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.........81415_chess_tables[1].jpg. I've just started on it and I'm going to try to documment it as I go.

[Ed Morgano]

DSCF7914.JPGThis is the base so far
After I had that made, I started gluing up a 9" round x 23" long center post.
[ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH]DSCF7908.JPG[/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[Ed Morgano]

This morning came the scary part. I chucked it up in my lathe (made of wood) and started it spinning. DSCF7923.JPG
After about 30 minutes it started taking shape.DSCF7924.JPG

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.
DSCF7937.JPG, DSCF7941.JPG, DSCF7949.JPG

[Ed Morgano]

DSCF7957.jpg

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!!!!

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!!!!

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...

DSCF7960.JPG DSCF7961.JPG DSCF7964.JPG DSCF7965.JPG
DSCF7966.JPG DSCF7974.JPG DSCF7975.JPG

[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!