I finally completed the checkerboard

[Justin McCurdy]

This is a Christmas gift for my father in law using hard maple and 40 year old cherry. I finished it with Waterlox glossy.

69357

69358

[Bryan Berguson]

Very nice! I think he'll be happy!

Bryan

[Gary Keedwell]

Which Christmas? :confused:

Gary K.

[Greg Crawford]

Very nice, Justin. I've made a couple before, and to get all the pieces the right size takes precision. If it's not precise, the error multiplies across the board. I see yours fit very well. I like the inlay and your miters, too.

[Kendall Landry]

Now thats fine woodworking!!!

[Chuck Lenz]

I remember makeing a chess board in high school out of walnut ply and maple ply. Welllllllll, it turned out not to bad UNTIL I decided to use a belt sander for the first time on it ! Oh yeah, nice gouge out in it through the veneer ofcourse. Probably one of the first times in woodworking that I learned that I needed just a tad bit more patience. Everytime I see a checker board I think of what I did. Great job Justin, very nice.

[Clint Winterhalter]

Justin,

Great Job! I hope you made one for yourself!

Clint

[Jim Becker]

Absolutely beautiful, Justin!!!! Wow...and a great gift, too.

[Alex Elias]

Great job it looks great. You have almost 5 more months to turn and carve the 32 pieces. :0

[Rich Torino]

Justin,
that looks wonderful...

[Justin McCurdy]

As far as the turning and carving, I don't think so. The wife wouldn't support a lathe and carving tool purchase, not to mention the fact I would need a much better set of eyes than the ones that I have in order to pull that off.

To answer the other question, no I did not make one for myself. Something I am kicking myself for now.

[Bill Arnold]

Beautiful work, Justin. It takes a lot of patience to match a piece like that!

[scott spencer]

Nice job Justin! That cherry is nice and dark....I'd have thought walnut had you not mentioned it.

[John Buzzurro]

Beautiful board, Justin. Any chance you took pics of the construction process?

[Grant Davis]

Sweeeeeeeet looking board Justin. Like John, I too would be interested in the construction photos.

[Larry Fox]

Very very nice Justin. I hav a similar project underway at this point and I hope it turns out half as well as yours did. The recipeint will be very pleased.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Justin, Beautiful job and I'm sure you FIL will be thrilled. How did you keep the pieces so uniform?

[Justin McCurdy]

I found a really good site that saved me a ton of time from needing to cut out 64 individual squares like I was planning on doing. It also makes lining up the squares a lot easier in that it lessens the variation in the tile orientation and glue joints.

http://plans.thefrankes.com/Tutorials/ChessBoard/Default.aspx (http://plans.thefrankes.com/Tutorials/ChessBoard/Default.aspx)
It is not a real complicated plan, but after the hard part of creating the tiles, the rest seems to be very adaptable to whatever you might want to do.


I did not end up taking pictures of the construction process, mainly because I am lazy and I figured that it was done so close to the site above that I shouldn't try and reinvent the wheel. My process is as follows:


Find your contrasting wood, get it to 3/8" thick, and cut it into 2"x18" strips. If you want squares larger than 2" square, change the 18" to whatever you need to. DO NOT MOVE YOUR FENCE!!!!!
Take a 20" x 20" piece of mdf (1/2" thick) and glue the strips to the top. I found it easiest to do this 2 strips at a time, leave it set for an hour, and then add a couple more until you have something about 16" x 18".
Use a pattern bit on the router lengthwise on the sides of the board to get it straight across. This helps against wood movement during glueing.
Take a panel cutting jig and trim off a perpendicular side to the one just routered wasting as little material as possible. This edge is now your TS fence guide. REMEMBER: DO NOT MOVE YOUR FENCE FROM THE 2" POSITION IT WAS SET AT. YOU WANT PERFECTLY SQUARE TILES OR ELSE IT IS GOING TO BE REALLY OFF.
Using the edge we just made on the TS, start cutting the 2"strips from the mdf/wood. The strips should come out as dark/light alternating strips.
Once you have the entire thing cut, take another piece of 1/2" x 17 x 17 mdf and start gluing the tile strips to them. Again, it is easier to glue a couple at a time because you not only need to glue the mdf to mdf, but you need to clamp horizontally to make sure that the strips bond to one another. Make sure to completely cover the inner-strip surfaces with glue so you get ample squeezeout when you are done. Also, make sure to line up the tiles so nothing gets offset. This is the final playing surface.
Wipe the excess glue off with a sponge and water, or paper towel and spit, whatever works for you.
After 24 hours, you can use a router with a flush cut or pattern bit to get fid of the excess mdf on the botton of the board.
If you are really good with a belt sander, now you can fix any alignment issues on the edges, just make sure to use fine grit.
Figure out how to enclose the board. I used hard maple inlaid with cherry. Both of those materials are what I used for the checker tiles themselves. I will yield to any other source you may have for learning inlay, because my inlay work is shotty. I should have made a jig instead of what I did.
I did a picture frame miter around the outside.
To attach the wood to the tile board structure, I used a biscuit joiner, 2 biscuits per side. It is easiest to use the already existing tile lines to determine the position of the biscuits.
Glue and clamp the mitered frame to the tile board, wait 24 hours for the glue to dry, and belt sand the top until it is nice and flat. You want to make sure that you do this before making any kind of routered edge on the top so as to keep it uniform.
I chamfered the edge on the top only. Of course this is completely up to your own preference.
Use a ROS sander to make everything nice and smooth.
Finish to your own taste, I used Waterlox glossy tongue oil.

[Justin McCurdy]

Gary,

Next Xmas. As in December 25, 2007. I know I am a little early, but I spend the better part of November and December attempting to shoot at fuzzy animals. Not to mention the fact that I am taking classes for the next 3 years of my life which takes some planning ahead when it comes to projects.

[Justin McCurdy]

Alan,

There are 2 things that you must do to keep the pieces uniform.

1: Cut the 3/8"x2"x18" strips of both types of wood at the same time (as in without moving the TS fence.

2: Once all of the strips are glued to the first piece of mdf, you must crosscut all of the pieces, again without moving the fence. Like I tried to explain above, even a small variance will throw off the uniformity of the board.


Once everything is glued, the top will not be completely flat, that is where the belt sander comes in handy. It is amazing how much better it looks after some material fades away.

[Nancy Laird]

That's a beautiful board, Justin, and I'm sure your F-I-L will be thrilled with it.

Nancy (137 days)

[Gary Keedwell]

Gary,

Next Xmas. As in December 25, 2007. I know I am a little early, but I spend the better part of November and December attempting to shoot at fuzzy animals. Not to mention the fact that I am taking classes for the next 3 years of my life which takes some planning ahead when it comes to projects.
You did a beautiful job, Justin. I was only kidding, as I envy anybody that can plan ahead. Procrastination is the only game in town for me.:rolleyes:

Gary K.

[Grant Morris]

Here is a youtube video that explains some of your explanation in video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKPs7lrucQ