derek, 4 months ago

I took the oak and the poplar, and sanded them both with 120, 150, and 220 sand paper). Then I applied conditioner to the oak, and then stained it with a water based "espresso" stain.

I think the contrast between the white and the black wood is obvious and the wood grain looks great.

#woodworking #diy #chess #crafting

derek, 4 months ago

Stain looks good! ♟️

A closeup of highly contrasted brown and white stained boards juxtaposed

derek, 4 months ago

I took the board to my table saw and cut it up. Laid in a checker pattern, the pieces fit pretty cleanly together.

One difference between working with 1/4" boards, as I am here, and 1/2" board as I did in the past, is that the glue doesn't feel very strong. Maybe I should give it a backing...

Next, thinking about the sides of the box.

#chess #diy #woodworking #crafting

derek, 4 months ago

There is nothing like gluing together a bunch of finely cut squares together to help you realize that they are not, in fact, squares, but a collection of 1mm-off irregular rectangles. 🫣

#crafting #chess #woodworking

derek, 4 months ago

It never ceases to amaze me how round saw blades can make such straight, regular shapes. Geometry! 🤓

I don't have a lathe, but I do have a table saw, so I'm starting to experiment with ideas for #chess pieces.

These are made out of a 1" ash dowel.

#woodworking #crafting

a rought-cut block of wood resembling a pillar on a cubic pedestal.

derek, 4 months ago

learning a bit more about wire inlay. The idea is that I'll have inlay around the board.

superglue helps!

#woodworking

derek, 4 months ago

Pawn and Bishop experiments. I'm growing more and more excited that I'll be able to make something interesting!

#chess #woodworking #crafting

a wooden, angular bishop

derek, 3 months ago

I think I need a simpler joint. Tried making a jig, it ended up being too complicated.

derek, 3 months ago

OK, starting to make more standardized pieces. I took a pawn experiment I liked and measured the dimensions. Now I'm recreating the pieces.

One challenge: I can't figure out the exact height of the saw blade, so I'm measuring by 1/3rd cranks on the elevation wheel. The base is 0 cranks (no cut), the neck is 5/6, 4/6, and 3/6 cranks, and the "head" is 1/6 cranks.

#chess #carpentry #diy

A set of roughly similar pawn shapes.

derek, 3 months ago

practicing box joints. Much simpler than finger joints!

#woodworking

derek, 3 months ago

Boards and margins finished. Having a table saw makes for better joints.

derek, 2 months ago

Margins finished (again) for my chess board. I made them in poplar because I think the carving work I want to do will be easier in soft wood.

Then, I cut the 2" sides of the box into 1" slices. 🫣 Added bevels.

I am stretching my knowledge here, for sure.

#woodworking #chess #diy #poplar

an unstained chess board box seed from the side

derek, 2 months ago

For a hot minute I thought I'd decorate the margins with an illustrative scene with wire inlay! Big ambitions to do a series of #LordOfTheRings illustrations with copper inlay.

I've landed on much a simpler geometric pattern. More doable.

#copper #inlay #woodworking #crafting #diy

a simple set of overlapping squares and leaves in copper inlay

derek, 2 months ago

There we go.

derek, 2 months ago

Drew the inlay pattern on the opposide side of the board (this time using the speed square... yay for having those right angles handy).

You know, woodworking has made me appreciate the real-world implications of my high school #geometry class.

There's something to be said for proofs - if you have a shape, and you know the dimensions of some of those shapes, you can also know the angles of the shape, and the dimensions of other sides.

#wireInlay #chess #woodworking

A board with the inlay patterns visible on both sides.

derek, 2 months ago

I've come to realize the consequences of a decision I made to make the storage space of the board ~1.5" tall (half the dimensions of my first board)!

ALL the pieces (which will be at max 1" wide) must fit on a single side of the box.

I have a plan. It may or may not involve magnets.

derek, 2 months ago

Omg. On the last element of my wire inlay project I figured out how to do inlay correctly. Look at the difference!

Moving forward (if I do more inlay) I'm going to save so much glue, prevent so much damage to the wood!

#woodworking #wireInlay #diy

A wire inlay leaf. Rough lines, noticeable damage to wood, lots of dried glue.

GustavinoBevilacqua, 2 months ago

@derek

😍
Ok, now please explain us the trick, thanks.

derek, 2 months ago

@GustavinoBevilacqua lessons learned:

1. Hammer the wire until it is as thin as possible

2. Make the cuts deep and narrow

I was not hammering enough and the wire was somewhat rounded. Because of this I was making wide cuts to fit the inlay, and it bounced around. Because of this I had to use a lot of glue. Lots of hammering. The whole thing was, to say the least, messy.

With thin wire, the sides of the narrow cut grip the wire. It just requires a little glue to keep together!

derek, 2 months ago

🥰

derek, 2 months ago

Cue the sad trumpets. Major bummer.

I honestly have no idea why this is happening. Did I over sand the wood close up all the pores?

#woodworking