Chess set storage box

Hi All,

Real life has been pretty hectic lately but some was in a very very good sort of way! A major one is I'll be able to go to Guild School after all! Whoeie!!! So happy, blessed and grateful :) So i've been doing some necessary last minute preparations... oh boy... it's just over two weeks! One of the things was to make a little something to donate to the auctions they always organize. I have a few bits and bobs but wanted to put in something really nice too. Proceeds go to the school and this way I can contribute to future scholar ship students! And here is it; a little storage box. 

Here's how I made it;

This is the set I'd made last year, but it lacked a neat box, come storage solution. 

So I made two little dove tailed drawers to fit a frame the size of the board.

 I decorated the outside with some parquetry, and made sure to miter the veneer at the corners of the box. 

It definitely needed square knobs, matching the checkers of the board and the pattern on all sides. I wanted to make brass knobs but i'd no stock that was wide enough, so i opted for wooden ones. 

Then lined the two drawers with paper thinned home dyed calf skin leather.

And finally added a little label next to my custom made heat stamp that a sweet miniature friend once made for me. 

A few final layers of various finishes, et voilà,

 it's ready to be played with :)

Hope it will do good,

checkmate

making a chess board

As promised i'd show you how to make a chess board. I started this tutorial, just a few days before i left for a spring break. Hence i was a bit quiet, but i hadn't forgotten so I finished it off during the past few day and took loads of pictures. The method i used is an easy way to get equal sized checkers, and that let's them match at the corners effortless, if you measure out accurate in the beginning.

For this chess board you'll need a few sheets of veneer, preferably in strong contrasting colours. In this case i'd picked a cherry and a maple for the checkers.

The chess board is made up by 8 by 8 squares, alternating in colour. First you have to decide on the final size you want the play area to be, so you can calculate the size of your squares. That will be the width of the strips of wood you need to cut. At this stage it's essential the strips are equal in size, so use a model strip to set your dimensions, if you prefer (see further down this post to read more on that).

One note of attention; as you cut the wood your knife will press into it, creating a v-shaped dent as it goes through the wood. This will result in a slight angle on the side of the strips. I exaggerate it a bit, but it will make for more precise squares if you keep cutting on one side of the wood. Imagine that if you'd do that and cut a square through slightly thicker wood, the top side of the square would be slightly smaller then the bottom side of the square. Sort of like the base of a pyramid. That is caused by the angle of the edge that the knife has made. So make sure not to flip the strips upside down as you cut them at this stage. Later you'll see the effect that paying attention to this cutting edge can have.

I've used veneer tape to lay the strips down (remember; cutting side up!) in alternating colours. The tape is paper based, with a gom side that will become sticky when moistened. The paper also stretches a bit when wet, shrinking back as it dries again. This characteristic helps to push the pieces tightly together.

Turning the batch of strips i glued more tape on the back to secure. Then flipped it back, with the cut side of the wood facing back up again. Left it for a 10 minutes, to dry out, pressed with a bit of weight.

Now you need to cut strips perpendicular to the original strips. To secure them at the side edge, and prevent tear-out of the fragile wood fibers i contained the edge strips with more tape. I made the first cut to get a straight edge at 90º.

For security reasons i taped the top too and marked one side with a sharpie. That way i could keep track of what side was up.

With everything tight i could now cut strips for the second time. Below is a picture of one way to cut them using a model strip. If you back your stack of wood (plain veneer or stacks of strips like here) against a straight edge (in this case an aluminum profile) you can lay your model strip on top of your wood. Place your wood & the model strip tight against that back profile and place your cutting edge tight against that too. Now press down firm on your cutting edge and push away the aluminum and model strip. Make sure the cutting edge hasn't moved before you make a sharp cut.

I prefer to measure them out, but no matter what method you use, use it all along the make. So if you use a model strip, use that method too, to cut the initial strips too.

As they were cut the veneer tape held the fragile strips together. Although the tape has some tack, the pieces are so small i expected they would do with tape on both sides. And i'm glad i did because the strips needed a bit of handling at this stage.

