Chess Board

[Ed Sallee]

Nothing new here.... this procedure is all over the internet and well known, but there may be some folks out there that don't know it yet..... Since I'm in the process of doing this, and have photos, I thought I'd share in here.

When making a chess board, you basically have to laminate alternating strips to the correct width - in this case, 2 1/4".

Once you have your laminated striped piece, simply turn it 90 degrees and cut the strips against the grain. Again, 2 1/4". Make sure you make your laminate long enough to account for the 7 kerfs that will be made when doing your final cuts.

Then, you simply flip each alternating strip to get the desired effect.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/2009%20Project%2014%20-%20ChessNE1/DSC09342.jpg

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/2009%20Project%2014%20-%20ChessNE1/DSC09344.jpg

[David DeCristoforo]

I have some "issues" with laying up 1/4" thick wood squares and laminating them to a core. But, aside from that, remember that a chessboard must have a "light" square in the lower right hand corner. Depending on how you do your layups, you will either have the grain running "across" the board or from "top to bottom". This is somewhat subjective but to me, it looks "wrong" to have the grain running "across" the playing surface.

Having said all of that, the method you describe of gluing up strips, ripping the blank and reversing every other strip circumvents the huge amount of "fussing" involved in trying to lay up 64 individual squares.

[Ed Sallee]

I hear ya David.... But, I managed to get 3/8" strips - the Ebony just wasn't thick enough to garner any more as I resawed a 15/16" thick board.

I Just finished framing a piece of substrate, 1/4" MDF - after that dried, I glued in the chess board using boards and a clamp on either side. Pressing the board on. I left it about 1/32 proud so I can use my card scraper and then sand it all flat.

It's pretty solid. Frame is 3/4" Bloodwood.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/evsallee/2009%20Project%2014%20-%20ChessNE1/DSC09354.jpg

[phil harold]

That is how I built one in 74 in jr. high shop


lasted a long time but did not survive the house fire in 2000

mine was maple and walnut

[David DeCristoforo]

That will be a sweet looking board (in spite of the grain running across the squares!). I used to make boards like that and some of them have survived quite nicely. But be prepared for (at least) some "ridging" between the ebony and maple squares. It might not happen for a while but it is a "probability" inherent in this type of construction.

FWIW, the reason I don't like the grain running "across" the squares is that, if you look at a typical printed chess diagram, the black pieces are always positioned at the "top" of the board and the white pieces are at the "bottom". This, combined with the requirement of having a light square in the bottom right corner, implies a specific orientation of the board. Since, in play, the pieces move from "top to bottom", not left to right, having the grain run in the same direction in which the pieces move is less distracting to most players. If you know any "serious" chess players, you will understand that they are, for the most part, very intent on avoiding anything that could be considered a "distraction". Also, for me, there is a "feng shui" issue with having the grain running "across" the field of squares rather than with the direction of play.

[David DeCristoforo]

"Maybe my eyes are just gettin' goofy on me...."

Yup. That's it! If you rotate the board 90 degrees and just flip every strip end for end, the grain will be running from "top to bottom" with a light square in the lower right corner. Of course, you would have to do this before you do the second glue up!

[Jay Jolliffe]

So David do you want to tell us how you make yours.:rolleyes:

[David DeCristoforo]

"...do you want to tell us how you make yours..."

Only if you ask politely....

[Jay Jolliffe]

Well David I'm asking politely. Would please tell us how you make yours. :)

[David DeCristoforo]

I used to make boards just like Ed's. But I had a lot of problems with them and since I was charging a "pretty penny" for them, customers were not happy when their boards started to delaminate or their squares cracked or the cross grain glue lines opened up, etc. Truthfully, I always wanted to make solid wood boards anyway so I set about trying to find a way to make them. The biggest issue was, of course, the large amount of endgrain gluing. I finally ended up with a "glue joint" cutter that I had made specifically for the boards, There is really nothing "special" about it other than it has more "fingers" than a "typical" glue joint cutter, the fingers are smaller and the top and bottom edges of the shaped stock are in alignment. This cutter provides a large amount of "long grain" contact across the ends of the squares and very little actual end grain to end grain contact. If you hit this page:
http://www.daviddecristoforo.com/chessdd/boards.html
and scroll down a bit, there is a small picture of the joint.

The other thing I do is slot all four sides of the field of squares and float the board in a frame that has splines let into the edges. This offers a construction similar to a frame and panel door in that the board can expand and contract in the frame without exerting any force on the mitered corner joints. I have made many different styles of boards but this method of construction is typical to all of them. Also characteristic to many of them is a space or "reveal" between the frame and the field of squares. I usually make the spline out of a contrasting wood to provide an "interesting visual detail". On the boards where it appears that the frame is "tight" to the squares, the frame is actually rabbeted to create a "tongue" that fits into the slot on the edge of the board instead of a spline.

Boards made using this method are very stable and, since the end grain contact between the contrasting woods is, for all practical purposes, eliminated, most of the problems associated with making chess boards out of solid lumber is eliminated also. In addition, I thing the "tactile quality" of solid wood squares is very appealing.

More details can be provided if you need or want them. I used to keep this all "secret" but I found that the market for expensive chessboards is extremely limited so I don't really worry about it anymore. It's not like golf or tennis where there is a large number of people willing to spend a lot of money on their pastime. The entire membership of the US Chess Federation is only 25,000 and most of those guys are broke!

[Jay Jolliffe]

Thank you David. You do great work in the cabinets & all the work Ive seen. You told me awhile back the you used dimensional wood for your boards & I sorta thought that might be how you did them but wasn't sure. Thank again

[james mcgrew]

you chess fellows will get a kick outa this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCrEJ2Ud5YU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ethestate%2Ecom%2Flocal%2Fs tory%2F911977%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

[David DeCristoforo]

"...you chess fellows will get a kick outa this..."

Ya... you don't want to be playing any "speed chess" with those pieces!