Help needed to minimize flaws

[somedudeonline]

Hello all,

A little over a year ago, I started on a unique chessboard idea. The idea, as you can see in the pictures below, is an attempt at a natural-ish looking terrain for the chessboard instead of flat. I cut out 64 squares at various heights and did my best to make each one flow into the height of the squares around it. I was close to finishing the project in September but bought a house and moved so I boxed up the squares and started up on the project again sometime in January... Well, I completely forgot what a change in humidity will do to wood, or maybe it didn't all fit together as well as I thought (maybe a combination of both). Whatever the case, at that point, it became apparent that the squares didn't all line up perfectly leaving little gaps here and there and throwing off many of the corners. Short of starting over or spending a lot of effort to re-square everything to a smaller size and then re-contouring the pieces (likely make a new horrible mistake in the process), I haven't really come up with a good solution to make it perfect. I waited until about now hoping that the humidity would change again and fix the squares so I could quickly finish it, but of course that didn't work out. So, I'm planning to just do some finishing touches as if it were perfect, glue it all up, finish it, and move on to the next attempt (make a regular chessboard but very thick and then powercarve the terrain I want). For the glue up, I plan to just glue all the squares to a 1/8 inch base of maple and slap a simple maple border around it.

So unless someone here has a fool-proof method of re-squaring all of the squares to the same exact size, my request is as follows. Do you have any ideas for hiding the gaps between squares? Some of the gaps are something like 3/32 of an inch when I force the corners to line up and more like 1/32 if I don't force the corners to line up. I know the normal solution would be a wood glue/sawdust paste but sanding that to look nice once it's dried would be a nightmare since it's not flat. I don't think that's worth struggle since it would still be a pretty obvious mistake unless I make it even more painstaking and make dark paste for the gaps where the dark wood is smaller and light paste where the light wood is smaller.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice!
Josh

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[The Spin Doctor]

From the pics, gaps aren't evident. It's easy to see the arrised (rounded) corners don't line up between pieces... That can be fairly easily rectified withough affecting fit with other neighbouring pieces. What you have is a fairly complex situation, and looks like you're using aus hardwood that will move forever, in that lots of little pieces to create stress on the numerous joints so you need to build accordingly... How's that for a really vague and unhelpful suggestion LOL.

If it were me, I'd be squaring up only the worst gaps, which will mean you'll need to adjust the width of that entire row, but I doubt even the keenest eye will see the difference unless its a couple mm. The well aligned arrises should hide most of the minor gaps when you clean them up. I'd also look at the idea of not trying to glue the pieces into a board. Trying to clean up the squeeze out would be a nightmare. I also think the movement is going to be too much and the joints will fail to some degree. I'd finish all the pieces individually and then silicone them to a really stable piece of ply or well sealed MDF, then add a nice border. That way, over the decades they can move all they like.

YMMV

[somedudeonline]

From the pics, gaps aren't evident. It's easy to see the arrised (rounded) corners don't line up between pieces... That can be fairly easily rectified withough affecting fit with other neighbouring pieces. What you have is a fairly complex situation, and looks like you're using aus hardwood that will move forever, in that lots of little pieces to create stress on the numerous joints so you need to build accordingly... How's that for a really vague and unhelpful suggestion LOL.

If it were me, I'd be squaring up only the worst gaps, which will mean you'll need to adjust the width of that entire row, but I doubt even the keenest eye will see the difference unless its a couple mm. The well aligned arrises should hide most of the minor gaps when you clean them up. I'd also look at the idea of not trying to glue the pieces into a board. Trying to clean up the squeeze out would be a nightmare. I also think the movement is going to be too much and the joints will fail to some degree. I'd finish all the pieces individually and then silicone them to a really stable piece of ply or well sealed MDF, then add a nice border. That way, over the decades they can move all they like.

YMMV

Hi! thanks for you input. Those pictures were a bit dated because I hadn't setup a nice background for good pictures again. Just now, I took some pictures of it as and attached those below so you can see the gaps and current contouring.

I like the idea of using silicone for the bonding agent. I was actually considering using a deep pour epoxy so I would have time to line up all the pieces the way I want over the course of hours instead of minutes but using silicone should give me enough time and allow for more movement over time. Unfortunately, I'm uncomfortable squaring up some pieces/rows because I can't be sure of what implication that will have for the rest of the board. You're probably right but since I can't wrap my head around it, I'm hesitant to attempt a change like that. As far as the rounded corners are concerned, that's something I'm touching up but will end up tolerating for for the most part.

Thanks,
Josh
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[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Do you have access to a drum sander?

You could cut strips of a base material and hot-melt glue each row (in correct order & orientation!) to the strips, keeping one reference edge as straight as possible. The first, outside edge woould be the most difficult to set up properly. Run them through a belt sander to flatten both edges to a consistent height.

It should be a simple matter to make a jig to keep the strip standing squarely on edge through the sander. Perhaps clamp/bolt a pair of extra strips to sandwich the glued strip and provide a wider footprint, with suitably sized & placed packers to prevent twist..

Carefully remove the tiles from the base strips, then repeat the process for each column.

