How I made two Regulation Size End Grain Chess Boards - YouTube

Hi Everybody! I'm Mike McCrory and this is Wood U Make It.

I was at a craft sale and somebody asked me if I could make him

a regulation-size end grain chess board.

We went back and forth with several design ideas and we finally

ended up with this one that is a chess board that is 18 inches square

so each of the individual squares is 2 1/4"

and it's going to be wrapped with a frame that's 3 1/2" wide

and that can sesrve as a ledge to hold the pieces that are no longer in play.

So, let's get started!

I'm going to cut the squares of the chess board out of ash and walnut.

I'm using ash because it has a really interesting end grain.

I'm using 10/4 inch boards and these are so thick that I can't cut it with a single

pass so I'm flipping them over to cut the other side.

Next, I'm running the pieces through the jointer to get a straight edge

and then I can run it through my table saw.

Now I'll use that straight edge along my fence to cut each board in half that

will cut it down to a reasonable size so that I can run the face through the

jointer because I only have a six inch jointer.

Now the pieces are about 5" wide and I can run the face through the jointer to flatten the face.

Then I'll run the edge through the jointer again to square it up.

Now I'll run the boards through the table saw one last time to cut the

individual pieces and I'm cutting these a little bit larger than 2 1/4"

because I'm going to run them through the planer to get very precise dimensions.

Now I'll run each of the pieces through the planer

and because I want square pieces I'm running them through top to bottom and side to side.

Before gluing up I'm going to adjust the pieces so that the grain is oriented in

a similar direction for all the pieces.

That will help when there's any wood movement

so that the expansion and contraction is relatively consistent in the same direction.

I want to make sure I don't get any sawdust or dust particles

mixed in with the glue so I'm just using some compressed air to clean my work surface.

Now I will apply a liberal amount of glue.

I want to be sure this glues up flat so I'm gonna elevate the board and I'm gonna put a

piece of plywood under it that I can clamp it to. This also helps to position

the clamps from side to side when it's elevated a little bit off the table and

I'm gonna put down a little bit of parchment paper first so that the board

when it's gluing up doesn't stick to the plywood.

I'll start by clamping it with light pressure from side to side.

Then I will use some cauls across the top and the bottom to apply vertical

pressure to make sure that the boards are gluing up flat.

Then I'll tighten it up from side to side.

I let it glue up overnight and after removing the

clamps and before running it through the drum sander I want to clean up some of

the excess glue so I'm starting with a plane and then I'll use a random orbit

sander just to remove some of that excess glue which tends to really gum up

the drum sander. The sanding belts on the drum sander are relatively expensive so

I want to do whatever I can to prolong their life. Now I want to sand it the

minimum amount possible because every time I run it through the sander I'm

reducing the thickness and it's making the squares less and less square.

When I finished sanding both sides, I had removed about 3/64",

so less than 1/16" and that will not be noticeable to the naked eye.

The final board is going to be 1 1/2" thick so I'm setting my stop block

to be a little bit further away from the blade than that so that I have

room for sanding after it's all glued up. First, I'll run the end of the board

through the blade to square it up and then I'll cut off the individual pieces.

I have enough material here to make two chess boards. One board is going to

have the walnut frame and the other board is going to have a slightly

different design with a frame made from Tiger maple.

When I get close to the end of the board I'm gonna swap out the crosscut sled and

just use the fence on my table saw.

Now it's starting to come together and it's ready to glue up into the chessboard.

Just like the first glue-up, I have the board elevated on a sheet of plywood

to help ensure that it's flat or as flat as possible.

I will use cauls along the ends of the boards to make sure that the ends are all lined up.

Then I'll clamp it in the other direction as well.

Additionally, I will use boards across the top to help compress it and make sure that everything is flat.

I have to remove a fair amount of thickness so I'm starting with 36-grit sandpaper.