Now they could be stacked, making sure the colours would alternate. For that i had to clean one edge of the strips to be able to place it tight in a square. Because I started with a white square in the left down side corner. That meant the next strip had to start with a brown square. And then one with a white, next a brown, etc, etc.

(short explanation; because i didn't wanted to flip the strips (left to right, nor upside down!) i used 9 strips to start out with (see above) I started with white and ended with white. All i had to do now was to remove one white square. Moistening the tape softened the glue and i could pick away a white square.
For the picture below i've removed the tape from the bottom strip so you can see what i mean. Notice how the marking with the sharpie indicated to me the right side of the strips were up, and not turned and/or flipped around.)

I placed 8 strips on anther piece of veneer tape, that i'd wetted a bit to become tacky. I made sure to press them tight in the metal square, checking with another small square i kept parallel and not placed them crooked or skew.

Still, the side of the wood that was cut was facing up. That meant that on this side there would be a very tinny flimsy hairline between the squares, due to the dent the knife made while cutting the wood. This is not the side i wanted to show in the finished piece . On the contrary, this side needed to be glued to the core of the board. So i flipped the stack over, using the markings of the sharpie to check i was working on the 'good' side',  and put on another layer of tape. I left it to dry under pressure (and went on vacation :)

When everything was thoroughly dry (which it was after 3 weeks :) ) the checkers could be glued on the core. The side that was up, or cutting side, was moistened and left to soak for a minute. The tape softened and could now gently be pealed of.

I then cleaned of the edgeds and took away the excess white checkers. The tiny squares, only held together by the veneer tape were then glued in the centre of a piece of 1.2 mm multiplex. I used  excesive amount of glue to try to fill the hair lines between the individual squares.

Before i left it to dry overnight under pressure i made sure the edges were clean and free of any glue spilling out. The next day I soaked and pealed off the veneer tape that held them all together, to reveal the centre playing area of the chess board. It seemed not all hairlines were filled, as you can see, but non the less, it looked ok.

For a nice contrasting edge i took a piece of parquetry trim and cut off the black and white edge. Cleaned it up nicely and mitered the corners, and glued it around the edges.

 Old fashion pins helped to secure the trim. Then another edge, a bit wider but also mitered was added.

Tomorrow i'll finish it off, clad the back and sides, but this is the bulk of what i did to make a chess board. I'm sure this is not the smartest or easiest way to make something like this. So please, do comment if you know other techniques or tricks. I love to hear about them and learn! But as it stands, many roads lead to Rome, so i posted it in the hope it you've found it useful or interesting in any way :)))

Update; Today finished the chess board. The back side was cladded with veneer as well and then the whole piece was cut and sanded down to size. The sides got a layer of veneer too and then the whole surface was sanded down. Then the fun part, as ever! was to feed the wood. A bit of Danish oil brings out the colour as if it comes to life, and it always gives me huge satisfaction!!! I finished it of with a few layers of wax.

I've made this second chess board to be able to take pictures to show you how i'd made it. When i made the first one i cladded the back with the yellow birds eye maple. For this second one i used the cherry on the back. In total it's slightly smaller too, as you can see here below.

 It was fun to make :)

Have a great day,

turning a bishop

Hi, for those who are interested in how the chess pieces were made i'm gonna try to explain and show you here below. Just a little warning; i've taken as many pictures as i could because they tell a thousand words so i'm gonna post them all :))) But i also wrote some down to explain a bit further.

First the material. In this case 3 mm acrylic beams (product # 70133) made by Tamiya, a Japanese company that makes all sorts of (plastic) materials for RC models. Widely sold around the world so go look it up on the net to see if you can source it localy. I had these lying around as a leftover from a previous class project. And i have a hard time throwing things away, especially materials. Cos you never know when it can come in handy... Another way to get acrylic is to buy it as pen blanks, to turn pens out of, but then you need to cut it down first (or turn away loads and loads of material). Either way, although you can get it in the most amazing colors then, my guess was this white round stock was just perfect .

