How to Make a Dartboard
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2-4 hours
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Intermediate
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- 25-50
To play darts you need a dartboard. As anyone who has shopped around for them will know, a dartboard isn’t cheap to buy. For what is really just cork and wire, dartboards can be very expensive. Why not make your own? It’s not that difficult to do and you can save money over buying a factory-made dartboard.
Step 1 - Cork
A dartboard is made of cork. It needs to have a thickness of at least 1½ inches. This will prevent the thrown dart from penetrating through the cork to damage the wall. You may want to mount the cork onto a piece of particle board to add protection to your wall and stability to your board. When selecting an appropriate piece of cork for your dartboard, make certain it’s at least this thick and a minimum of 18 inches in diameter.
Step 2 - Cut
A dart board is circular, so you need to mark a circle that’s 18 inches in diameter on the cork. To do this, put a pin in the center of the cork, attached to a string 9 inches long, with a marker at the other end. Trace the circle, and then use the saw to cut it, trimming the edge so it’s smooth.
Step 3 - Mark
The hardest part of making a dartboard is marking the different sections. Make sure you have the appropriate colored markers for this. To begin you’ll need to mark a series of concentric circles on the dart board, going from the hole you’ve made at the very center.
The inner bullseye should be ½ inch in diameter, and the outer bullseye 1¼ inches in diameter. After those two, make circles at 7⅞ inches and 8½ inches. This will give you the triple score ring on the dartboard. Finally, mark more circles at 12⅞ inches and 13½ inches to create the double score band.
This gives you the basis of the dart board, although you still need to divide up the board into 20 different and equal sections, much like slices of pie. Be aware, however, that you don’t make divisions in the inner or outer bullseyes. The simplest way to do this is to take a standard dartboard as your template and copy the layout. Alternately, make a template out of cardboard or other material to trace around.
If you would like to add wire you can apply it over the dividing lines between each section of the board.
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![H.R. Helm]()
H.R. Helm is an accomplished DIY craftsman. He has been DIY since childhood and is now a septuagenarian. He is experienced in wood and metal construction, having designed and built several houses and metal buildings. He built every permanent building on his current homestead and did all the plumbing and electrical work. He has several years experience as a professional cabinet builder, and he is an accomplished auto repairman, having operated an auto repair business for many years. He currently has a home shop where he sharpens and rebuilds saws, repairs lawn mowers, mobility scooters, hydraulic jacks, and anything else that comes along. He also builds custom tools for metal working. Invention prototypes are another of his many accomplishments. He owned and operated a manufacturing business building Compact Utility Vehicles for homeowner use. H.R. enjoys making jams and jellies during fruit season along with cooking meals. He is committed to outdoor cooking in a Bar-B-Q pit he welded together several years ago. He maintains fruit and nut trees along with helping his wife with a vegetable garden. He farmed commercial garden produce for several years. It helps to have over 50 years of farming and ranching experience. Employment/Education Highlights ASE Certified Master Auto Technician Certified Welder Cross country truck driver -- over dimensional freight Design Engineer/Project Manager for injection molded plastic company Bus Driver/Substitute Teacher Inventor with two patents (weight training – anti-rollback for manual wheelchair) BS in Industrial Technology