You'd have to be meticulous about piece placement on the strips to maintain their correct positions with respect to the board and you'd need very, very light passes through the sander to minimise risk of dislodging a tile from the hot-melt.

Even then, it probably wouldn't be perfect but it should minimise the gaps.


I suspect that your real problem lies in the fact that the tiles don't have the grain oriented in the same direction. Timber moves more across the grain than along it, so squares tend to become rectangular. Which means that cross-hatching the grains the way some appear to be will increase any possible gaps from movement.

I suspect it's too late to do anything about that now, though.

[The Spin Doctor]

Hi! thanks for you input. Those pictures were a bit dated because I hadn't setup a nice background for good pictures again. Just now, I took some pictures of it as and attached those below so you can see the gaps and current contouring.

I like the idea of using silicone for the bonding agent. I was actually considering using a deep pour epoxy so I would have time to line up all the pieces the way I want over the course of hours instead of minutes but using silicone should give me enough time and allow for more movement over time. Unfortunately, I'm uncomfortable squaring up some pieces/rows because I can't be sure of what implication that will have for the rest of the board. You're probably right but since I can't wrap my head around it, I'm hesitant to attempt a change like that. As far as the rounded corners are concerned, that's something I'm touching up but will end up tolerating for for the most part.

Thanks,
Josh
516469516470516470


Now that I can see the wood clearly and what you're trying to do (or at least I think I see what you're end product is intended to be) the wood isn't without its faults also. And it's not a criticism but the grain of the blocks isn't even consistent - which I think fits with what I see and think you're intending... With that in mind I think you could still be in a position of not worrying too much about the small cracks between each block. I don't see it as a master piece, but more utilitarian so a few imprecise aspects are fine. Kinda like country furniture vs Chippendale. You aren't expecting a masterpiece in a country table, but you are in a chippendale dining table. I don't see that there's much left to do on each block but a bit more rounded of the corners to match the neighbouring blocks... I think what you have also fits well with the pieces you've turned.

Epoxy is very unforgiving and I think something would eventually give out. Silicone will move a lot without causing stress or failing.


YMMV

[Old Croc]

I can't help you with the problem, but I really like the concept. Hope you sort it out.
Rgds,
Crocy.

[somedudeonline]

Do you have access to a drum sander?

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a drum sander. I think that is a fantastic idea though. I think it would reduce the risk of potentially catastrophic errors with a similar idea I had using a tablesaw in place of the drum sander. I think it would also be more accurate.


I suspect that your real problem lies in the fact that the tiles don't have the grain oriented in the same direction. Timber moves more across the grain than along it, so squares tend to become rectangular. Which means that cross-hatching the grains the way some appear to be will increase any possible gaps from movement.

I suspect it's too late to do anything about that now, though.

I think you're absolutely right and as a very amateur woodworker, this is something that I didn't think about even a little bit when I started this project.


Now that I can see the wood clearly and what you're trying to do (or at least I think I see what you're end product is intended to be) the wood isn't without its faults also. And it's not a criticism but the grain of the blocks isn't even consistent - which I think fits with what I see and think you're intending... With that in mind I think you could still be in a position of not worrying too much about the small cracks between each block. I don't see it as a master piece, but more utilitarian so a few imprecise aspects are fine. Kinda like country furniture vs Chippendale. You aren't expecting a masterpiece in a country table, but you are in a chippendale dining table. I don't see that there's much left to do on each block but a bit more rounded of the corners to match the neighbouring blocks... I think what you have also fits well with the pieces you've turned.

Epoxy is very unforgiving and I think something would eventually give out. Silicone will move a lot without causing stress or failing.

You're right about everything except I would've liked for it to be a masterpiece haha. That being said, with my idea for the new chessboard in mind, I'm at the point where I'm ok with it not being a masterpiece and will likely just accept the gaps.



Thank you all for your input. If I don't hate the gaps too much in the end, I'll come back and post some pictures of the finished product in the appropriate section of the forum. I'll also be back to ask for advice before starting the power carved chessboard idea so I don't make similar mistakes and can hopefully make it a masterpiece :)

Josh

[IanW]

As suggested, the irregularities tend to go along with the varied heights of the tiles - it looks like you are trying to achieve a 'cobblestone' effect, & there are always lots of gaps between cobblestones!.

I made a similar chess board many years ago, but with tiles of the same height. I went to some trouble to choose woods that were of similar density & hardness, thicknessed the stock to around 6mm & let them acclimatise for a few weeks before starting the project. I then cut the individual tiles & glued them up in single rows (paying attention to grain orientation) and put them aside for a while for things to settle (a week or two is plenty in good weather if the maximum tile depth is <10mm). Then shoot/plane the long sides carefully so they are parallel & square to the base & assemble the rows.

I glued the rows onto MDF, which was a bit risky, but the PVA glue I used has a bit of give & it remained stable for a few years (I've since lost track of it so I don't know if it is still sound). In my case, the tiles were <5mm thick after finishing, and that doesn't develop as much power as a thicker piece (think more like veneering parquetry onto a solid substrate), so it may have remained intact. :)

The more elegant method would be to join the rows with a thin loose spline & enclose the pieces in a frame that allows just a bit of wriggle. Much more fiddly, but doable if you have the time & patience.....
Cheers,