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Chess Board

Project by Woodshopfreak posted 194 days ago 631 views 2 times favorited 25 comments Add to Favorites
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Woodshopfreak

329 posts in 194 days


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purpleheart maple chess board modern

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Chess Board Chess Board No-picture-s Click the pictures to enlarge them

This is the Chess board I built after Christmas. I love it. I had to use all of my new tools. I also had to do some precise measureing so that the squrares would match up (even though they don’t exactly in some places). If anyone has advice in makeing one with no gaps beteween squares I am open for advice. The picture that is on the right has a finish of aresol spray clear satinl lacquer. (It works pretty nicely, although it has a little yellow color, although it gives it a nice warm color.

Parts,

-Squares- Purpleheart, and Maple that is 1 3/4 inches
-Frame- Maple, resawn to about 3/8 of an inch

-- Tyler, Illinois


25 comments so far

View lazyfiremaninTN's profile

lazyfiremaninTN

364 posts in 405 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler, at 13, you are well on your way to becoming an extremly skilled craftsman. Your Chess board looks great. Keep trying to improve and you will go far. And remember, there are no mistakes, just learning experiences.

-- Adrian ..... The 11th Commandment...."Thou Shalt Not Buy A Wobble Dado"

View Les Hastings's profile

Les Hastings

419 posts in 225 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler fantastic job there bud, very well done. I started doing woodworking when I was twelve, if you keep this up you’ll be way better than me.

-- Les, Wichita, Ks. (I'd rather be covered in saw dust!)

View IowaWoodcrafter's profile

IowaWoodcrafter

250 posts in 528 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler, the one you made looks really good. A technique I once saw for making a chessboard is as follows:

Rip 4 strips of each wood to the exact same widht, (8 strips total). The length of each strip should be over an inch longer than the width of all 8 strips combined. This extra length will allow for trimming and the saw kerf of later cuts. Edge glue all eight strips, alternating woods. Trim one end of the glued up panel then proceed to cut out eight strips the exact same width as the earlier strips. Flip every other strip and edge glue those together. Here you will need to be careful to align the squares properly. When done you should end up with a nice and square chessboard without gaps.

-- Owen Johnson - aka IowaWoodcrafter

View Grumpy's profile

Grumpy

4924 posts in 303 days


posted 194 days ago

Great job on the chessboard Tyler, you sure are well advanced for your age. Welcome to Lumberjocks. This is a great community of people with like interests.There is much to learn here & you will have the opportunity to share your skills & ideas with others. I hope you enjoy LJ’s as much as I do.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

View cajunpen's profile

cajunpen

5352 posts in 518 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler your chessboard is outstanding. Hard to believe that someone as young as you has the maturity and thirst for knowledge for our craft. You should develop into a top notch craftsman one of these days. Just don’t get frustrated and treat each mistake as a learning experience. Remember – even our finest craftsman make mistakes, the key to it is not to let it discourage you – but make you want to do better the next time and learn something from each mistake.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

View CharlieM1958's profile

CharlieM1958

3993 posts in 671 days


posted 194 days ago

The method Owen describes above is the one I use too. But you did a FANTASTIC job of making yours out of individual squares.

Keep up the great work!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

View Scott Bryan's profile

Scott Bryan

8589 posts in 274 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler,

This is a fantastic job. I have often said that there are no mistakes in woodworking. There are only opportunities for details.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

View Paul D's profile

Paul D

2068 posts in 201 days


posted 194 days ago

Great job Tyler. Take what you learned from this chess board and make something else, maybe a nice end grain cutting board or something else you might like.

-- Paul D, Atlanta GA

View John's Woodshop's profile

John's Woodshop

106 posts in 469 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler,

You did a great job on the chess board.

John

-- John -- Racine, WI -- Woodworking..."It's not just a Hobby, it's an Adventure"

View GaryK's profile

GaryK

8414 posts in 440 days


posted 194 days ago

You did an excellent job!

Owen explains a good method for making a chessboard.

I usually use a 9th piece. Then after I’ve cut them into strips, instead of filpping every other one around
I push every other piece up a squares distance. I find that this gives more flow and grain matching.

Then just trim off the staggered pieces.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

View ShannonRogers's profile

ShannonRogers

219 posts in 240 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler, I have done this both the way Owen describes it and the way Gary did it. I agree with Gary that you can get better grain matching by adding a ninth strip. This is great work! I am impressed that you built it using individual squares. That shows great accuracy on your part to get each one to line up. I thought about this when I built my first chess board and figured I would mess it up and went with the strip method. Kudos to you for doing it the hard way! When do you make the chess pieces?

-- Check out my new blog "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog

View gizmodyne's profile

gizmodyne

1476 posts in 542 days


posted 194 days ago

Well done. Do you have pieces to play with?

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

View rikkor's profile

rikkor

7202 posts in 327 days


posted 194 days ago

You did a fine job young man. Keep working on your precision.

-- Maplewood, MN

View MsDebbieP's profile

MsDebbieP

11671 posts in 613 days


posted 194 days ago

No wonder you love it—it’s gorgeous!
You must be very, very proud of this! Well done

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

View ChrisN's profile

ChrisN

27 posts in 225 days


posted 194 days ago

Great Chess Board!!!

I Hope the fact that you made it give you a subtle edge on your competition when you play!

-- Chris N, Westford, MA - "If you won't eat something from your fridge that turned green...why would you eat something that started out that way?"

View juniorjock's profile

juniorjock

280 posts in 218 days


posted 194 days ago

This is a very impressive project Tyler. Keep up the good work. I was wondering how you have learned your woodworking skills. Are you self taught?

-- Make things with wood.

View Robb's profile

Robb

310 posts in 386 days


posted 194 days ago

That is one terrific board! Glad you posted it.

-- Robb

View aaronmolloy's profile

aaronmolloy

95 posts in 233 days


posted 194 days ago

Hi there wood shop freak I’ve added you as my buddy I’am 15 and love woodworking , hope to become a carpenter in the next year or two. Me you and teenage woodworker are proberly the youngest lumberjocks

-- A. Molloy

View Critterman's profile

Critterman

458 posts in 262 days


posted 194 days ago

Tyler that is an awesome chess board, you joints are perfect and the finish is top notch…few of us could use lessons…you available…LOL

-- Jim Hallada, Chesterfield, VA

View gene's profile

gene

2132 posts in 336 days


posted 192 days ago

Great looking job, Tyler ! Keep up the good work
God bless

-- Gene, a Christian in Virginia

View mgradwohl's profile

mgradwohl

110 posts in 266 days


posted 159 days ago

Tyler nice work man! I made a chessboard once. If you check out my projects it’s on there. The trick is to not cut squares, but strips. I’ll try to draw up a diagram or something for you if you want.

Dude, at 13 you are well on your way, and have a great set of tools. Good job keeping your shop clean too!

Do you watch podcasts? You should check out the rough cut show and the wood whisperer!

-Matt

View TedM's profile

TedM

1215 posts in 185 days


posted 122 days ago

Tyler, your chessboard looks great! Great choice with the Purpleheart and Maple!

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com

View matt garcia's profile

matt garcia

172 posts in 124 days


posted 70 days ago

I couldn’t do that when I was 13!! Great job Tyler!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas

View thetimberkid's profile

thetimberkid

1515 posts in 155 days


posted 59 days ago

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- Look great, get your TTK merchandise now! http://www.printfection.com/thetimberkid/ Check out my site http://thetimberkid.blogspot.com/

View Chris 's profile

Chris

1169 posts in 443 days


posted 59 days ago

Nice Job Tyler!

-- Chris

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