Replies

1. 
   johnhardy | Jan 21, 2003 10:46pm | #1

   There are really two choices. Use solid wood or use veneer. I make high end boards as a hobby and use the solid wood approach. My boards are not extremely wide, are extremely well made, and I haven't had expansion problems.

   I'll describe what I do and you can decide.

   I start off with pretty rough lumber, to keep the thickness (4/4). Rip walnut and maple strips to the desired dimension of your squares. I use 2 to 2.25 inches, depending on the board. I have a Jet cabinet saw with a Forrest blade so don't use a jointer.

   Glue up four walnut and four maple strips which are about 4 to 5 inches longer than 8 times the dimension of a square (for waste). Of course, you alternate the walnut and maple. For strength, I cut each strip for a hardwood spline and all joints are splined.

   The above glue-up gives you a flag-looking result, with the walnut and maple as the stripes. After the glue-up is dried, use a cutoff sled to cut strips that are about an eighth of an inch wider than the first strips you cut. You'll get these to the exact dimension on the saw by ripping later on.

   Rip the cut pieces to the exact same dimension as the first strips. (You could do this on the cutoff sled, but I have a Incra TS system and can replicate rips exactly ... and I get a truer result this way.)

   Simply turn every other piece so that when you glue up the eight pieces you get alternating squares for your board. The result should be exactly square and the squares should all meet exactly in the corner. Note that I also use splines for these glue-ups, for strength.

   For an outside border I use walnut, about 3 inches wide. I use an accent of cherry, about a quarter of an inch wide, to accent the interior of the board. Miter the corners and use splines between the border and the actual board, and use splines in the mitered corners, again for strength. For the mitered corners I've used walnut splines, which blend in, and ebony, to accent the piece. Both are nice.

   Finally, use your sander (I've got a Performax 16-32) to sand the entire board to desired thickness. After sanding, use your router to rout a nice edge on the piece.

   John

   PS - I haven't used it, but you could do the same thing, above, by laminating shop sawn veneer to MDF (the veneer should probably be at least an eighth of an inch thick) to both sides prior to sawing and glue-up. I simply wanted solid pieces and didn't go to the trouble of doing the veneer approach. Intuition tells me that the MDF approach would probably be somewhat more stable.

   
   

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   Edited 1/21/2003 4:42:09 PM ET by johnhardy

1. 
   MikeIke | Jan 21, 2003 11:16pm | #2

   John, both your approaches make a lot of sense to me. Thanks very much for a clear reply back. 

   Regards,

   Ike

1. 
   b1gcountry | Jan 22, 2003 12:22am | #3

   Well, I make some pretty nice chessboards out of veneer, and I'll tell you how I do it. This way you get one opinion on both approaches.

   I usually make mine between 1 3/4" and 2". Assuming 2", you will get a 16" playing surface. You need contrasting veneer about 8.5" x 17". I've used: walnut and ash burl; quilted maple and sapele; fiddleback sycamore and mahogany; but anything will do. I use store bought (1/28") veneers, and they are lasting just fine.

   First, I made a generic 'jig' of scrap 1-by. Just rip a 3' piece to exactly 2" (even if it isn't exact, it must be the same width throughout.) Cut it in half, so you have two battens of exactly the same width. Now use a utility knife to cut the veneer into strips about 1/16 - 1/8" oversized. Put it between the two battens so the sides of the battens line up, and a little veneer is sticking out both sides. Now use a block plane to shave down both sides until the veneer is flush with the batten. You now have eight strips of the exact same width.

   Glue and tape the veneer into a striped pattern. I usually line up the strips so they are in the same order they were cut in. Now repeat the process of cutting the stripes perpendicular to the stripes. Plane them down the same way as before. I usually rotate the first four and interleave them with the second four to get better grain matching. Glue these up, and you have a chessboard veneer sheet.

   To veneer the board to a substrate (1/2" MDF), I use several home made clamps made from 2x4s and threaded rod. Use whatever you have handy. Patio blocks are a low level approach; veneer press a high end one. Veneer the bottom with some backer quality veneer. Then set the panel into a mitered frame.

   I like to put string inlay around the inside of the frame. Also, I like keying the miter with either face keys or a spline.

   Tom

1. 
   johnhardy | Jan 22, 2003 12:53am | #4

   These sound very nice. As I said, there are two ways here, and this undoubtedly gives an exceptionally good looking result.

   I probably should have added one bit of information on the boards I make. My high end boards also have a very narrow piece of cherry in between the walnut and maple squares. I currently make this piece of cherry an eighth of an inch wide. This is very easy to do using solid lumber, as I simply plane (actually, abrasive plane) down some cherry to an eighth of an inch thick and insert these during the glue-up process.

   For some pictures (I'm not trying to push my boards here, this is just for an example of how the boards look ... everybody here could do this blindfolded and half asleep ...) go to http://www.legendproduct.com and search for chess boards, selecting the ones by me (John Hardy). The library boards are lower cost and don't have the cherry strips internal to the board.

   Making boards with this extra piece is definitely doable in veneer, but I find it faster to do these in solid wood ... and frankly I'm not a fan of veneer because of some major problems I've had with veneered antiques I own and have repaired for others. Simply personal preference here.

   John

1. 
   b1gcountry | Jan 22, 2003 06:22pm | #5

   If you do it right, the veneer will last the life of the board without peeling; unless it is a burl veneer.

   So do you just spline the solid wood board to the border without making allowances for movement? That scares me more than the veneer idea. I want to start making them with solid wood, but I don't feel I have a good way to account for the wood moving.

   Tom

2. 
   johnhardy | Jan 22, 2003 07:15pm | #6

   I've never had one of these come apart. They aren't 4 foot wide tables with mitered ends and such, which would scare the living daylights out of me.

   If you're really worried about the outside pieces, with the miters, I'd go with four outside pieces with the grain all going the same way with an overlap joint. I've seen some very, very nice boards done that way. << edit: for an example go to http://www.legendproduct.com and look at the chess boards. One maker uses this technique and his boards are stunning.>> But I'm personally very confident with the results I've been getting. A splined joint is extremely strong and the lengths are really pretty short.

   John

   Edited 1/22/2003 2:12:08 PM ET by johnhardy

3. 
   MikeIke | Jan 22, 2003 09:53pm | #7

   I never got the chance yesterday to respond to your first post. I appreciate the slant on veneering. I have never attempted it, but I am facinated by the things I see in print about it. Examples abound in meeting rooms at my place of employment- tables, desks, elevator car trim, etc. I am sure that 99+% of the folks here don't realize the skill behind their surroundings. Thanks for your note back,

   Ike

4. 
   johnhardy | Jan 22, 2003 10:07pm | #8

   When you've completed the board please give us a rundown as to how it went. I'd be curious as to how your son took to the "lesson." And do post a picture.

   John

5. 
   MikeIke | Jan 22, 2003 10:27pm | #9

   I'll do that. Took a  look at the pics on John's link. Nice!