One year later...

It has been officially one year since POPBox Hockey started and there is so much more to come! Yesterday, one year ago, the domain www.popboxhockey.com was purchased and today marks the day the site went live on Google's "Get your business online" free site. It was a first for those involved on many fronts!

It has been an absolute thrill to work on this undertaking for a year now, have made a fe

w boards along the way, and really start working to grow the idea behind POPBox Hockey and see where this fun and small...business(?) may go! We are reserved in saying "business" because it is more, in the end, about building game boards to try and help support our children.

The POPBox boards and CornHole boards are made to try and help provide another means for youth centers to provide an activity that fosters healthy relationships and youth supporting programs to have another item in their auctions or money raising rewards list. This goal, of supporting our children is still and will always be the primary goal of POPBox Hockey because our children are truly what we are leaving behind! They will define how well the current adult generations performed.

POPBox Hockey: We made officially 7 POPBox Hockey boards and we are working on building 17 more for 2013 (and that's just a start!). One mini-board was donated to The Richfield school district as a door prize for their "RICHFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT WELLNESS" event. One full size board is currently waiting to be auctioned off at the South St Paul MN school district silent auction. We sold two POPBox Hockey boards and made a few more as gifts for friends and family of the POPBox Hockey team.

CornHole: We ventured out and made 3 CornHole sets and are working currently on 3 more. We made this step, all in year 1, because CornHole is a summer type game, gets you outside and active and POPBox Hockey is a winter type game and keeps you busy when your stuck inside. Being in Minnesota you can see the connection. We plan to continue to make CornHole sets to sell AND to donate to the same children supporting youth centers and youth programs.

So whats in store for us? Well...we hope to be making lots more game boards (Duh..right?) and really really hope to donate upwards of 10 full sized and mini POPBox Hockey boards and 3 CornHole boards in 2013. We hope to find some really great Children focused centers and programs to help them achieve their goal of providing means to help foster healthy children development and support! Thanks for being a small part of this journey this past year as we launched it all and worked to get it rolling. Thanks for helping to spread the word about us in 2012 and please continue to spread the word in 2013! Lastly, thank you for helping to support all of our children!

Thanks!

-POPBox Hockey!

http://www.popboxhockey.com/

Summer melts away in to Fall - BACK TO POPBOXHOCKEY BOARDS!

Hey Everyone!

Were doing well, prepping for the upcoming 2012 Holidays POPBox Hockey Boards run, finishing up a few remaining Corn Hole boards and working on to what level do we want to make Corn Hole sets next year.  They seem to be extremely popular and are fun to make. Maybe we'll table that one and think about it another day!

Here are pictures of two of the CornHole boards that were completed.

We have two or three more to start and make as well as complete one other one (put the legs on and rope handle.  This, we believe, will be the extent of our cornhole run this year HOWEVER, we did get some interested ust today!

Tonight we cut 8 mini boards and 9 full size boards!  This is the begining of the 17, I guess...whooo!, board run that will get us in shape to present our product at a couple of shows, donate one to the South St Paul Youth fundraiser, send a donated board to Indiana, and make a few sales!  We should be donating 3 total boards by the end of the year, perhaps 2 more minis - HOW MUCH FUN IS THAT!?!

Here are pictures of the boards after being cut -

8 Mini board surfaces cut from an old coffee table!

9 Full size boards, 2 still existing from the old AT&T phone room, 1 from the throw pile at Menards, and 6 from an old garage shelf that was being thrown!  EXCELLENT RE-USE of old wood that was being thrown in to the trash!

The Corn Hole boards that we have made will get the journal pages setup soon, in the next day or two.  Check back as progress is made on these 17 popboxhockey boards, they gain their serial number status, and have journals created

That is it for now, thanks for checking in with us!!

Project Corn Hole (ACA Certified YES!), Washers (3 Hole yes sir) and Kubb (Swedish, really, it is) UNDERWAY!

Hey Y'all!!

Got the Corn Hole boards started tonight.  If you remember we purchased the materials for them a couple weeks ago but had not started until tonight, busy with life (herin' known as BWL) and it is REALLY hot here in MN!  Tough to use a radial arm saw and a Miter saw in 99 degrees!    Anyways... got the boards under 2x4s cut, 72 cuts in all! Had a plastic target bag completely full of saw dust when we were done!   Next up is getting the legs cut and formed (NOTE: One end of the legs will need to be rounded to allow them to fold in to the corn hole board underside) and then mount setup and tested.   The board tops need the 6" hole cut and then its on to the last part of staining and spar varnishing.

