I’ve been wanting to make a nice chess board for a while. GF to the rescue.
I went to the wood store yesterday to get more Baltic Birch plywood (I go through it quickly). While I was there, I saw some 1/4in thick pieces of exotic woods. I picked up a few to try them out.
I got some yellowheart and some black walnut.
I did some tests cuts. Going 140 speed, full power, 2 passes worked well. Although there were some pretty big flare ups on the second pass. Keep a good eye on these if you try it.
I also tried some Purpleheart, but that did not cut well, even after 3 passes.
After my tests, I cut squares out of them.
I used tape to hold the pieces in place, and numbered the back of the squares, so I could keep the grain aligned. I sanded those pieces down with 220 sandpaper.
I then cut a template to hold all the squares and put them in place, with the nice side down. I cut the template a little smaller than the total square size in my design, so that they would be snug.
I then glued a board over top of it. I wanted the edge to be kind of “floating”, so the board underneath is slightly smaller.
I put something heavy over top to “clamp” it down.
I then put some of this stuff on it:
And it came out really nice.
It would probably work great with the proofgrade woods as well. If only they shipped to Canada I would pick up a few.
