Chess Board

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"

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!)

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

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

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/

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"

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.

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

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"

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.

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 blog and podcast "The Renaissance Woodworker" at www.rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog

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

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

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

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

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?"

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?

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

That is one terrific board! Glad you posted it.

-- Robb

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

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

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

-- Gene, a Christian in Virginia

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

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

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

-- Matt, Houston Texas

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

Nice Job Tyler!

-- Chris

Excellent piece! Keep up the fine craftsmanship.

Tyler, I wish I had started when I was your age. Your well on your way to being a fine craftsman. I made my board out of individual pieces. After I ripped the individual strips to the desired width, I never moved the rip fence. Then using a jig designed to hold the piece safely, I crosscut the individual squares from the strips. By not moving the fence, you are assured the pieces are in fact square (assuming your fence is perfectly parallel to the blade). Good luck.

-- Pat

This is a very nice chess board, you have a lot of skill.

-- Remember, measure twice, cut once

If you made that at 13 you’re going to be a badass if you want to be. I couldn’t use a ratchet at 13.

Here's how I dealt with the squares... You can see I made about 10,000 errors.

-- Tony

Great job Tyler

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com