Game box project: material testing

My magnets arrived yesterday, and I'm on to the next step in the process: testing materials. I ended up getting a lot of 3/16" diameter by 3/16" tall NdFeB (Neodymium) magnets, which I think will work great. The next step is to find a mounting structure. I'm going to be mounting them so that there is one magnet per 1/4" square on the board, as this is pretty much exactly the right size to make an 8-square by 8-square board on the bottom of the box. This configuration works best for many many many classic board games, the most common of which are checkers and chess.

So the problem becomes: How do I mount 3/16" magnets with a 1/16" gap between them, when they really want to stick to each other? The first thought I had was to get some thin wood and drill 3/16" holes in it at 1/4" intervals in both directions, so that the magnets can just sit in the holes and the wood will keep them apart. I still really like this idea, but I think it will be hard to find wood that will be sturdy enough to do this, and it also leaves me with the task of drilling the holes.

Yesterday at work I salvaged an old brochure holder, thinking that the clear plastic would be easier to work with than wood, and maybe a little sturdier (and it's clear plastic! Geek points!). Unfortunately, I discovered two things about it: 1) if you don't drill really slowly, the drill cracks the plastic instead of boring through it; 2) regardless of what you do, the plastic ends up melting to the drill bit.

So after cleaning off my father-in-law's 1/8" drill bit (this was before I realized that I had 3/16" magnets instead of 1/8" magnets), I decided that plastic is not the way to go for this project. I'll keep my eyes open for wood that might work.

Another idea I hit upon is using something that I can build a 'grid' out of that is 1/16" thick, so the magnets can sit between the grid which can mount inside the base of the tin. I was at a loss for what to do this with, until I hit upon the idea of popsicle sticks, which are 1/16" thick, almost exactly. So I'll have to test that method too. This may be easier, as it will involve less drilling (which requires a drill press), however it will also involve more cutting, as I'll have to get the popsicle sticks to interlock. And, the popsicle sticks will be deeper than the magnets (unless I cut them lengthwise - ugh) so they'll take up more room in the tin, and that's a minus.

Anybody have any other clever suggestions for how to rig this up, other than just breaking down and buying 1/4" magnets (which are decidedly more expensive)?

To see more about this project, check out the rest of my game tin project posts.