I'll probably do the setup like tiles since it will be inlay into the table. Wonder if I should use a different type of glue than standard wood glue since I won't be able to clamp the tiles that well. It will have to be very exact measuring on my part to get it to fit without any spaces showing, but if I go the black squares on a white backing that problem would be solved. However, the problem then is glue getting on the white squares. Yeah, I want to drill holes for the pieces to sit in. I'll most likely use a scratch awl, square, and click rule to draw a grid. Luckily I have a drill press so drilling accurate holes is not too hard. I've always thought about making a jig out of an l-shaped wood fence and t-tracks and two click rules to line up for drilling holes. The fence would be able to move to any coordinate using the two click rules, one for x and one for y movement. Of course you'd have to calibrate and clamp it to the drill press, but that wouldn't be so hard. Once I had it lined up the first time I'd attach a dowel to the bottom of the device to fit in the hole of the drill press table. Only problem with such a jig is the price of click rules isn't cheap. If I made them easily removable however it'd be ok since I already own two of them. I can picture such a jig quite well, but not sure I explained it well. the other option is to make a XY table like on cctv's and use a click rule to measure and set the x and y axis. I could take it a step further and use a computer to control stepper motors to control a table on threaded rods, a motor to bring the drill down, make hole placement and drilling automatic. I'll do that if I ever decide to mass produce something with a bunch of holes in it. I have been thinking of making an accessible cnc machine for a while now.
David Dale Leavens wrote: > > Why glue with dowels? Just glue the squares onto the maple substrate. > > Gluing up alternate thickness strips though shouldn't be all that > difficult. You could I suppose lay waxed strips between the thickest > strips so glue doesn't stick to them and they will be used to help you > level them up. Dowels or biscuits registered off of the flat side > would be another way of gluing the variable thickness strips together > accurately. Then you could rip and reassemble. > > Finally, if the playing surface is below the table level just cut them > all into 64 squares and lay them as tiles. You could cut 33 of the > black tiles and use the odd one as a spacer to help you locate and > glue the black ones accurately onto the white substrate. > > Will you bore holes to accept pegged chess pieces? I find accurately > locating that sort of hole pattern far more challenging. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: David Sexton > To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com > <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 8:44 AM > Subject: [BlindHandyMan] making a chessboard > > I'm going to make a table with a chessboard in the middle. I will use > maple for the white squares and walnut for the black squares. The > standard way to make a chess board is to cut the boards into strips, > clue the strips so the colors alternate, crosscut the striped board, > flip every other strip end for end and glue back together... Instant > chessboard. > This is perfect except here's the problem: I want to make an accessible > chess board, most accessible chessboards have the black squares raised > about an eighth inch above the white squares. Gluing up boards of > different thicknesses is difficult at best. Drilling square holes is an > option I suppose if I wanna drill 32 of them, but that probably won't > look great. Most accessible chessboards I've seen have a solid particle > board white backing with an overlay of usually plastic for the black > squares. Not sure how easy it would be to cut such an overlay from > plywood. > Maybe I could have a backing of maple ply, drill holes in the center of > each square, cut out walnut squares, drill holes in them and glue each > square in place with a dowel to hold them in place, drill out the dowel > when it drys... > Any other ideas? > > ---------------------------------------------------------- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.5.6/1575 - Release Date: > 7/26/2008 4:18 PM > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > >
