Thread: Chessboards

I would say it's looking good.
Regards

Checkmate! Excellent job

The veneer checkerboards came out of the clamps pretty good.

I wet the veneer tape to remove it then washed away as much glue as possible.
There were a couple of spots where the stringing had moved so I repaired them as best I could.

I sanded one edge clean of glue then trimmed the board square on the tablesaw.

On the Burbinga board I chose some African Mahogany as a trim and on the Myrtle/Huon board I kept to the Tasmanian theme with Blackwood.
I left them about a mm thicker than the boards so I could trim them level without sanding the veneers.
Dominos in mitres and along the edges made it easy to keep them aligned while the were glued and clamped.
Clamps across the mitres kept the joint even.

Once the glue dried I sanded everything flat.

Next was to decide on what to do with the edges.

On the Blackwood board I planed a bevel along the edge. It is a bit less than 45 degrees and leaves a 8mm flat along the sides.
In the pic it has had one coat of Danish oil.
The shine and depth should improve with more coats.

The Mahogany has a routed ogee profile.
I tried Organoil Hard Burnishing oil hoping to fill the large amount of cracks in the Burbinga veneer. It did a reasonable job but I couldn't get a good enough slurry to level them all.

The chessboards need somewhere to store all the little pieces.

On the Myrtle/Huon chessboard I kept the Tassie timber theme going.
Nicely figure Tassie Blackwood for the sides and legs. The drawer fronts are Myrtle.
The legs are tapered to the top and I plan to make them black.

The Burbinga/Maple chessboard will have an African mahogany box that matched the trim on the board.
My daughter likes the Neil Scobie curved legs that I put on her blanket box. So I made mini ones for the chessboard.

Pics show most of the parts cut to rough size and partly assembled with the Burbinga chessboard resting on top. The board overhangs the box by about 2cm all round.

Great job and great story to put it all together.
Could you just go over the cleaning up after the veneer squares were glued to the base?

Quote- "I wet the veneer tape to remove it then washed away as much glue as possible."
What type of glue did you use and weren't you concerned about the "washing" process would do some damage?
I have never worked with veneer tape before. On a few occasions I have just sanded the tape off the surface as it was on the ply I was using.
How is the quality of jobs coming out of the new shed? I often used to ask customers that when I had installed a new kitchen, "was the quality of meals higher?"

Hi Chambezio thanks for you comments.

Veneer tape has glue on one side. You wet it by pulling the glue side across a wet sponge or rag. Then put it where you want to glue and smooth it down with a cloth or your finger. You have about a minute before the glue sticks. You pull it tight. When the glue dries it contracts the paper and helps pull the joints tight together.

If you have a single strip of tape across a join, you might find it easier to use a scraper or sander to remove it.
I had the whole area covered in veneer tape and I didn't want to risk sanding through the thin veneers.

The glue is reactivated when you wet the tape. Use a wet cloth or sponge to wet the tape. It changes from White to almost clear when it is wet so keep adding water until it is clear. I had two or three layers of tape in some places and had to keep wetting the tape until I could peel it all off.

Once most of the tape has been peeled of you will notice that the surface still has glue on it. Wipe it all down with a damp cloth to remove most of it.
Give it a few minutes to dry then sand the whole surface to remove any remaining tape and glue.

Wetting the veneer raises the grain but doesn't affect the glue bonding it to the base. The veneered surface will look and feel rough and grubby. There will probably be places where the glue has squeezed through racks and holes in the veneers. It is going to need a good sand.
I started with a coarse #120 on my random orbital sander to clean up and flatten the surface. Take your time and be careful not to sand through the veneers. Once it looked flat and clean I moved to finer grits ending with #500.

Veneer tape is good to use. Easy and effective.
I hope this helps.
Cheers.

Scally, thanks very much for the informative story.
Would PVA be OK as a glue for veneers? In another era animal glue would have been used. With PVA you do have a bit of open time before the glue grabs.
I would imagine that where you buy the veneer is where you would pickup the tape. I know in Bunnies they have 2400mm X 300mm leaves with hot melt glue on the back. I wonder how many unsuspecting hobbyists have had bad experiences with those leaves?

Yes PVA works fine.
Just make sure you cover the whole surface of the substrate well.
I use a piece of card or brush.

The glued sheets should work. I have used the narrow strips to edge a board. You activate the glue by using a hot iron. If it doesn't stick completely, just iron it some more.

There are plenty of woodworkers who still use hide glue. I have used it but got lazy and just use PVA.
If you look around you will find double boilers which make it easy to keep the hide glue liquid. There are electric versions available at good woodworking stores.
I would probably use hide glue if I did a lot of work with veneers.