Anybody make their own chess set?

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EBorraga

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My brother wants me to make him a chess set. The board is no problem. I was looking for info on chess pieces. Have any of you made your own? Just looking for some different plans on chess pieces or maybe a book that has plans.
 
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KenV

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Two books by Mike Darlow are a great place to start. One was published in 2004 and the other in 2008; so the used book markets should have these.

Wood Turning magazine had a series of articles by Michael O'Donnell a few years back on a set based on ancient set.

There are others. If you are a decent carver, the choices are even wider.
 

Rolandranch

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I made one wooden chess piece out of walnut by hand once. It turned out really nice but I just couldn't do it 31 more times! I want to try making a set someday but with a duplicator and templates. I know PSI has some chess templates for a duplicator. I also make chess sets from metal. Here's one I posted here a while back: http://www.penturners.org/forum/f45/pewter-civil-war-chess-sets-146936/

Good luck!
 

Herb G

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One of the older wood turning magazines had instructions in it for chess sets.
Sorry, I don't remember which mag had it.
 

EBorraga

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Two books by Mike Darlow are a great place to start. One was published in 2004 and the other in 2008; so the used book markets should have these.

Wood Turning magazine had a series of articles by Michael O'Donnell a few years back on a set based on ancient set.

There are others. If you are a decent carver, the choices are even wider.

No carving here. Mainly looking for something I can turn and use a scroll saw possibly for detail work. The knight seems like it might be the worst of them to make
 

geoffholden

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A chess board and pieces are on my future projects list.
The pieces look like it'll be a tedious process though. I suspect I'll make the board first and start with Lanier Graham style pieces (not at all traditional, but really simple block design), as they'd only take a half hour or so to cut.
I've seen a few scroll saw sets (like this: http://www.saw4fun.com/patterns/1-01-04-01-002_php.php) if you want to avoid any carving.
I've also seen somebody (sorry lost this link) turn knights with all four pieces glued together, like what people do for inside out turning, to cut down on the carving aspect.
I suspect that given some thought and inspiration, you could turn the knights, leaving the top and bottom square and not parting off, then do some cuts on the scroll saw and then back to the lathe to finish. That could almost eliminate the carving, but could also end up a disaster. :)
 

mark james

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I have the Darlow book on chess pieces - you can have it up next weekend. It has excellent diagrams and examples - looked challenging for my skills, so I never got to it.
 
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My brother wants me to make him a chess set. The board is no problem. I was looking for info on chess pieces. Have any of you made your own? Just looking for some different plans on chess pieces or maybe a book that has plans.

I've done this one... haven't actually finished it as I have a small box to fit under the board like a pedestal that I need to flock and attach to the board. The box will hold the pieces.
The paws are about 1 1/2 inch high with the noblemen being about 2 to 2.5 and the queen is about 3" with a 4" king. I used walnut and maple for the pieces, the board is bubinga and maple and is about 14" square.

I drilled the pieces with a forstner bit the depth of cutter head on the forstner, then a 3/8" above that so the piece would fit on my pen chuck... then filled the bottom with bird shot, sealed in with wood putty and then glued felt to the bottom...
 

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Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
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Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee, USA.
Two books by Mike Darlow are a great place to start. One was published in 2004 and the other in 2008; so the used book markets should have these.

Wood Turning magazine had a series of articles by Michael O'Donnell a few years back on a set based on ancient set.

There are others. If you are a decent carver, the choices are even wider.

No carving here. Mainly looking for something I can turn and use a scroll saw possibly for detail work. The knight seems like it might be the worst of them to make

The knight doesn't have to look like a horse... some of the more contemporary sets have some nice turnings to represent the knight... go on google and look for wooden chess sets... you'll find plenty to look at, then use your imagination.
 

mark james

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My brother wants me to make him a chess set. The board is no problem. I was looking for info on chess pieces. Have any of you made your own? Just looking for some different plans on chess pieces or maybe a book that has plans.

I've done this one... haven't actually finished it as I have a small box to fit under the board like a pedestal that I need to flock and attach to the board. The box will hold the pieces.
The paws are about 1 1/2 inch high with the noblemen being about 2 to 2.5 and the queen is about 3" with a 4" king. I used walnut and maple for the pieces, the board is bubinga and maple and is about 14" square.

I drilled the pieces with a forstner bit the depth of cutter head on the forstner, then a 3/8" above that so the piece would fit on my pen chuck... then filled the bottom with bird shot, sealed in with wood putty and then glued felt to the bottom...

Very nice designs! Well done.
 

EBorraga

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Chuck, that's a nice set! My plan was to use walnut and maple for the pieces. I found a few designs I like. I think i'll get started on the pawns this weekend. I'm not using a duplicator, so hopefully I can get them looking uniform.
 

KenV

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Chuck, that's a nice set! My plan was to use walnut and maple for the pieces. I found a few designs I like. I think i'll get started on the pawns this weekend. I'm not using a duplicator, so hopefully I can get them looking uniform.


Ernie, the folks who do lots of repetitive shapes advise to do one element on each piece rather than do the entire piece at once. Might be counter intuitive, but having tried it, they are correct. Doing the ball end of a pawn about 20 times in a row will foster more consistency.

(You are going to do a few extra pieces I am sure.)

Think about a screw chuck so you can remount piece easily. (OneWay has a really nice one)

I cannot imagine my self doing runs of 40 spindles for ballisters on staircases.......
 
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