From: wormwood_pearl

2011-06-27 03:51 pm (UTC)

I think it's a great idea! If you don't find anyone interested in investing with you, you could always sell the excess on Etsy or Ebay. You could also try advertising on Go communities. From: johnckirk

2011-06-27 05:14 pm (UTC)



http://www.chessbaron.co.uk/chess-TT2007.htm

although mine has drawers to keep the pieces in, so it's not very convenient for pausing a game.



Anyway, would that be practical as an alternative to velcro? I've never played Go, but I have a travel chess set which uses pegs and holes rather than magnets. It looks a bit like this:although mine has drawers to keep the pieces in, so it's not very convenient for pausing a game.Anyway, would that be practical as an alternative to velcro? From: pozorvlak

2011-06-27 05:43 pm (UTC)

Yes, I learned to play chess on a set like that - it had a lid which you could close if you wanted to pause the game. It would certainly be possible to make a Go set that worked that way.



I see three problems: first, it wouldn't pack down as well as a fabric set; second, it would be much heavier (though still lighter than a magnetic set); third, obtaining the pegs wouldn't be easy - the closest thing I can find is cribbage pegs, which run at about $10 per hundred, and I'd need 360 (in two colours) per set. That's almost five times the cost of the velcro coins. I'm not set up for manufacturing them myself - anyone got an injection-moulding kit I could borrow? :-) From: (Anonymous)

2011-06-27 11:13 pm (UTC)

Fuzzy Felt Go! Does velcro stick to fuzzy felt? From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 07:12 am (UTC)

Re: Fuzzy Felt Go! *checks*



Yes! And that would be quite a lot cheaper than Velcro loop coins.



*orders 20mm Velcro tape* From: (Anonymous)

2011-06-28 12:40 am (UTC)

er? surely you have a phone?



https://market.android.com/details?id=de.agrothe.go



I'd use felt, myself. That sticks to itself (strongly enough, at least) rolls/folds/etc and is easily and cheaply available. It's easy to work, and easy to mark - a sheet of light-coloured felt, a sharpie, a ruler and ten minutes and you've got a board. It's also lighter, packs better, is washable and (at a push) could be used as a small towel.



Draw mah jongg tiles on one side of the pieces and you've got two games in one box. From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 11:05 am (UTC)

Re: er? Yes, I have an Android phone, but I no longer take it on climbing trips: not enough battery life, too sensitive to moisture, too expensive if I drop it off a mountain. Also, playing 19x19 Go on a phone screen? Sounds far too fiddly to me.



You have a point, though: as tablets get more widespread and rugged (Andy Kirkpatrick's apparently planning to take an iPad on his next solo of El Cap!), the travel games market will fall off a cliff. From: (Anonymous)

2011-06-28 01:22 pm (UTC)

Re: er? yeah, I know there's a bunch of reasons not to take/use a phone/tablet/whatever.



Seriously though, use felt on felt. Felt is 50p for an A4 sheet at my local craft store, you get get it off a roll if you want bigger pieces and it's still dirt cheap. Much easier than this velcro business.



Another advantage is that a few quid's worth of felt and a marker pen line-drawn set can be lost/destroyed without much loss. Easy enough to knock up another one. Take a pair of scissors and you can even cut stones while you play.



I meant it about the mah jongg tiles too. Mah jongg is an excellent game if you have four people.



-mat From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 01:34 pm (UTC)

Re: er? Yeah, the felt idea's really good - I was astonished how cheap it is. I'll pop into a fabric store later on and see what I can find. Even if felt-on-felt doesn't stick well enough, velcro-on-felt should work, and would be much cheaper than velcro-on-velcro. From: half_of_monty

2011-06-28 01:49 pm (UTC)

Re: er? I don't think you can buy one side of the velcro without the other, so I don't see how you save much. Less bother, though.



Felt-on-felt would work while you're on your train or whatever, but I wouldn't have thought the pieces would stay in place when you reach your destination and roll the whole thing up. Mind you, you'd also have trouble with that if you have the toothed side of the velcro on the board and roll it up -- the wrong bits of velcro will grab your pieces.



