Lighted Chess Table

[Ed Morgano]

About 10 years ago my older brother made a couple of stained glass chess boards which he gave me. He thought it would be cool to light them up from underneath. Well, I'm finally getting around to building them. I've found a design that I like.........158104. I've just started on it and I'm going to try to documment it as I go.

[Ed Morgano]

158105This is the base so far
After I had that made, I started gluing up a 9" round x 23" long center post.
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[Ed Morgano]

This morning came the scary part. I chucked it up in my lathe (made of wood) and started it spinning. 158110
After about 30 minutes it started taking shape.158111

I'll be back later with more pictures as I progress.

[Don Jarvie]

Pretty cool homemade Lathe.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ed,

I will watch this thread with extreme interest.

Please continue posting photos as you progress!

[Von Bickley]

Ed,

I will watch this thread with extreme interest.

Please continue posting photos as you progress!

I agree with Ken..... Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[Ed Morgano]

Well, after a scary start this morning I made some good progress. I didn't manage to throw the 50# chunk of Oak across the shop so I consider it a great day.
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[Ed Morgano]

158138

Not exactly like the sample but close enough for my purposes. Unlike Bret Duffin and Ernie Miller, that is a LOT of work for me for one day. :)

[Jon Prouty]

wait a minute... you are going to just casually mention a wooden lathe and not give more details? Come on - spill. That is got to be one of the coolest things ever. Nice table, but come on... details on that lathe!!! Beautiful!!!! :D

JP

[Ed Morgano]

wait a minute... you are going to just casually mention a wooden lathe and not give more details? Come on - spill. That is got to be one of the coolest things ever. Nice table, but come on... details on that lathe!!! Beautiful!!!! :D

JP

Jon,
The lathe is a long story. I've been doing woodworking for over 50 years. Somewhere along the line, my interest in how they did it in the "old days" grew into a facination. I'm not the most skilled woodworker by a long shot but I really enjoy doing unique things out of wood. We built the first model of our wood lathe in about 1995. it consisted of a couple of 2x4's fastened together to make rails.....it had pillow block bearings with a shaft and a pully for the head and a couple of pillow block bearings with a pointed piece of threaded rod mounted on a block of wood....for the tail stock. It was powered by a pully off of my radial arm saw. That was my first model. Since then, I've built 3 more making inprovements with each one. I have tried to use wood for everything that I could. I even made wooden pulleys for the motor. (that only lasted for about 5 years before it wore out) Now, I actually broke down and installed aluminium step pulleys. All of the clamp knobs and screws are wood. I made the head stock while working at my last job as a machinist. The tail stock is the shaft from an old drill press. It has a taper and will hold a live center or a 1/2" drill chuck. Someday I'll probably build a better one making some more improvements. In the mean time, this one still serves me well.

[Tom Hammond]

Just when I start thinking I'm a pretty good woodworker... someone posts something that reminds me just how much I don't know.

Great work so far.

[Chris Padilla]

Great stuff, Ed. I'm very much looking forward to your progress. :)

[Ed Morgano]

Today I started on the claw feet. I'm not a carver so I had to figure out another way to make the feet look carved.
This is what I came up with...

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[gary Zimmel]

Great progress thread. I love the wooden lathe...
Looking forward to your next progress update Ed..

[Bruce Page]

Ed, great thread! Those feet are going to be really cool!

[Ed Morgano]

This is the progress for today. I still have some sanding to do and shaping but they're about done. More to follow..........

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[Ed Morgano]

158650

I got the base together and stained a golden oak color.

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This is a mockup of the lighted top. It's going to be a real challenge to fit two drawers and the lights in the top.

[Terry Beadle]

I love the base !

I love the lathe !

Great work. I can hardly wait to see the top and base hooked up.

This is a piece of art !

