Thread: Couple of Chess tables

We'll need more info than that mate. What timber? What finish? Nice tables by the way.

Sorry, my fat finger should have ticked “thanks for the pictures”

Originally Posted by Biggus

We'll need more info than that mate. What timber? What finish? Nice tables by the way.

Some further information . Happy to explain any aspects of the build if there are questions. I also have some in progress photos if needed.

Tables: are made of Rock maple with sliding drawers. Legs rough cut on bandsaw and forstner bit then further shaped with disc sander, rasps, sandpaper stuck to a dowel.

Drawer: Sliding drawer due to short span with hand cut dovetails. One drawer front is in Walnut and other is in Maple. Drawer knob is from Gerner Hinges, quality product!

Chessboard is made of rock maple and walnut. Chessboard was about 10mm which was resawn into 4 veneers about 1.5 - 2mm each. Each strip in the chessboard was final dimensioned by hand on a custom shooting board to get precise width (46mm). These were applied to a custom plywood substrate, dominoed to the top frame in rock maple. Brass inlay with brass bar recessed between chessboard and top frame with mitred corners. Top edge was shaped on a router table with cove and roundover bits to match the leg profile.

Finish: Osmo top oil. Everything was sanded to 240 grit. You may notice some sanding marks left on the top as I had to be extra careful not to sand through the veneer. Made that mistake in one of the tops and had to dig the chessboard out with a router on a sled and put a new chessboard veneer on (PIA).

Umm, I hate to bring this up, and I don't play a lot of chess these days, but the orientation of the squares in the table with the dark coloured drawer seems to be wrong. Unless my memory is failing me when you're sitting at the table the square on the back rank at the extreme right should be white. The orientation of the squares on the table with the white drawer is correct. Sorry........still nice tables though.

Originally Posted by Biggus

Umm, I hate to bring this up, and I don't play a lot of chess these days, but the orientation of the squares in the table with the dark coloured drawer seems to be wrong. Unless my memory is failing me when you're sitting at the table the square on the back rank at the extreme right should be white. The orientation of the squares on the table with the white drawer is correct. Sorry........still nice tables though.

Great pickup! Yes 1a (extreme left) should be black and 1h (extreme right) should be white, Bummer!

I haven't played in a while too. A niece is into it and asked me to make her a chess table. She is getting the correctly oriented one and I will keep the other on.

It was correctly oriented originally but I had to dig it out when I sanded through the veneer. I wish I paid more attention then. I guess I need to play on it in a different orientation.
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