My wife was out of town this past week, so I needed a project to work on in the evenings. I made this portable chess box/board using Wenge and Maple. The drawer is made from 1/8" maple ply and lined with leather. The pieces are made from Maple and African Padauk, with engraved images of the chess pieces. The entire playing area is 4" x 4". I’m really happy with how it turned out!
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You should be really happy that looks really great
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Wow! That’s tiny! I’d knock everything off the board trying to move a piece! But I absolutely love the whole design, especially the woods for the top. The whole thing looks very elegant!
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Thank you!
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Thanks! And yeah, it’s pretty small. I’ll probably include a pair of tweezers if I ever give it as a gift 
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That looks amazing. Great work!
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Beautiful choice of woods and great execution.
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Welcome! That is a fabulous first post and a treasure for the generations! 
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Turned out so cool, congrats!
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That turned out beautiful!
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That looks great! Nice workmanship. How was the Wenge to work with? I’ve never used it before and it has such a beautiful color!
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Thank you!
Thank you! Wenge is a tricky wood. It splinters really bad, so cutting it and processing it down to a laser-able state can sometimes be a pain (I run boards through a bandsaw to get the thickness I want, then run that through a drum sander for 3/16" thick boards). It’s also tricky to laser: it needs high power and relatively slower speed to cut through in a single pass (115/full is what I use). I’ve tried higher speeds with multiple passes, but I’ve found the edge charring to be worse and that throws my kerf adjustments off. But, all that being said, it sands super smooth and looks fantastic with lacquer. Once you dial in your settings and method, you couldn’t ask for a prettier wood.
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Wow it’s beautiful! And I recognize those images from a (much simpler) set i just finished… well done!
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do you use a wood grain filler on the wenge? i finally bought some a couple of months ago for my wenge, but i haven’t made anything with wenge since i bought it. i find that some wenge has some, for lack of better words, tiny gaps in the surface. it’s also not always super stable along the grain (depends on the piece of wood, some feels more stable than others).
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I didn’t use grain filler on this project, and generally don’t with my Wenge projects. If it were for a customer, I might, but since this was for my own amusement, I didn’t. You’re right, though–Wenge has lots of tiny gaps/voids. Personally, I don’t really mind them. Just part of the wood’s character. As for stability, I haven’t had any issues. It might be my supplier selling me the good stuff, but I’ve never had any real problems with Wenge warping/swelling/etc.
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That is a very lovely dark wood.
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For very dark wood that would be easier to work and not break the bank (Gabon Ebony), I have Katalox that I have not had a design worthy of it as yet but would probably go there before wenge even though I have some of all three.
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A touch screen pen with the soft nub would work for pushing pieces around without using fat fingers and a set of two should fit in your drawer.
Small size is actually not a deal breaker. People who play chess will figure it out and roll with it.
Project came out very well. Be proud.
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Thanks for that! A touch screen pen is a really good idea.
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