[Jon Prouty]

Jon,
The lathe is a long story. I've been doing woodworking for over 50 years. Somewhere along the line, my interest in how they did it in the "old days" grew into a facination. I'm not the most skilled woodworker by a long shot but I really enjoy doing unique things out of wood. We built the first model of our wood lathe in about 1995. it consisted of a couple of 2x4's fastened together to make rails.....it had pillow block bearings with a shaft and a pully for the head and a couple of pillow block bearings with a pointed piece of threaded rod mounted on a block of wood....for the tail stock. It was powered by a pully off of my radial arm saw. That was my first model. Since then, I've built 3 more making inprovements with each one. I have tried to use wood for everything that I could. I even made wooden pulleys for the motor. (that only lasted for about 5 years before it wore out) Now, I actually broke down and installed aluminium step pulleys. All of the clamp knobs and screws are wood. I made the head stock while working at my last job as a machinist. The tail stock is the shaft from an old drill press. It has a taper and will hold a live center or a 1/2" drill chuck. Someday I'll probably build a better one making some more improvements. In the mean time, this one still serves me well.

that is really cool - I'm officially bitten by the turning bug. I keep coming back to this one and thinking about building my own some day. Great inspiration! I can't even imagine spinning up a lathe connected to a radial arm saw - like a tractor PTO. Crazy. Looking forward to the rest of this build project.

JP

[Ed Morgano]

Progress was slow today as I spent most of the day planning how to fit two drawers the light and chess board into a 32"x32" square. I did manage to get the table corners layes out and cut. I made a drawing and cut a pattern on my CNC router. After I had the pattern, I traced it onto some glued up blocks and cut them out on the bandsaw.

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[Glenn Bird]

Ed,
Have you considered a white LED setup for the lighting? It would be able to be quite thin.

[Jim O'Dell]

Ed, thanks for emailing me that you had this going. I don't venture into this forum often, but I think I've been converted!
Great work! I love it . Now, which one of the grand daughters gets this???? :D:D:D Jim.

[Ed Morgano]

Ed,
Have you considered a white LED setup for the lighting? It would be able to be quite thin.

Glenn,
I've played with all types of lights to try to get something that would light up the board evenly. So far, I'm leaning toward a florescent light mounted at one end of the board. Pictures to follow.

Ed

[Ed Morgano]

I got the frame done and started working on the drawer slides which have to go under the lighted section and also the lighted box. Here's the progress.......

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[Nick Laeder]

Man, that is beautiful. I hope you're going to turn a nice set of pieces to go with it.

[Justin M Rovang]

Very cool pics - never really knew how those large pedestals were constructed.

If you're looking for some interesting lighting alternatives this site has some neat things: http://www.oznium.com/

If you search for automotive 'accent lighting' you can find some pretty neat products that fit in tight spaces with good output.

[Ed Morgano]

Man, that is beautiful. I hope you're going to turn a nice set of pieces to go with it.


Nick,
The jury is still out on that. I've thought about turning my own set but there are several pieces that would require carving.....which isn't my thing at all. I want a traditional set with knights that look like horses. I've played with some of the modern alternatives but I personally find that I get confused when I don't recognize which pieces are which. :) Thanks for looking....as a mater of fact, I should thank everyone for looking...........THANKS!

Ed

[Elliott Wesley]

hahaha. nice work. very funny yet i find them fantastic hahaha
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[Chris Fairbanks]

Ed, If you are still trying to find something to light to board check out the SMD 5050 LED Strips. They are low power usage, extremely thin and have 1 LED about every 5/8" I have bought some from Ray Wu on AliExpress before.

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209843764-329545666/5m-one-roll-5050-SMD-60LEDs-m-led-strip-waterproof-by-silicon-tubing-and-coating-white.html

All you need is a small 12v DC transformer to hook them up. They can be cut like about every 3" so you can make it fit your needs. Not cheap but might be exactly what you need.

Or if you wanted to go really crazy check out http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209843764-334551930/5m-set-with-controller-LED-dream-color-flexible-strip-without-IC-14mm-PCB-60pcs-5050RGB-SMD.html

Same type strip but used RGB LEDs and includes a little controller so you can change colors on it :)

Otherwise the board is looking good.
-Chris

[Van Huskey]

This build has some really cool details, can't wait to see it finished.

[Nick Laeder]

Nick,
The jury is still out on that. I've thought about turning my own set but there are several pieces that would require carving.....which isn't my thing at all. I want a traditional set with knights that look like horses. I've played with some of the modern alternatives but I personally find that I get confused when I don't recognize which pieces are which. :) Thanks for looking....as a mater of fact, I should thank everyone for looking...........THANKS!

Ed


I understand, Ed.

I've been wanting to make these:

http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archives/nov_dec00/html/money_maker.htm

but the knight isn't right. Maybe you could substitute the knight. I like the rest of the pieces...

[Ed Morgano]

I understand, Ed.

I've been wanting to make these:

http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archives/nov_dec00/html/money_maker.htm

but the knight isn't right. Maybe you could substitute the knight. I like the rest of the pieces...