Ill grab some pictures before we start the next step and then after and update with pictures of the process.

Going to go to the local hardware store and look for supplies to make the washer boards (pvc, outdoor carpet).  Those are on the docket and will be started after the corn hole boards are stained, assembled, and first coat of spar is on (using spar because it is made for use in the sun, poly is a big no - no in the sun ~ See bad yellowing!).

Lastly we are going to make a Kubb set after playing my good friends.  Way cool Swedish outdoor game where you get to throw things to make things fall down! :)  Once the first set is made (We are dreading the cutting from 4x4 to 3x3 of the posts) we'll determine if we make anymore (Probably as we have need for a few gifts coming up).

Anyways, As far as POPBox Boards go I CANNOT WAIT TO GET BACK MAKING THEM (They are so much more shiny and good looking than these outdoor games)!!!  Still planning on starting a 10 board mass production run (5-6 full sized 4 - 5 mini's) in September.  BIG Push before the holidays and hoping that we can sell 6 boards and donate 3!!  If demand goes up, we'll have to employ other workers (family is free, right?) and up the anty! 

Thanks for reading and hope your summer is awesome!! Might have a whole line of RIOT Outdoor wooden Games (POPBox Hockey is for the POBox boards really) near the end of the summer and definitely next spring!

See ya!

June 2012 Update - Hiya!

Ramblings:  Hiya!  Popular to beliefs due to lack of posting we are still alive and kicking!  Just finished two orders in the last 3 weeks for full sized popboxhockey boards and the third is getting put together and poly'ed starting on Monday.  These three are the 25+ year old AT&T boards that are in the Board Journal section at www.popboxhockey.com. 

We are taking a slight break in the POPBox board action to try something new...Making Corn Hole boards.  We got the specs from the ACA (American Cornhole Association) website and picked up the material tonight.  Going to make three (Two to be sold and one for the  RIOT Games company events ;) ) and then see how they pan out. 

NOT TO WORRY!!  Once these three are done (and maybe some "Washers" boards made) we will be getting rolling on assembling the materials to make 10 full sized boards and 5 mini boards to start the push towards fall.   Going to try the assembly line concept to se if we cannot get more baoards made a tad bit faster without suffering on quality.  THe longest time we always be ploy-ing so that will eventually bottle neck the production some. 

We are prepping to donate the second POPBox Hockey donation board, the one that the folks who purchased two of the AT&T boards enabled us to make!  Remember two sold full sized boards (3 minis) makes on donation board!!
Anyways, come check out the News section and watch the progress of the cornhole boards!


Thanks!
- POPBox Hockey's Jasen Hoglund

Back in the saddle and begining May News!

Ramblings:  We are back!!  Had some other responsibilities come up that sucked all of our time right out from under us so we did not get any head way made on making boards, further set up of the shop, or gathering supplies BUT lets not let that be the focus here!  We have wrapped up many of these other responsibilities and are now moving fast on the first 5 board run! That's right, 5!  We sanded for a good two hours tonight and the three AT&T boards are shaping up!


The five boards are four full sized boards and one mini.  Three of the full sized game board surfaces are being made out of the 30 year old AT&T Phone room wood.  Its really exciting to see the awesome wood that is hiding below the glue and old wood come out with a little hard work and sanding!  These will be our first boards that are 3/4" thick and it will be really cool to see the bottoms reflect the old phone system room look when the top is finished. 


The other game board is a contractor toss back that has a stain spill on it.  This board will be the first full sized POPBox Hockey painted board.  We have not made on yet, so its about time to get one produced.  Should be pretty straight forward just switching in paint for the stain and reversing the order of a couple steps (the lines need to go on last for painted models).


We are taking pictures of the entire process for all five of these boards to show what excellent games can still be made from rough looking, very old, used wood AND to give you a process look at the hard work that we do put in making each and every one of our POPBox Hockey boards.  The pictures will be posted on the journals blog site (to get there go to http://http://www.popboxhockey.com/ and click on the "journals" link at the top of the page) under new journals for these five boards.  The journals will be titled "AT&T POPBox Hockey Boards 1 -  3, Painted FS Board 1, and Painted Mini Board 1 until the receive their serial numbers (remember boards are not "initiated" until they receive their serial numbers and they are not given these until the sides are stained, the game board is stained and we determine they are good enough quality to release).  So hop on over and check them out!


