Chess

[Mike A. Smith]

I'm considering turning some chessmen for my nephews. My dad made them some boards before he passed away and I thought this would be nice way to complete the gift.

I always like my pieces to be weighted at the bottom, but they have young children so I'm a bit concerned about using lead. Any ideas?

[Kyle Laird]

There's always the possibility of using some coinage to weigh the bottom of the pieces down.

[Richard Madison]

Good point Kyle. Gold is fairly heavy.

[Gary DeWitt]

In making some candle sticks awhile back, I tried various things for weight, like shot, sand, rocks, all with epoxy to hold them in the hole. I finally came to the conclusion that a stack of pennies was the heaviest and cheapest weight, again held in with epoxy.
Don't forget to size your pieces proportionally to the board.
Mike Darrow had a good article on piece design in an issue of "Woodturning Design" magazine awhile back.
Good luck, and share some pix of the set.