On Jul 6, 10:41*pm, "barry712" wrote:
I have a very good friend who runs a gallery in Gatlinburg, TN who wants me
to make him a very nice, and rather large, chessboard. *I'm thinking the
squares will be something like 5". *His chess *pieces will be comic book
action figures about 8" tall. *I will turn a 4" round base for each of
these. *I'm guessing the board itself will be glued up of squares of
maple/cherry or maple/walnut. *I'm thinking some simple inlay work may help
to dress up the board.

Does anyone have any advice/plans/ideas on how I should proceed? *I have
some concerns that the board will simply be too large to "look right". *If
the board is composed of 64 - 5" squares, that means it will be 40" X 40",
plus it really should have a border or 5" or 6". *To me, a four (4') foot
chessboard is not too practical. *But it is more a display for the action
figures than it is a board for playing chess. *Comments please. *Thanks.

There's going to be a lot of wood movement in a board that big. I
don't know that making the squares from solid wood is a good idea.
It'd be a shame to go to all of that effort and have the board develop
splits and warp. Veneer on plywood would be more stable and more
economical.

You may want to think about embedding rare earth magnets in the figure
bases and pieces of steel in the board, or vice versa, so the figures
would stay put unless you wanted to move them.

R