Nick,
Thanks for the link. It's tempting. I have some walnut and maple. Would probably make a good combination. I already have some ideas about the knight. I have a CNC router so I might just fool around with a patern to make the horse look like a horse.

[Ed Morgano]

Well, I got a switch wired up and worked out the lighting so that it is almost perfectly even. I've ordered some reflective paint and I'm going to try that on the box under the board to see if I can make it a little brighter. Also, I started on the skirt around the table.

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[Ed Morgano]

I finished the skirt around the top. Starting on the drawers this afternoon.

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[Ed Morgano]

I'm about finished with the drawers. Because of the light box in the center, I didn't have much room for the drawers or slides. I decided to use a board attached to the underside of the back of the drawer. This guide board slides into a slot under the light box. It works very well allowing the drawer to come almost completely out without the slightest bind.

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[Bruce Page]

Looking good Ed!

[Jeff Monson]

Great work so far Ed, cant wait to see more progress. Are you going to use glass pieces? They would really show nice with the lighting.

[Baxter Smith]

That is a great looking project that should provide lots of enjoyment!

[Ed Morgano]

That is a great looking project that should provide lots of enjoyment!

Thanks, I actually have two stained glass boards so I'm going to build a second one as soon as I finish this one. I have a son and a son-in-law that both play chess so I'm not sure if I will even get to keep one. :)

Ed

[Ed Morgano]

Great work so far Ed, cant wait to see more progress. Are you going to use glass pieces? They would really show nice with the lighting.


Jeff,
Not sure what I'll end up using. If I could fine a traditional style in glass, I might go with that, but I haven't seen that yet.

[Ed Morgano]

Well, I got the drawers done today. I threw some MDF on top so I could sort of get an idea of what it's going to look like.

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I'll be back in about a week with the finished product.

Thanks for looking.

[Joseph D'Orazio]

That is awesome.

[Jerry Olexa]

Very fine work....Nice idea and your current results look good!!

[Ed Morgano]

I made some good progress on the top in the past few days.

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[Ed Morgano]

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That's it for today. I'll start finishing next week.

Thanks for looking.

[Joseph D'Orazio]

That is just absolutely beautiful.

[Ed Morgano]

I bought an air brush because I wanted to experiment with the multi-tone finish that is on the original chess table. I tried my hand at air brushing today for the first time and it worked out pretty well. A few coats of satin finish urethane and I'm going to call it done.

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I did a little photo editing in the second shot to see what it would look like in a catalogue. :)

[Joe Shinall]

That looks amazing Ed. Love the detail and the finish is great. Very remarkable.

[Jeff Monson]

Thats an awesome piece Ed, make sure to follow up with a pic once you get the pieces for it!!

[Ed Morgano]

Well, I finished the table. I'm including a shot of it with the lights on and another with it off.....and a third from a different angle. If I decide to turn the pieces, I'll start another thread. Thanks to all for looking and for your comments.

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[David Cramer]

Wow Ed, nicely done and great tutorial. I will go back under my rock now....I feel inferior:eek:! Thanks for sharing the process.

David

[Tom Hammond]

Congratulations and thanks for posting your progression. Congrats also for orienting the board the correct way. I can't tell you how many times I have seen beautiful game tables with the board oriented incorrectly.

Great job. Inspirational to say the least!

[Bruce Page]

It turned out great Ed. It was fun to watch the build.
The only critique I would offer would be installing a more classic drawer pull.

[Ernie Miller]

158138

Not exactly like the sample but close enough for my purposes. Unlike Bret Duffin and Ernie Miller, that is a LOT of work for me for one day. :)

Not exactly - it would take me that long just to get that chunk-o-wood up on the lathe - and then I wouldn't know what to do with it. Beautiful job on the chess table and wonderfully documented as well.

Ernie

[Leigh Betsch]

Great looking work Ed. But who are you trying to kid, you ain't got time to play chess!;)

[Ed Morgano]

Great looking work Ed. But who are you trying to kid, you ain't got time to play chess!;)

Liegh, You're right so far. My son Matt got the first Chess table and I just finished the second one that is going to my daughter. Now I'm setting up to make some chess pieces which I'll show is another thread. Here is a picture of the second table next to the first one. I changed the claw feet a little and did a cherry strip around the top. Other than that, they are the same.

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When I get finished with the chess pieces, maybe I'll have time to play. Thanks to everyone for looking.