Then there are the tools i've used to turn. First these 3 cutters. Initially created to carve wood, but i've found them very suitable for this kind of work. Actually; i feel any tool is suitable, as long as it's sharp and or capable to take away material and last but not least... it needs to be small enough. These 3 are made out of HS steel, grind down to a decreasing width so i have a choice depending on the detail I want to add while turning.

This is everything i used, all together. From top to bottom; 

- 2 scalpels that are useful to create very fine lines. the bottom scalpel has a round & curved edge that is useful too, to flatten and smooth out the surface of any tool marks, if there are any. 

- Underneath, to the right, the 3 little cutters. Most of the work i did with these.

- To the left of them a pin vise with a needle point. 

- Then 2 needle files, a rat's tail and flat one. 

-And at the bottom a double sided (dental) probe that i've modified into 2 different shaped little scrapers. 

And finally, but not in this pic, there's the polishing aids, micro mesh (sand-) paper and polish compound in use with cloth. 

The lathe is a Proxxon, db 250. Their bottom range lathe, with nothing fancy but perfect for this kind of work.

I'm going to make a bishop to show you the various stages it took. When i thought of making the set i studied chess pieces and their variety of designs to get a feel for them and their mutual proportions. I turned each separate piece (a pawn, a rook, etc) to the idea i thought it had to be. Holding it in my hand made it even more clear if and where it might needed change. Most pieces were fine straight on, and that piece then became my template for the remaining pieces of the same shape. 

I rejected the first bishop i turned for the chess set. It looked a bit too 'fat', too 'thick'. But i kept it and now it comes in handy to show you how i made them.

I loaded the lathe with stock and started with the knob that's on the top of the bishop's head.

That gave me a marker to hold the first piece in line with, as you can see below. I marked out distinct features to guide. The rim or collar underneath the bishops head, and its feet at the bottom. You really need to keep one eye closed, and the other dead straight in front of your work as you mark out, or you'll be way off  '-)

On the left i focused on the shape of his head first, taking away material slowly and checking it often to see where it might need adjusting. Because you can't add but only take away material you shouldn't rush it.  When reasonably happy i continued with roughing his collar as you can see above.



With its head sort of 'free standing' it seemed easier to judge its shape and size to the original. I corrected the head just ever so slightly and then stopped turning. Because the neck under its head will become relatively slim it's more convenient to finish & polish the top section while it's still firmly attached to the stock.

Quite handy to do so is a sanding paper called Micro Mesh. Used in the car industry for paint jobs, it comes backed on durable cloth which you can stretch without breaking the sanding surface. It can be used wet and can be rinsed out/washed afterwards. You can buy sets, giving you a selection of grades from 2000 to 12000, so you always have the right one at hand. I started out with 4000 and only when all the tool marks were gone i got up in grade. In this case 8000 and finally 12000.

With the head now finished i slimmed down its neck and again lined it up to match top knob, collar and feet. Making multiple pieces without the aid of a duplicator you can't match up enough. It's better do have done it too much, then to rush it and finding out you've overdone a section which you can't repair or fix.

The feet were separated from the mid section with a needle file. For that i used the 'rat's tail'. I made sure to use the same spot on the needle file, in this case a quarter inch from the thin tip. Creating the rim i made sure I gently held that part of the file in the stock so the rim between feet and belly has a constant hight in all the chess pieces.

After matching up to align again, the feet were given a decorative rim and then the whole piece was  polished where it still needed. And finally he was cut of to stand left of his firstborn twin brother, who's on the right. 

It's not quite there as he seems a wee bit taller and a little bit slimmer in the neck. Maybe he's just in better condition?! Anyway, just my way to hopefully answer some of your questions.

Have a wonderful day,


ps.  I'll be doing a same sort of posting on the chess board later but, because i haven't taken any pictures of building that one neither, a new one is drying under pressure as we speak (note to myself; don't forget to take pictures during build! :)