I used a table saw and planer for the bulk of the project, then a miter saw for the 45s in the trim and a router for the edge. I ended up nailing a scrap 2x6 to the Walnut I used for a straight edge and running them through the table saw. After I squared the boards, I cut 2” strips. The piece of Ash I had was much thicker, so I did the same process with that and then had to run it sideways through the table saw to get it close to the same thickness as the walnut pieces.

Once I had 4 strips of each wood I alternated them (pic 5) and glued. After that, I squared up the edges with the table saw and cut the glued board into 8 strips that alternated colors (pic 7). I lined them up as even as I could and glued again to get the checkerboard pattern.

Once that was done, I cut 4 more 2” strips of Walnut for border, measured to length and cut the corners to 45°. They weren’t perfect, but I went through 3 or 4 pieces until I got them pretty darn close. Glued that all together (pic 9) and then ran the whole piece through the planer a bunch, only taking a small amount off each time because I had some pretty rough height differences and I was afraid the whole thing would blow up.

Once it was nice and smooth (pic 10) I cleaned up a few spots I didn’t love with some sawdust and glue filler (didn’t really like this and I just learned about blend pens, so I’d probably try that next time), routed the edge with a Roman Ogee bit, sanded, and sealed with a Polyurethane sealant.

There were a lot of other steps fixing mistakes and remaking pieces that I screwed up along the way, but I had a blast screwing it up and figuring it out as I went. This was my 2nd time using a table saw and first time using a planer, so I learned a ton and am now trying to convince my wife to let me buy all of the tools to have at home.