Final Stretch: Checkmate

The chess board is in the initial stages of the build.  I have acquired the wood, brought it to the Makerspace, and have started to build my product.  I began by inspecting the maple and walnut wood for any imperfections, ensuring it would suffice for my chessboard.

Next, I verified my drawings with an external party to ensure they made sense (measure twice cut once).

I discovered I needed to leave an extra 1/8” per cut due to the thickness of the saw blade.  This adds up to 1” for all 8 cuts.   I am happy I learned this before I started cutting, because I had to add an extra inch to my design.

I began by resizing the boards to 2.1×18 inch.  Then I used a table router to ensure my edges were straight and had a uniform width.  This was challenging, as maple can be difficult to work with.  Next, I glued them together in an alternating pattern and let them sit for 24 hrs.

I used enough clamps to ensure all surfaces would be flat and perpendicular.  I used a flat granite surface to ensure the playing surface would be flat.  This can be seen in the pictures below:

Next, I returned in 24 hours and removed the clamps.  I used a hand planar to remove the excess glue and make sure all the surfaces were even.  This was a tiring job.  See the images below.

After a lot of hand planing, it is starting to look good.  I will have to do this process again during the next glue phase.