WIP - Chess box

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Crooked Tree

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I have been working on this for months and it is now almost there.

The plan was to build a box to hold chess men etc. with a chess board as a lid. The box material was to be from some old doors which I have "recycled".

The original plan for the board was to cut thinnish strips of black walnut and sycamore(?) from offcuts donated by my brother. This failed when the strips broke up on the table saw - they were too thin and I probably needed a zero clearance plate. Instead, I purchased a selection pack of veneers and did my first piece of veneering. In at the deep end with parquetry... how hard can it be?!

First, recycle some old doors donated by the god parents from their daughter's house (thank you). Removed the locks and hinges first then chopped them up to convenient size for future use:
100_1058.jpg


Ripping up with a circular saw and removing mouldings:
100_1060.jpg


I found after doing this one that the saw had gone through nails without my even noticing! Probably did not do the blade any good, but impressed with the saw.

Squaring up with Record No.5 planer:
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Ripped into strips on the table saw then thicknessed with my Record No.5 thicknesser:
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Now start making the box using the reclaimed timber (from looking in books I think that it may be dark red meranti - any better guesses?).
Cut to length:
100_1094.jpg


Square the ends:
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Dovetailed and french polished. The base is beech veneered MDF (bought already veneered) rebated into the frame:
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Preparing edge frame for the lid. This is to be mitred and keyed using walnut veneers to match board:
100_1153.jpg


Dry assembly:
100_1154.jpg


Veneers being assembled with gum tape prior to gluing to a piece of beech veneered MDF to make the board/lid. These were cut using a fence, steel rule, spacer blocks and a stanley knife. I gave the blade a hone on a fine oil stone first to make sure that it would cut cleanly:
100_1127.jpg


The board was fitted into a groove cut into the middle of the top frame using a router.

The finished article. Interior dividers are cross-halved together from beech to provide a contrast with the dark timber of the box. The same beech is used to provide a locating lip to the lid, to make it sit on the box. The beech was given one coat of white french polish to seal then waxed. The board was given many coats of white french polish, the meranti of the box itself was finished using brown french polish, lots of it because the grain was fairly coarse and I should perhaps have filled it. The unattractive veneered MDF surfaces are hidden using green felt. The chess men etc. are all pre-existing off-the-shelf items.

100_1204.jpg

100_1207.jpg

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The interior may receive some further work because there is too much space for pieces to rattle around... or it may not, owing to time constraints. I may do some more veneering. I have plenty of the pack left, although not so much of the walnut now. Perhaps some coasters?
 
I like it a lot you've done a great job on the veneering
especially considering it's first time you've tried
Well Done
Dave :D
 
The chess board is something I generally get one of the lads that come and work with me for two weeks from school on work experience. However, although I've supervised it being made, I've never actually done one myself. I've made plans to make one similar to yours, but never got round to producing it. If I was to make one I hope my own turns out as good as yours has! Well done.
 
really nice top - the grain on the walnut is excellent and this is a good example of how the light french polish keeps the sycamore looking white. Do you have anything to keep the lid attached to the box (hidden earth magnets for instance).

I did have to stare at the last picture for a while though until I realised the box did have a base, it was just the same material as the background!



Dave
 
Thanks all for the kind comments.

Alan, I just used common or garden Evostick PVA, exterior grade, because that is pretty much the only glue with which I have much experience! I am now trying out 10 minute PVA, but obviously not for veneering.

Dave (oddsocks): believe it or not I hadn't noticed that, but I do now! I just used the only plain material to hand as a backdrop for the photos, and it was the remainder of the piece bought for the lining. The lid is not attached to the box at all - it is just an interference fit between the inside of the box sides and the beech 'lip' on the underside of the lid. The 'lip' can be seen in the final photo and is simply a frame of beech strips, mitred together, and glued inside the lid.

There are a couple of blemishes in the veneer arising from my butting the strips together too closely prior to gluing. This resulted in needing to lift an edge of several squares with a scalpel, shave the edge to fit, insert more glue and re-clamp and then cabinet scrape/sand flat. Fortunately these blemishes do not stand out (except to me) and are not easily visible in the pictures :) .
 
You've done a really nice job of this. Looks very tidy all round.

Sounds like you could do with a bandsaw to rip those thin strips, though!! :wink:

That wood does look darker than any meranti (lauan) that I've seen but, the grain looks right... I don't it's sapele. Utile is another species which might have been used but, I've never seen it close up. The most important part is that it's recycled, which is always nice! :D
 
Hi Crooked Tree,
Nice Job!
I would think it is even more satisfying knowing the raw materials you started with.

Malc :D
 

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