Chess Table completed

[CDPeters]

For those of you anxiously waiting - here is the completed chess table. This is my first piece of stand-alone furniture. The table is Virginia Red Oak milled from a tree I lost in Hurricane Isabel. The chess board is mahogany and poplar with a cherry edge band.

I thought briefly about building a finish with a blonde or light amber shellac, but this is going to my college age son and will probably be used to support frosty beverages and bounce quarters than actually playing chess (just kidding - he's a good kid!) and will likely be moved around a lot and treated roughly, so I opted for 5 coats of satin poly, sanded with 320 between coats.

I learned alot from this project - number 1 is that my tooling needs to be upgraded to a better class (no slop, stays square & true etc. etc.). The chess set in the second picture was made for him by his grandfather last year for Christmas.

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

 

[Joe Scharle]

Looks very good to me!:3dblob3:

 

[JohnW]

Nice work Chris. Your son will cherish it.

For a "first stand alone piece" you did an incredible job. Just think of how good you'll be on your next piece, 10th piece.....100th piece.

Keep it up.

 

[bobby g]

Nice job Chris. Would you show us the underside... I'd like to see what method you used to support and attach the top.

bobby g

 

[CDPeters]

Bobby - the pedestal has an 1 3/8" pin turned in the top. The chess board itself is 1/4" material which was glued up, sanded flat and then attached to a 3/4" plywood backer, making the board assembly 1" thick. The cherry edge band was then mitered and edge glued to the board assembly. The oak field for the top is 1 1/4" thick. I cut a 1" rabbet in the oak stock, then assembled the mitered field around the board and cut it round using an up cut bit in the router and a circle plate. The support frame is attached to the top with brass screws and there is a 1/4" spacer between the support frame and the plywood at the center. I drilled the hole in the center of the support frame on the drill press, attached it to the top, then drilled an additional 1/2" with the forstner bit so that the pin on the post extends 1/4" into the plywood backer. I left this un-glued and un-pinned - a. so that the top can be removed for moving/transport and b. so that Ben can turn the top around when he is playing "solitaire".

Hope that clarifies - here's a couple of pictures - more in the gallery.

All the best,
C.

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

 

[farmerbw]

Chris, nice job. :eusa_clap:eusa_clap I'm sure he'll get lots of enjoyment out of it. I like the chess as well.

Brian.

 

[Trent Mason]

Beautiful work Chris! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap I'm sure he will love it. :icon_thum

 

[Canuck]

Nice work, Chris!!!:icon_cheers

I can see that one staying on the family for very long time providing plenty of enjoyment.

Very well executed!:icon_thum:icon_thum

Wayne

(Thanks for sharing the detail with us.)

 

[drw]

Chris,
Really, really, nice work! The natural table finish looks great. Thank you for sharing.

Donn

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Nice work Chris. The mitered corners on the round top look nice and tight. Good work! :icon_thum

Bill

 

[ehpoole]

Well done! :icon_thum

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bob Carreiro]

Looks great! Seeing the first post, I so wanted to see the underside too. But, there it was a little further down.

Great job!

 

[richlife]

Very nice, Chris! Chess sets and chessboards have a very special place in my heart and I love to see one that looks as good as this. Your son may not "get" it now (or maybe he does), but one day he will truly cherish this.

As an aside, my two grandsons 5 and 7 have just shown their first real interest in chess -- in a couple of years, they will get the first board and pieces that I made shortly before their mother was born almost 40 years ago. That's a good feeling -- enjoy it. Rich

 

[Martin Roper]

A very nice table---I especially like the contrast between the woods in the table and the board.

I'm an avid player who used to play in tournaments. I've always wanted a table of my own. Maybe some day I'll make a Mission-style table with a drawer for the pieces and the clock.

 

[FredP]

That's a nice chess table.:icon_thum:icon_thum are you going to make stools to go with it?:widea: