# Chess board



## Texasstate (Dec 3, 2018)

Large sized chess board - 2 1/2 in squares 
Wenge and curly maple from @Mike1950 
Purple Heart and curly maple

Reactions: EyeCandy! 6 | Way Cool 7


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## Mike1950 (Dec 3, 2018)

Wenge and maple is a nice combo- Nice work

Reactions: Agree 5


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## B Rogers (Dec 3, 2018)

Nice job. I really like that. Have you tried turning/carving the pieces? That would be a challenge for me.


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## Karl_TN (Dec 3, 2018)

Very nice. Great use of Mike's maple. Can't wait to see what chess pieces you turn for these chess boards.


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

I don’t turn at all do the chess pieces won’t be getting made


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## Nature Man (Dec 4, 2018)

Really nice game boards. Is there a compartment on the bottom side? Are the dowel plugs showing on the sides simply for decoration? How did you keep the squares aligned when you made the boards? Guess I'm looking for a short tutorial. Chuck

Reactions: Like 1


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

The dowels are all the way through the edge into the center board

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

Don’t cut a bunch of squares first off
Cut a 8 strips of material as wide as you want your squares. Glue the 8 strips together by the edges altering the species every other piece. Cross cut this glued up plank at the width of the squares. Flip every other piece over and re glue up all strips 

That’s hard to explain it might not make sense

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

No compartment

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## kweinert (Dec 4, 2018)

Texasstate said:


> Don’t cut a bunch of squares first off
> Cut a 8 strips of material as wide as you want your squares. Glue the 8 strips together by the edges altering the species every other piece. *Cross cut this glued up plank at the width of the squares.* Flip every other piece over and re glue up all strips
> 
> That’s hard to explain it might not make sense



Did you mean "Width" or "Thickness" here?

As I understand the process you edge glue, for example stock that's 2" square and 6" long, alternating species as you said. Then after the glue dries then you cross cut the blank at the thickness of your board. So, for example, you create 3/8" thick by 2" x 16" (where 16 = 8 squares at 2" each) "planks". Then you flip the planks and glue those edges together to create the square board and do your smoothing and finishing.

I was just wondering if were thinking the same thing but using different terms.

Thanks.

And after all of that - nice looking boards.


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

No just cut to first glue up by 2 in or what ever your squares are going to be. Then flip them every other and re glue 
The thickness will stay with whatever you start with


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)



Reactions: Informative 1


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## kweinert (Dec 4, 2018)

Texasstate said:


> No just cut to first glue up by 2 in or what ever your squares are going to be. Then flip them every other and re glue
> The thickness will stay with whatever you start with



Got it. My way would be an end grain board, yours is a face grain board. Should have been obvious from the figure showing in the squares.

Thanks for the reply - I'm a little slow sometimes :)


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

Yes no need for and endgrain board if you aren’t cutting on it. I feel


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## ironman123 (Dec 4, 2018)

Nice looking board.


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## Karl_TN (Dec 4, 2018)

Never too late to learn.


Texasstate said:


> The dowels are all the way through the edge into the center board



Justin, How did you drill a hole half through the chess board (i.e. 'into the center board') for the dowel without the drill bit wondering?


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

I drilled a hole on all the outside boards first the clamped it up and drilled into the center board. then glued it up. When the glue was still wet and clamped i beat in the dowels.


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

It only goes into the the center board about 2 inches I would say


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## Karl_TN (Dec 4, 2018)

Texasstate said:


> I drilled a hole on all the outside boards first the clamped it up and drilled into the center board. then glued it up. When the glue was still wet and clamped i beat in the dowels.



Sounds like a great way to hold everything together.

I'm picturing something like this:





If so then did you do anything special to hold the middle (board halves) together? Also, are the holes drilled in seams between rows/columns of squares (or my eyes deceiving me)? 

-Karl


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## Texasstate (Dec 4, 2018)

The top squares are only 1/8 in thin 
Mounted on a solid piece of wenge 

The dowels don’t go all the way through only 
2 In into the wenge base

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## Chris S. (Dec 5, 2018)

Very cool project. Thanks for info on how did, think I may be making some of these as christmas presents tomorrow.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mr. Peet (Dec 9, 2018)

Texasstate said:


> It only goes into the the center board about 2 inches I would say



Cool job on those game boards. When I first saw the wenge and maple board, I thought the maple was southern yellow pine, until I read what you had written. Sometimes directions are good....Like the video you posted too.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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