft.	For Beginner A16*	For Base A16*
(  )	Block Stock	$7.71	4	9
(  )	Pillar Stock	$5.48	2	3
(  )	Road Stock	$4.15	1	2
(  )	Roof Planks	$2.29	3	6
(  )	Round Stock	$5.48	1	2
*  Does not account for wastage. Molding is right off the line, not selected (good or bad), and should be expected to have the usual range of defects and discolored spots and streaks.