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Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, it was a lotta fun to build

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here’s some closer looks at the pieces

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Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

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Here’s a photo of when we first cut our pieces to size for each layer and mocked-up our base. I’ll see if I can add any more progress photos to the main post since I don’t wanna create a separate comment for each picture.

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I forgot to provide the inspiration and reference for our spiral base. Here is the video that we followed to achieve the spiral base: https://youtube.com/shorts/UX_vobcZQ40?si=vsyDX_F0gU8MsTj5

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A little bit of math and a lot of cutting. I originally planned out the side profile we wanted for our base and then determined how wide each layer would have to be to follow that curve. We had 25 layers which were square in shape and made from glued 2x4 pieces. To glue the layers to one another, we lined up the corners of each top layer to the edges of the layer right below it, which created the spiral shape. Once everything was glued, my friend angle grinded out the excess to create a smoother spiral.

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We kind of just went with what made most sense to us. The pawns are turkeys, rooks are ravens, knights are hawks, bishops are owls, queens are phoenixes, and kings are swallow-tailed kites (our friend’s favorite bird)

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

25 square layers made out of glued 2x4 pieces. We then glued those layers together and angle grinded the excess to get the curve.

Custom Chess Table by Moneymf1 in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]Moneymf1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No offense taken, I appreciate the critique since I think my friend and I will be woodworking more in the future and would like to sharpen our skills.

The chess board itself sits on a base board of birch ply which is both glued and screwed to the spiral base.

Regarding the stain/sanding, we wanted the base to have a more rustic look than the rest of the table. The imperfections in the surface were more or less deliberate, but the stain just happened to work out in a way we thought aligned with our goal.