On the other hand, if you use the soft side of the velcro on the board and have a toothed underside to your pieces, then I think your half-completed game remains completely intact for the trip home. From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 02:06 pm (UTC)

Re: er? I don't think you can buy one side of the velcro without the other



RTFA :-) The sew-on strips come in hook/loop pairs, but the two types of coins are sold separately.



if you use the soft side of the velcro on the board and have a toothed underside to your pieces



Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Or hook-coins for stones and felt for the board. Then I'd need to source black and white hook-coins (available in the UK) and felt (likewise). The cost goes down to about a fiver per set - for comparison, my vinyl-and-plastic full-sized set cost about £17. From: half_of_monty

2011-06-28 10:31 am (UTC)

I have important words for you, young padawan. Do not use stick-on velcro. Ever. The glue on the back has less gripping power than the velcro on the front, especially after repeated fastening / unfastening. Your little "coins" will come off with the playing pieces when you move them. Then, the gummed back on the glue-on velcro is like cement, and thus almost impossible to sew through. You will not be able to re-attach them.



Hang on -- you were in The Matrix -- the Pantomime! You should know this! Perhaps you were not involved in the hideous "trying to sew stick-on velcro back onto the rip-off trousers with hundreds of thimbles and hurt fingers, while cursing the nutter who bought stick-on velcro" process? I remember it vividly. And it wasn't the first time, either. Nor, indeed fact, the last. Why am I so unable to get "don't ever use stick-on velcro" into the light entertainment collective consciousness?



Sewable velcro tape is stocked in any decent sewing shop, in black and white. Why do you want beige? Oh, is that the colour of the standard board? I'd've thought white would do the job fine?



Finally, I'd recommend fabric paint rather than pens to cover a lot of stuff, as pens do run out surprisingly fast. But here I have a less strong opinion than I do on the velcro. From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 10:57 am (UTC)

. Do not use stick-on velcro. Ever. The glue on the back has less gripping power than the velcro on the front, especially after repeated fastening / unfastening.



Just the sort of thing I was hoping to learn from posting my plans - thank you! Yes, I was in Matrix, but I don't remember doing any sewing, or at least none involving Velcro.



Half the pieces are white, so a white board is suboptimal. Traditional Go boards are made from light-coloured wood, so I'd like to get as close to that as possible.



How washable is fabric paint? It would be nice if the board could survive a soaking. From: half_of_monty

2011-06-28 01:46 pm (UTC)

Black and red counters, then? Or is that heresy?



Any half-decent fabric paint should be washable, yes. Just browse what there is. But maybe any half-decent fabric pens will have adequate in for a whole Go board so there isn't much in it. From: pozorvlak

2011-06-28 02:08 pm (UTC)

Or is that heresy?



Probably - someone told me off on Reddit for contemplating a board that wasn't the traditional dimensions, though I think he was just an idiot.



Any half-decent fabric paint should be washable, yes.



Hurrah! From: (Anonymous)

2011-06-28 04:17 pm (UTC)

Probably can't help you on place, but count me in on the consumer/sponsor-side.



Cutting 360 rounds of something is not a thing you want to do manually. I tried it with cardboard and the results were so ugly (scissors are meant to cut lines not circles..) that I gave up very soon. I wasn't able to find "snappers" that can cut circular holes of the correct size neither. In the end I settled for washers which I colored with spray paint.



I'd go for a felt mat with velcro stones. But I have no good idea how to draw the lines on the mat. Stiching them by machine (or by hand) probably doesn't work because the lines would get destroyed by the velcro stones.



About size, the stones should be close to touching eachother when placed on adjacent crossings. They're too small in the drawing above (Call me picky, but it would hurt my gaming experience if the stones are that small).



The biggest square you get from an A4-sheet is usually too small for a go board. I know that these magnetic thingies are smaller, but dealing with little magnets is easier than dealing with little velcro or felt stones. I suggest to start with a 13x13-board if it should stay under the A4-size. As a prototype, a 13x13-board is a good idea anyway.



Looking forward to great travel go boards!

pmr

From: pozorvlak

2011-06-29 10:53 am (UTC)

About size, the stones should be close to touching eachother when placed on adjacent crossings. They're too small in the drawing above



Good point!



As a prototype, a 13x13-board is a good idea anyway.



That's an excellent idea. Thanks! From: pozorvlak

2011-06-29 10:53 am (UTC)

I wasn't able to find "snappers" that can cut circular holes of the correct size neither.



A leather punch, maybe? How big did you need the holes to be? From: htfb

2011-06-29 11:33 am (UTC)

Having spent a fair chunk of the Pennine Way thinking out my design for a travel board, I'm certainly in your target market. Count me in.