Turning BIG Chessmen

[Argurion]

Hi Folks,

Wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I bought a lathe to biuld a chess set. I recently built a small set with a 4cm king. The next set I would like to build would have a 60cm king, 28cm pawns. My first issue is how to build a king 60cm long, with a 27cm wide base. Finding one piece this large may be possible but I need 32 of them:doh:. I figured that I am going to have glue some planks together and then turn them from there. Some of the queries then:
1. What would be the best types of woods? Knowing I need both a light wood for white and dark wood for black
2. Should I go for thick planks and glue 3 or 4 together, or go for thin planks and glue 10-14 together?
3. What is the best types of glue?

Your assistance and advice is very much appreciated.:)

[Ad de Crom]

Argurion, take a look to this website.http://web.me.com/tuoh/Site/Welkom.html
This is the website from Andre Baeck, he's a member of a Dutch woodwork forum, just like me. He made also chessman's, large, made of glued up wood.
Ad

[RETIRED]

Nice site Ad. A man after my own heart.

Like his bowl lathe.

[RETIRED]

Hi Folks,

Wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I bought a lathe to biuld a chess set. I recently built a small set with a 4cm king. The next set I would like to build would have a 60cm king, 28cm pawns. My first issue is how to build a king 60cm long, with a 27cm wide base. Finding one piece this large may be possible but I need 32 of them:doh:. I figured that I am going to have glue some planks together and then turn them from there. Some of the queries then:
1. What would be the best types of woods? Knowing I need both a light wood for white and dark wood for black Jarrah and Victorian Ash
2. Should I go for thick planks and glue 3 or 4 together, or go for thin planks and glue 10-14 together? More is better and more stable. Nothing over 100 x 50 gives the best results. All dry of course.
3. What is the best types of glue? Depends on whether they are being used inside or outside. I use Aquadhere Exterior or Titebond 111 for inside stuff and Polyurethane for outside.

Your assistance and advice is very much appreciated.:)Bear in mind that the finish will darken them and if being used outside they will probably go grey over time unless maintained.

I hope this helps. Yes I have done about 6 sets over the years, some bigger than that.

[Ed Reiss]

Ad....just checked out André Baeck's website, and am impressed with his wooden lathe builds...once I got past the language thing!:doh:
The only concern would be wood movement (expansion/contraction) and the effect it would have on the headstock/tailstock spindle alignment, especially since the wood appears to be some variety of pine. Have you ever had occasion to ask him about this?

[Ad de Crom]

Ad....just checked out André Baeck's website, and am impressed with his wooden lathe builds...once I got past the language thing!:doh:
The only concern would be wood movement (expansion/contraction) and the effect it would have on the headstock/tailstock spindle alignment, especially since the wood appears to be some variety of pine. Have you ever had occasion to ask him about this?
Ed, he build that wooden lathe in cooperation with Francis Jacobs, it's made of yellow pine. Francis is a very clever Belgian guy, and knows very well what he's doing.
Francis is the designer of this wooden lathe, he build also lathes made of heavy sheetmetal,with the branchname DID lathes.
All the metal parts like the headstock spindle and others are made by Francis.
He use that lathe for 5 years now, he has another lathe a steel one, but he prefer this wooden lathe.
Most of the woodturners think that a wooden lathe can't handle the turning forces, but they are wrong. This wooden lathe works without vibrations, so usable for turning very large pieces. I build in 2005 my own wooden lathe, and never regret it. Had a lathe made of sheetmetal, and had always problems with vibrations, which I don't have with this wooden lathe, so I'm pretty happy with my wooden lathe.
I know also that he have not any problem with headstock/tailstock alignment.
Just a matter of designing, something what Francis did very well.
Ad

[Ed Reiss]

Thanks Ad. It makes sense that a wood frame lathe would absorb vibrations better than a metal one, especially one made of sheet metal.

Could we get you to post a pic of your wood lathe?

Argurion...apologies for the detour (hijack) of your post:B

[Ad de Crom]

Thanks Ad. It makes sense that a wood frame lathe would absorb vibrations better than a metal one, especially one made of sheet metal.

Could we get you to post a pic of your wood lathe?

Argurion...apologies for the detour (hijack) of your post:B
Ed, my lathe is a table lathe, my workshop is not so big, but big enough for doing my turnings, and it's an outside the house shop, so my kingdom. My dear wife has nothing to say there :no:, so I can make the biggest mess I want, sometimes it's a big mess, because I'm than to lazy to clean it up :D.
My lathe can be used for spindle turning as well as for bowlturning.
You can see my lathe on my website http://members.lycos.nl/adecrom
Including the design drawing, and other pictures of the building procedure.
BTW, difficult language huh, that Dutch. It's more related to the German language, but a lot of words are also more or less related to the English language. But luckely for you my website is written in English.
Cheers. Ad

[joe greiner]

Check your proportions, Argurion. The 27cm base seems large for a 60cm king. I'm attaching some pictures I've collected for small sets generally conforming to the Staunton pattern. I haven't turned a large set because I can't carve the knights to my satisfaction, along with other interruptions.

That said, like says, small planks or squares will be more stable because they're more likely to be dry.

Cool site too, Ad. Baeck's steady rest is particularly interesting - less toolrest interference because it isn't attached directly to the bed.

Joe

[Argurion]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for advice. I checked the proportions and they are pretty much on target (give a take a cm in height). Google reported that the width is 40-50% of the height. I did a search on Staunton chess sets (which was fascinating) and found some good front shots. I ran a height to width comparison and they also came in at the ratio 60/27 (almost, but close enough). I did get some great ideas for design though so I appreicate your comments.

Argurion

[Ozkaban]

Check your proportions, Argurion. The 27cm base seems large for a 60cm king. I'm attaching some pictures I've collected for small sets generally conforming to the Staunton pattern. I haven't turned a large set because I can't carve the knights to my satisfaction, along with other interruptions.

That said, like says, small planks or squares will be more stable because they're more likely to be dry.

Cool site too, Ad. Baeck's steady rest is particularly interesting - less toolrest interference because it isn't attached directly to the bed.

Joe


Hi Joe,

I had a look at the king in the second picture. I cropped it down to just the king, and resized it to 60 pixels high. The width was then 27...

Cheers,
Dave

[joe greiner]

Well, I'll be dashed. I just checked one of them and did the arithmetic without scaling the the picture. I got 59.5 x 27 equivalent ratio. I don't think I could get that close with a micrometer. I stand corrected.:-

Cheers,
Joe