We are going to post some pic's here of the POPBox Hockey shop in its current state / setup.  You'll see three of the boards laying about just after first round sanding was complete.  The shop still needs to get all the extra stuff cleared out (anybody need a desk or two? :^>), plastic hung to protect storage items from dust, and the planer fix completed.  Thought since this is our first big run (and likely will determine how we make boards down the road) it be fun to take a picture of the shop as we just start out.  Check em out >>

Thanks for following us!

April is a GO!

Ramblings:  A few things already done this month (first load of bi-product boards from Craters and Freighters of Minneapolis - St. Paul*see more info below, new / used Planer jointer acquired, and wood shop space increased...a little) and now time to get rolling on the first four board run! 

04/16/2012 - Stopped up at  Craters & Freighters of Minneapolis - St. Paul and met the guys who work there, toured their shop, and took home some very nice plywood and 1x4's that is bi-product waste to them that typically gets thrown in the dumpster that we can use for our game boards.  Worked out a monthly agreement to try and use as much of their bi-product waste as we can so that it stays out of the land fill.  WHAT A GREAT arrangement for us, for Craters & Freighters of Minneapolis - St. Paul, and for the environment!  The guys at Craters & Freighters are a real class act, very shipping / packaging knowledgeable, run a organized fantastic shop, and were a real pleasure to meet.  If you EVER need something shipped, call up these guys and they will more than take care of you!  Shipping is their specialty and from the few examples they provided me when I met them, they ship EVERYTHING!  *I am not saying this just to help promote, they really were everything I mentioned, I was so very impressed when I met with them!*


Craters & Freighters of Minneapolis - St. Paul 

 

04/17/2012 -  We acquired a 2 hour used craftsman jointer/planer for extremely cheap.  This is something we needed to help turn the reclaimed wood we do get in to use-able boards for the POPBox Hockey game boards!  Needed to order a new level adjustment screw which is now in shipping and then fine tune it and it should be ready to work.  With one of our current four board runs we are likely going to try and make one out of the 30 year old cedar house boards to see how well it works!




04/29/2012 - Unloaded and stacked the wood from Craters & Freighters and cleared the work shop to start the next run tonight or tomorrow!  Pictures of these four boards will be posted as they are made so that more of the build process, effort, and love that goes in to making these boards can be seen!  We are going to serial the boards early just to show this process so check out the journals for these four boards to see the photos!

Things are SUNNY in early April!

Ramblings:  Hi!! It has been a bit but we have been cranking the wheels, figuring out how to make this business / project take flight.  To that end -We now have a wood shop / work shop setup and are no longer making them on our basement floor (Such a simple thing has made such a difference)!  We are still in search of a new sander and we are working on finding a saw to better cut the goal and mid-ice holes.   We are beginning our first four or six board production run. Two of which are already purchased, one is destined to be our third donation board, one for a stock board so that we have one around to show interested folks and two are mini-s.   We brought home 4 skinny folding tables to have more work space and that should help enable us to stain and poly more than 1 full and 2 mini boards  at a time as that is all we can do now.

We have agreements for two boards to be purchased!  These will be our first sold boards and its very exciting for us as these two will be the boards that supply the resources to complete the third donation board.  These two boards are full hockey layout full sized stained boards.  Pictures will be posted as we work on them  Going to try and put pics up as they are made to provide more of the whole picture of the building process.

OUR SECOND DONATION BOARD BUT FIRST OUT THE DOOR WAS GIVEN AWAY YESTERDAY, 04/14/2012, AT THE RICHFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT WELLNESS event as a door prize.  We were sent a picture of the winners and wanted to say "CONGRATULATIONS on getting the board!  We sure hope it brings you many hours of fun play and a time to bring the family together!"   A little bit of selfishness:  Our board was the very first selected gift (winners got to pick from the gift table)!  It was one of those things that makes you believe what you are doing could succeed and is worth every minute of it!

The third donation board is destined to either end up at the Bloomington MN Young Life, a YMCA, or destined for Indiana for a youth supporting auction. More information to come.

We have been backtracking a bit, completing some of the very first boards we made (with serial numbers, polyurethane fixing, etc.) as they were made prior to some of the now standards being in place.   We have been also taking pictures of the boards and will be placing the pictures up on the journal site so that all boards made can be seen.  Been good to get back around and get these done but has held us up a bit. 

Lastly, we will be visiting a local packaging and crating company in the Minnesota Twin Cities area to see if we cant make a monthly connection to obtain their scrap / bi-products for our boards.  Currently these boards go in to the trash or local folks wood burning stoves.  We would be thrilled to keep these out of the dump, one of the goals of the company!

Thanks!

POPBOX Hockey End of March News -Going out like a LION

Exciting news from POPBox Hockey!

