As a child, there were times when our family went through phases of playing Canasta or Hand and Foot. It was often after trips to Edmonton to visit my mom’s sister’s family. It has been probably thirty years since I have played the game. In the early summer this year, we got together with my brother in-law, his wife and another couple and we played Canasta. The house rules always vary slightly but it was easy to get back into playing the game. This couple owns a wooden card spinner that holds four decks of cards. We were challenged to create a card spinner so that there was a spinner at all three households.
Sometimes when a request comes to build something, my husband gets excited about it and he starts on it right away. This was one of those projects.
He decided to use the cut offs from the pallet side tables as they were already glued into a block. The cards had to angle downwards slightly so the base would have an angle. This piece was cut to make two bases.
The measurement for one is 5 1/8” X 4 1/2” X 1 3/16”. The angled cut was 1/4” down and then a line drawn to the center.
Notching the ends with the scroll saw was next to insert the side supports that are 1 3/4 wide X 5 1/4” tall X 3/8” thick. Whatever wood you use for this, you just have to make sure a regular playing card can sit easily between them.
1/4” dowels were inserted into drilled holes in the center to hold the cards on either side. The dowels needed to stick up 4” from the base to be able to hold the four decks of cards.
In order for it to be a spinner and not just a holder, he had to find a piece of wood large enough to sit under the spinner. He cut a piece of 1X12 pine shelving for this one and rounded the corners with the belt sander.
In the center, between the two dowels and in the square base, holes were drilled for a lock nut with a washer. By tightening the nut just so far, it allowed the holder to spin. Adjusting the size of washer used seemed to help with the spin.
For the other spinners he built, he experimented with different bases to see how the stability would change. It turns out, a heavier wood works best as the bottom piece.
This one will be ours. I chose to not have a finish so as to see all the colours in the wood. The base is one of my larger spruce wood slices. It easily fits our deck of Bonanza cards. We have a few other card based games that this spinner will work well with.
This other card spinner was stained with American Colonial mini wax stain. Another game that we own that has a lot of drawing and discarding is Fluxx.
There is one spinner left ”in pieces” to be a template in case we decided to build more of them.
The spinner will be handy for those sitting at the ends of the table. Those two people always have to reach to either pick up or discard. Being able to rotate the deck should make it easier for them to do both. If we need to move the deck closer, the felt pads stuck under the spinner will allow it to easily slide across the table.
I gather it is used as a turn table, not to shuffle cards?
Yes, a turntable and deck holder to make it easier to move around the deck.