Wheel of WOW

If you aren't interested in building your own Game Wheel, here's a couple you can purchase already built from Amazon:

WinSpin 18-inch Round Tabletop Color Prize Wheel

WinSpin 24" Tabletop Spinning Prize Wheel

WinSpin™ 30" Editable Color Prize Wheel

 

 

 

This is a picture of a game we made for Kid's church called Wheel of WOW.



 

It is pretty much made from an old lazy Susan. I'm not sure if it was actually bought at Ikea, but they have pretty much the same one at Ikea.

We painted it and added the nails around the edges. the kids loved using it.

The hardest part was finding the exact center of the circle.  I just turned it really fast, used a pencil and found the point where the pencil head is just sitting there and not drawing a circle.  That was my center.  I drew a line through that point.  Now the circle is divided in half.  Then used a square to draw the perpendicular line.  At this point, it is divided in quarters.  If you only want 4 options for you would be done now.  We wanted to go with 8 options, so we divided them again.  I pretty much just connected the ends of the lines together with a line and took a center point using a ruler.  This allowed me to divide it into eighths.  At this point, you could simply tape off parts of the circle you didn't want to paint and paint one (or more) pie pieces at a time.  We decided to put a while line between each one.  Again just marked off everything else with tape and painted.  We used spray paint as it was the easiest thing to do.  After we had it painted the way we wanted it, we added the nails.  The nails will be used to run against the clicker as well as used by the kids to spin the wheel.  We used nails instead of screws so that it would be easy on the kids fingers.  Most screws are kinda sharp on the threads.  I pre-drilled the holes for the nails.  I was afraid I would split the wood if I didn't predrill.  I used a bit just a hair smaller than the nail.  If you have a drill press, it would be a great time to use it.  If not, just make sure your drill is perpendicular to the wood when you drill the holes.  After you predrill, just hammer the nails in place.  don't go all the way through the wood.  But make sure you put enough of the nail into the wood to make it stable.  The kids put a lot of tourque on these nails when they are spinning (at least the boys do).  Make sure to leave enough of the nail sticking out of the wood to hit the clicker.

For the clicker, I had initially cut a triangle out of a piece of wood.  It looked great, but the wheel didn't spin very well.  The triangle was too heavy.  So next, I tried to go with a tie wrap.  But it was too thin and the well just spun too well and threw the cable tie all over the place.  I happened to find a pretty good solution.  We had used some of the these in our garden.  http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100329230/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=plant+name+labels&storeId=10051

The ones in the link aren't exactly the ones we have.  But you get the idea.  It was thicker than a tie wrap.  This worked perfect.  I cut off the head (part you normally write on) and drilled little holes in the "stem".  I secured it to a piece of wood.  It's hard to tell much from the pictures.  So if you have questions about how its laid out, let me know.



Here's the game in use.  Obviously the kid landed on game.  We typically have some type of "Minute to Win it" game.  I think on this one, he had to keep two balloons in the air for 60 seconds.  Sorry the picture is blurry.