gluing chess board tiles

[Bope]

I am making a chess board and I am ready to glue down the tiles. The tiles are just under 2" square and 3/8" thick. I am gluing them to 1/4" ply. Will a simple rub joint work or do I need to clamp them?

[TomFromStLouis]

These are solid wood tiles? If so a rubbed joint will hold when using hide glue but I always clamp when using PVA glue like Tightbond. Clamp pressure should be both downward and across both directions.

If these squares are solid wood and 3/8” thick, their movement with relative humidity changes will overwhelm the 1/4” ply and warp or show gaps. I don’t try fixing solid wood any thicker than 1/8” .

If the tiles are not solid wood but rather ply or some other material then ignore paragraph 2 above.

[Bope]

Tom, thanks for your response. I am following a plan in WoodSmith magazine from last year. I am hoping they knew what they were talking about. They are solid wood tiles. They also suggested using a piece of paper between each tile to give them some "breathing room". Not sure if this was supposed to allow for slight movement of the wood but with the tiles glued down not sure how they would move independent of the ply. Also now I have small pieces of paper stuck in some of the joints because I didn't get them out before the glue started to set.

[TomFromStLouis]

... with the tiles glued down not sure how they would move independent of the ply....

The Wood Movement God is a powerful force and not one to taunt. Every time I do I pay. In your case the movement would not be independent  of the ply, but rather stronger. Imagine (or simply try) one square of any size 3/8" thick glued to the same size 1/4" ply, apply or remove humidity and watch the sandwich warp. The fact that you have 64 such squares might possibly mix up offsetting forces enough but you are taunting the God I have learned to respect. My experience is that these forces can only be tamed by keeping the veneer to 1/8" thickness or less. Good reason to buy a drum sander since thin pieces in planers blow up. Or maybe you could just plane the whole board once assembled to make those tiles thinner.

The paper between each square is a bizarre idea. I can't quite make sense of it.

Krenov built a board with solid pieces in one of his books and floats the whole board with dowel connections for each piece. A chess board is not really a simple project. I know, I built two practice ones before my keeper.

[YSU65]

The above comments seem correct, 1/4" is pretty thin and should warp.  I made mine using the strip method.  Cut light and dark strips the width you need for the board.  Glue strips together.  Then cut strips to same dimension as the width.  Arrange strips so that one is up, another down.  This will give you the checkerboard pattern.    That was pretty easy.  The hard part was the mitered ends, trying to get nice joints.

Any how, good luck!

[Gary G™]

I built two using the strip method like a cutting board; pretty simple.
About 12 years later, still in one piece: flat and crack free.
Interesting, as I used very dissimilar woods: Cypress and Sapele.

[Bope]

So the gist of this thread is that you can't trust full blown how to project articles in major woodworking magazines. Even ones whose parent company supports a popular woodworking forum. I was really hoping for an easy project where I didn't have to do all the design work.

A question to those who have used the strip method. You still have a ~16" wide board that can move. What do you do about putting a boarder around that?

[Strokes77]

So the gist of this thread is that you can't trust full blown how to project articles in major woodworking magazines. Even ones whose parent company supports a popular woodworking forum. I was really hoping for an easy project where I didn't have to do all the design work.

A question to those who have used the strip method. You still have a ~16" wide board that can move. What do you do about putting a boarder around that?

I have made several.  I used the strip method, but the thickness of the strips was ~1/8".  Glued down to 3/4" ply... So in this case, so far at least, the 3/4 ply was able to overpower the movement issues of the thin wood.  I was able to border it with mitered frame no problem. 

As for your current project, I would go ahead and finish it, and just live with the results.  Live and learn, and, it's possible nothing bad would ever happen.

[TomFromStLouis]

Obviously you cannot trap a moving "panel" inside a frame without letting the panel float, so the answer is the same as any panel in a fixed frame: put a groove in the edge of the frame and do not entirely glue the panel into the groove, i.e. let it float. This will give you gaps between the frame and panel in dry season, not exactly the look you probably had in mind. You could come up with a relatively complicated version where the top of the panel floats over  the top of the frame and still stays in place below in a groove, so no gaps. (I cannot find a quick image to show you; imagine a block letter "C" profile on the edge of the panel intersecting a backwards facing block letter "C" profile of the frame. The panel is proud of the frame on top and the frame is proud on the bottom where there  will be a gap that can show.)

If this complication does not appeal, for solid squares I would go frame-less. It is a less formal look but can work well if the squares are nice and chunky.

[Bope]

Without doing the complicated C channels you need a tongue to slide in a groove. I was wondering if the people using the strip method had some way to make the tongues in their finished boards. I could see making a groove on the bottom and gluing in a thing strip as the tongue. You would need to be aware of the grain direction. Just thinking of alternatives in case I need to make a new board due to the stupid paper spacers I used. There are some design elements like chamfered edges around the squares and a raised board with a veneered boarder. Also a case with a drawer to hold the pieced.