Build-it-yourself boomerang

Grab a chunk of  randomly shaped 1⁄4"-thick plywood and throw it as hard as you can. It won’t travel more than 10 or 20 yards. But take that same plywood and give it a specific shape and it’ll sail 10 times farther with the same throw. The difference is in the design, by turning a piece of plywood into a classic boomerang. 

Originally created by the Aboriginal people of Australia, the boomerang is nothing more than an L-shaped flying wing. Making a high-performance version in your own workshop takes less than 20 minutes.

Download our detailed boomerang plans!

The best material for a boomerang is 1⁄4"-thick Baltic birch plywood. The kind I use has five laminations. You’ll need that many plys to provide enough strength, and to function as a visual aid while shaping the all-important curved leading and trailing edges.

Start by sawing as many boomerang blanks to shape as you want. You could make just one, but take it from me, these boomerangs are popular and they fly out of your shop like crazy. You’ll also lose them sooner than you expect, so it pays to build at least three or four at a time. 

Trace the outline onto your wood from the grid diagram in the plans. The fastest way to make boomerang blanks is to tape together a half dozen plywood squares, glue the paper template on top, then gang-cut them all on a bandsaw. You could do the same thing with four layers of stock and a jigsaw.





If you are doing one at a time with your kids, cut out the shape on a bandsaw or jigsaw, staying just outside the waste line.