Ramblings:  We finally wrote down the dimensions and placement of the "Hockey Board" layout!  So much easier now to make the next one that comes along! Before this we were placing them based on how the board came to a final layout, meaning it was based on the boards end dimensions themselves. Although this gave each board its own best setup, it was REALLY slow, cumbersome and each board only varied by a 16th or 8th of an inch anyway.  Now the "Hockey Board" layout will fit any full and mini board, be close to the same setup in the end, and the REALLY look like a hockey rink!

We just have a little more work to do on the www.popboxhockey.com site to get that rolling and a little finalization on the included instructions sheet and then we will "announce" POPBox to the Internet! We will officially be open for business!  We hope to do this the first week of May, 2012. We have a few parties interested in buying boards that are aware of what we are doing through close friends.  Just the idea of actually producing the boards for kids to play on and imaging them playing for hours is REALLY motivating!

-03/19/2012 - Ordered a POPBox Hockey wooden template to put the game name on the bottom of the boards with the serial number.  Should arrive in time to put it on the first donation board.  Serial Numbers and Game Name will be wood burned on we think, have not tried it yet.  Will be trying this next week on one of the first mini's made that wont be leaving the shop.

- 03/22/2012 - Two accomplishments on one phone call today!  Going to look at and hopefully pick up a bunch of 20 - 30 year old reclaimed cedar (used as siding on a house)  next week , March 26 -30.  Additionally, have a start on making another donation board for a program that mentors youth by discussion and playing games.  The person that I am picking the reclaimed cedar up has a child that is a part of this organization so I will likely be making a POPBox Hockey board out of the cedar given for this program.  How AWESOME is that, give a little, get a little! :)

- 03/23/2012 - We are so motivated right now being so close to selling boards, completing our first couple of donations (Richfield School Auction, Local YMCA, New child support program from 3/22 phone call), and making this dream a started reality!

- 03/26/12 - Got the Richfield boards completely stained last night.  They look good but we are going to work on fabricating a template for the "hockey board" blue line, face off circles, etc.  It takes a LONG time to stain those small, tight, 1/4 inch lines and even though we take 4 hours to do two of the game boards, we still make mistakes where our hands are not steady enough.  Might pick up a couple cutting boards to make them (why cutting boards?  No warping, very sturdy, etc).

- 03/27/12 - Going to pick up that Cedar today!  Hopefully it pans out as planned, would be a HUGE add to keeping this moving forward!! Then to begin on the board for the same person(s) the cedar is coming from and the two fro the YMCA!  

Thanks as always!

March Update #3

Ramblings: Things are finally coming together to get this off the ground!  By that we mean getting our first donation boards out the door!  Remember, this whole goal that POPBox Hockey is about is making new products - wood games - out of reclaimed and recycled wood AND more importantly, DONATING POPBox Hockey boards to help out todays kids!  We are excited about our first of 3 donation boards to the Richfield Youth Auction!


The board for the Richfield Youth Activities silent auctions has been cut, sanded, and fitted.  Now the remaining steps of putting the hockey markings on the playing surface, seeing about getting some Richfield school stickers, staining, poly-ing and then putting the package together (Popsicle sticks, checkers, Instructions, Journal information) is all that remains.  Got to get it done in 3 weeks!

- 03/12/2012 - Got the oak table legs and ?expander? removed, ready to cut the table top into MINI's!

- 03/14/2012 - Picked up some used 1x4's from some nice folks in Eden Prairie!

- 03/19/2012 - Picked up a 1980 something desk that MIGHT be teak...might also be just OSB with Teak veneer.  If so, we will use it as a staining stand - IN TO THE WORKSHOP!

Thanks for checking in!

February - March News POST #2

POPBox Hockey News!

- 03/09/2012 - Continued work on setting up the shop space to build our popbox hockey boards! Got the extensions for the radial arm cleaned off, now just need to shorten them to the radial arm saw table height.  You can really pile up a bunch of un-needed stuff if you don't stay on top of it! Pictures coming!

- 03/11/2012 - On the lookout for a new sander.  Current one does the job but when trying to smooth out some of this reclaimed wood imperfections on the game board itself (the backs are typically left as is to show the "used" or "reclaimed" state it was in if possible) the sander can be tedious at getting the job done.  Recommendation from friends is a belt sander would be too much... 

- 03/12/2012 - Put out a couple offers on some 1" by X" reclaimed attic wood and reclaimed barn floor wood.  Sure hope one of the two comes through as we are getting low on the side pieces.  We do purchase the contractor cast off wood at our local housing / hardware store but it is just not the same as getting reclaimed old wood!

