3D Chessboard - progress picks

[Dumb_Polack]

Here is is so far.

BIG THANK YOU TO jteneyck for the sweet piece of mahogany that I used!!!  The lighter wood is cedar.


I made the "strips" with some indexing blocks when I chopped them on my chop saw.  There are 8 strips in all.  You'll notice that as you move to the center of the board, the change in elevation slows down.  I thought about this a while and decided to use cut up playing cards to change the height ever so slightly.  7 cards acting a a spacer did the trick.  Thereafter the elevation changes dramatically, or back to it was.   I built a few jigs to manage the glue up but for a few I didn't properly clamp the sections down the the jig, so there is a slight gap in a few that I'm shaving ever so slightly on the TS.

It is important that the line all line up so you might notice in the full 8x8 shot it looks like the 2nd from the top is a little proud.  There will be some shaving/sanding that'll occur after the board is all glued up.

I'm thinking about gluing 2 strips at a time together then 4 then the final glue up.  I'd rather not attempt the whole thing at once.

Also I've included the picture I'm working from.  My table's elevation changes aren't as dramatic as the original.

(I don't plan on turninng/building the chess pieces but never say never!!)

[Bill Holt]

Very cool!  I haven't played in probably fifty years, but that chessboard screams "come on, I dare ya".

[fredhargis]

Pretty cool, with all that end grain showing it will interesting to see the finished piece.

[stav]

Interesting concept. I don't play chess but I could see how it could get a little confusing until you get used to the change in terrain.

[barnowl]

Here is is so far.

BIG THANK YOU TO jteneyck for the sweet piece of mahogany that I used!!!  The lighter wood is cedar.

...

Have you considered "painting" the mahogany with a dye, uusin a small brush, to darken it a little.

When I built my vanity out of cherry, I mixed my own dye, and topped it off with Waterlox.

FWIW

[Dumb_Polack]

Have you considered "painting" the mahogany with a dye, uusin a small brush, to darken it a little.

When I built my vanity out of cherry, I mixed my own dye, and topped it off with Waterlox.

FWIW

Hi Barn,

Well, I hadn't, but when i wiped Danish oil on some scraps of mahogany and the cedar, the contrast was pretty substantial.

[barnowl]

Hi Barn,

Well, I hadn't, but when i wiped Danish oil on some scraps of mahogany and the cedar, the contrast was pretty substantial.

[Dumb_Polack]

Well, I'm at the point where I've already applied the DO and and at the spray on poly stage.

I like the color contrast between the cedar and the mahogany.  I was worried that they wouldn't contrast drastically, but the DO brought out the differences.   I don't like that the cedar has black dis-colorization in the pieces.  Oh well, live and learn.

Also the cedar is a porous wood whereas the mahogany is harder.  Therefore, the cedar isn't absorbing the poly to create a baby-azz smooth surface yet.  I am "filling up" the cedar with every coat of poly I spray on.  IIRC, these shots have 4 coats.  If it doesn't improve shortly I'm going to call it done.

I still have some of jtenyck's mahogany blanks and I could use a different hardwood for the other "team" and try turning the chess pieces.  I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'll make the pieces.  (They would be small turnings on the lathe and I wouldn't want to mess that up as I'd need to turn 16 pawns in all).  I might see If I can fashion the pieces using square stock.  I'll sniff around and see if there are any appealing square-shaped chess pieces on the innerwebs I can copy).

[fredhargis]

Very cool! What is the base...is that cherry?

[Dumb_Polack]

Very cool! What is the base...is that cherry?

Yes it is.  There's a groove there that the board sits on.  Also on the bottom I glued on a 1/4 piece of plywood.  Then the whole thing got glued into the cherry base.  There's also a maple spline in each corner.

If you look at the bottom RH picture and the bottom RH corner, you might see that that corner didn't close up 100%.  Bothers me a little.