Chess board

Things You've Made
1

I thought this would be an easy one. Large inlay, press it in, easy peasy lemon squeezy. But it was indeed stupid stupid shit argh difficult.

That’s what the board looks like in the end. There are minor imperfections I can live with, but man, the way was hard.

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The inlay didn’t fit, I had to break all the white pieces apart and even then they didn’t fit so I pressed them in with my book press, 500kg of force. That’s why some lines are not completely straight. Four of the white plates were messed up, I tried to patch them twice before I recut the four holes and inlays. I took my 6mm 30° endmill for that instead of the 3.175mm 10° I had used before and it went away better in face grain. The small one flexed too much and with that tiny angle the pieces won’t fit later on. Lesson learned…

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Going to give it to the customer Tuesday, he seems really happy how it turned out. :slightly_smiling_face: I also basically spent all the money he’s going to give me already on oak and Titebond III… :sweat_smile:

12 Likes
2

That is nuts!

2 Likes
3

Black walnut, to be precise. And maple. :yum:

9 Likes
4

That’s damn impressive. “Simple” patterns are always the hardest. The eye always gravitates to imperfections in something like that. But this looks great. You’re pretty damn good.

1 Like
5

I was pretty close to burning that whole thing after the inlay didn’t fit, not even broken down to single pieces… :stuck_out_tongue: This is one of the projects that won’t have a video. I did start out recording the process but I was just too mad at myself to continue filming without swearing too much… :smiley:

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6

Customer and I had agreed on 150€, he liked it so much he gave me 200€ and commissioned a Go board as well for the same price. All this swearing and cursing in the end paid off. :sweat_smile:

And since I am not smart enough to learn from my mistakes I am going to try the Go board as a single inlay as well… :sweat_smile: This time with a new 30° endmill, I think my current one’s tip is missing, therefore skewing the inlays. :sweat_smile:

3 Likes