- 03/13/2012 - Picked up an old solid oak living room table this am that was offered for free or was to be thrown if no one took it.  Its 1" thick solid oak which is thicker that we normally use because of the weight factor.  The edges are banged up pretty good but otherwise the table top is in good shape.  It was 48" by 48" and we could have gotten two full size boards out of it BUT because of the weight and banged up edges we are going to trim it down and make probably 5 - 7 mini's! Funny to think we are reusing a table, this is our first endeavor in reusing a piece of furniture!

- Thanks!

February - March News POST #1

Hi!

Here is the latest BREAKING news @POPBOX Hockey!

- 02/08/2012 - We just received some free 3/4" Plywood that was in use, hanging on a wall, as an AT&T Phone hub mount plate for over 35 years!  We were able to reclaim this wood and get 6 very good full size boards out of it! Yeah to being green!

- 02/17/2012 - The decision was made to turn 4 of the reclaimed AT&T Full sized boards in to painted for sale boards and to turn the remaining 2 in to donation boards.  THIS WILL BE OUR FIRST DONATION!  We are EXTREMELY excited to be able to donate our first two POPBOX Hockey boards.  We are contacting a local YMCA regarding interest -Stay tuned!

- 02/28/2012 - New, used, radial arm saw purchased!  We picked up a 20 year old Craftsman radial arm saw to help us rip the game base boards and to cut the straight cuts.  We currently use a "borrowed" miter saw for all the angled cuts.  This should REALLY help in making the boards more accurate and faster!

- 03/03/2012 - Cleanup and construction of workshop to make the POPBox Hockey boards!  This will really help with time required to produce a POPBox board as we wont be making them on our hands and knees with Circular Saws and freezing!

- 03/08/2012 - Received our very first donation "request" to provide a full sized board (we are going to make a stained board) and mini sized board (stained as well) as a benefit auction item for the Richfield school system in MN!

- 03/08/2012 - Recovered an old children game table (5' x 6') from the trash.  We are going to reclaim this table to be our very first JUMBO model!  This will be a model / variant more for show, demonstration purposes but most certainly could be ordered if someone likes the larger model. It will be about 30% bigger than the full sized models and intentions are to use the large tongue depressors and large checker pieces as game pieces. Pictures will be up as soon as we get it cleaned up, cut, painted and put together!

- Thanks!

POPBox Hockey Welcome!

Lets play Hockey!...on the table with Popsicle sticks!!

POPBOX Hockey is a table top wooden board game  played with checkers and Popsicle sticks (or some form of Popsicle resembling craft wooden sticks).  We were originally introduced to the game back in the middle 1980's at a local recreation center and we honestly played it for hours everyday after school!  It was simple, fun, addicting and kept us off the street and doing something positive. This is something we believe was invaluable in keeping us, as kids, out of trouble and forming positive person skills 

Back in 1987, one of the RIOT Gaming founders made a Popsicle stick hockey board to be used at home with his grandpa.  This board was played on for about 8 years until it was packed away in storage for the next 15 years.  Early in 2010 it was taken out of storage and played on by the founder, friends and now the founders children.  It was about 6 months ago, around October 2011 that we looked online for a table top hockey game like we had and couldn't find even so much as a mention of anything like it.   After discovering a few varieties of similar games (Nok Hockey, Box Hockey) we decided to make the one we had and remembered from the 1980s.  Upon making the first one, RIOT Gaming was formed and the very first POPBOX Hockey brand board was produced.  After a couple months of continued work perfecting the craftsmanship and playing around with ideas, RIOT Gaming decided to make POPBOX Hockey boards to sell. We built a website, came up with a few different models and styles, and a plan to turn half, if not more of the profits in to a donation program for supporting today's children.

HALF of every profit dollar is re-invested in purchasing of materials to make POPBOX Hockey boards and donate these boards to programs and centers that support today's children.  The goal is to provide an additional activity for children and teens to enjoy at support centers (like the YMCA, YWCA, HEADStart) and help to keep them off the streets and engaged in activities that foster positive relationships and positive growth.  This goal is geared to achieve, with the Popsicle stick hockey boards, what the boards did for the founders back in the mid 1980's!

This BLOG will be the news area of RIOT Gaming's POPBOX Hockey.  We hope to provide news of successfully donated boards, continued product development, business progression, expanding the donation program, and other fun facts!  Please stop in to see whats new, whats happening, and to stay in touch by either directly linking in OR from the link on www.popboxhockey.com.

Thanks for checking us out!