I had to clean the sandpaper fairly frequently to preventing it from clogging up,

especially with the glue. Then, after a few passes I

will change it out and use 100 grit and then 120 grit.

Now, using the crosscut sled I'm gonna trim up the edges just ever so slightly to make sure that

everything is square and aligned

Now I want to cut a groove around the perimeter of the board.

That's where the frame pieces are gonna insert into so

it'll be a tongue and groove kind of a joint.

an inch so I'm gonna elevate the dado blade to be just a little bit more than

The tongue will be exactly 1/2"

so that there's a little bit of room for wood movement inside.

I want to make sure that the chess board remains vertical while I'm cutting the groove so

I have a tall piece of MDF that I've clamped up against my fence.

Now, for the pieces that will form the frame I want to joint the board to

get a nice straight edge and then I can run it through my table saw.

The frame is gonna be 3 1/2" wide so that means with a 1/2" tongue the

total width needs to be cut to 4".

Then I'll run it through the planer to get a 1" thickness.

Then, I'll run the boards through the drum sander to clean them up.

Then using the dado blade I will cut the tongue that's going to fit into the

groove that runs along the edge of the chess board.

Next, I'm gonna cut a 45 degree miter and I have a board clamped to my miter gauge

that marks exactly where the blade is going to cut.

This helps me to cut miters to the exact dimensions that I need.

I'll do a test fit before gluing and everything fits perfectly.

So now I'll go ahead and glue it up and to allow for wood movement I'm not really

sure what's gonna happen so what I'm doing is I'm putting just a little dot

of glue in the middle of the tongue and that way if the wood of the chess board

does want to expand it's free to move

and then I'll clamp it up in both directions.

I'll also clamp it vertically just at the corners to make sure that the wood is aligned.

Now the frame on the other chess board is going to be made

out of Tiger maple and it's gonna be designed a little bit differently.

It's gonna be elevated off the bottom so it's not flush with the bottom of the chess

board and I've beveled the bottom by about ten degrees so that you can get your

fingers under the bottom to lift the chess board up.

And I'm clamping it up the same way

Since the walnut frame is flush with the bottom of the board

I'm gonna use my router to cut some finger slots in the bottom.

I'm doing this in two passes so I started with the router bit a little bit lower than I

needed it and then I raised it up and this helps to get a cleaner cut and

helps to avoid any unnecessary tear out.

I'm gonna cut splines to put into the corners of the joints. That helps to

reinforce the joint and it also gives it a nice design touch.

I'm cutting them to the maximum height of my blade. I would have made them a little bit bigger if I

could have except my blade will not go any higher than this.

I've clamped the board into the jig because I want to make sure that the cut is pretty precis.e

The spline is going to be a little bit thicker than the thickness of my blade

so I'm cutting this in two passes.

On the walnut frame I'm using splines made of ash and on the maple

frame I'm going to use splines made out of walnut, so I'm just cutting up some

walnut on my bandsaw and I run it through the sander to get it the right

thickness and then I'll insert them and clamp them up.

After it's glued up, I will cut off the excess and then sand it down to be flush with the edge of the frame.

Then I'll do a little bit of sanding to round over the edges to remove any

sharpness and to clean everything up.

Now it's time to apply that finish. I'm using a wipe on polyurethane and

I'm wiping on multiple thin coats with a rag. I put about six coats on each side

and I really wasn't happy with the way that it was turning out. you could see

little streaks in the finish so I decided to finish it up with a sprayer

to put the final three coats on.

After the varnish had cured for a couple of days,

I rubbed it down with pumice stone. This helps to make it really smooth and

it also removes some of the sheen that professional chess players don't really like to have on a board.

I'm using pumice stone mixed with paraffin oil then I

wiped off the oil with paper towel.

Then I applied paste wax to polish and protect the board.

So that's it.

Here are some photos of the boards from different points of view just so you can

see how everything turned out.

So I gotta ask....

Would YOU make it?