"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.

Glue up adjoining strips of 5"-6" wide, then cross cut in 5"-6" strips
and slip one (1) block, then glue to get checkerboard pattern.

When cured, clean bottom till smooth, then laminate to a piece of
plywood, say 1/4" (6mm) thick.

If you make the blocks 1/4" thick, you get a 1/2" panel that could be
loose fit into the rest of the table, same as you would a drawer
bottom.




Lew