I built a $2000 chess board for $20

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This DIY walnut and maple chess board is super easy to make! PLANS AVAILABLE! Check out this tutorial video on how I made my own wooden chess board out of walnut and maple.

This wood chess board was pretty easy to make and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, the client wanted this hideous edge detail on the chess board...so that kind of ruined the design...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this project and as always, let me know if you try this one out! Tag me @SpencleyDesignCo on Instagram so I can check it out!

*DISCLAIMERS: Some of the above links are affiliate links. This costs you absolutely nothing, but pays me a small commission and helps me continue to create this FREE content.

#chessboard #chess #woodworking

📖. Chapters 📖
00:00 - Milling Lumber
02:00 - First Glue Up
05:00 - Fixing Voids in the Wood
05:45 - The Most Important Step!
06:50 - Second Glue Up
07:55 - Laminating the Board
09:10 - Actually...THIS Might be the Most Important Step
11:10 - Adding Thin Edge Banding
13:30 - Making the Border
16:30 - I Shouldn't Have Done This...
17:52 - Finishing and Beauty Shots

[SpencleyDesignCo]

T-SHIRTS + MERCH: Patreon.com/SpencleyDesignCo

[GabeSchultz]

That router profile actually looks really good and fits that elegant chess board design. I’m all for modern profiles, too but it still does look good! Nice build!

[LanceNYC]

The Roman Ogee looks fantastic. It makes a lot of sense on a board for as classic a game as Chess.

[brucemeyer]

The chessboard is absolutely gorgeous, including the ogee profile. Great job.

[DIYDaveOK]

That router profile looks fantastic and totally elegant. It gives tremendous edge detail and frames the board beautifully with a sense of delicacy surrounding the crisp, square board pieces. 😊

[Warkive]

Let me start with the positives and say that as a new woodworker myself I appreciate the lesson's learned on some of the processes and approaches you took with limited equipment. I also like that you embraced the imperfections in recording/narrating. It's definitely harder than it looks and seeing someone own those mistakes was refreshing. That said, I was pretty put off by how strongly you trashed the client's edge profile choice, and even doubled down in the comments here as well. I get that you want to make sure the audience knows that wasn't your choice, but you could have pretty simply just said you would have gone with a different profile and left it at that. Also, that price is kind of mind-boggling to me considering it has a plywood base. Hats off that you got a client to bite on that but wow, I'm not sure I can comprehend it for what ultimately went into the project.

[mikep]

For $2, 000, I sure hope this cutting board came complete with matching chess pieces.

[michaelross]

Your client was completely right about the router bit! Still, I'm curious to see what the other one would've looked like!

[TheSketchy]

hey bro, never diss the clients decisions, especially on a public platform like this. just say "it's not what you would have picked"

[metzessible]

This came out great! Love the thin strip between the border and the squares. And while that ogee is old-timey, it definitely looks classic. Nice work!

[MGScarlet]

I find it easier to glue the maple strip to the Walnut first, then glue the combined trim piece onto the project. That way both pieces of trim have the exact same miter in the corner. But either way works of course.

[BobStCyr]

Yes there is a "healthy" amount of glue. Optimum glue strength with most PVA glue is attained at .002 to .007 of an inch. More or less glue will be a weaker joint. I'd say just by eyeballing your glue up there you had too much glue. Many "old school" woodworkers did what was referred to a "rubbed" joint - if the edges are well jointed you can put a thin layer of glue on each surface, put them together, rub them back and forth a little to ensure that the glue is totally spread. If you pull lightly on one board the whole thing should move rather than pulling the joint apart. As an apprentice way back in the early 70's I made hundreds of solid panels this way for a very prestigious and high priced furniture company. The notion that you can stop wood from moving is wrong. One of the main properties of wood is it's hydroscopic - it reacts to water, humidity up and it absorbs moisture and swells, humidity down and it loses moisture and shrinks. Plywood glues very thin pieces in uneven numbers and each layer with the grain turned 90 degrees, even then not all plywood will remain flat. The reason large panels for doors are built with the frame and panel construction is to allow the panel to move while the frame remains mostly stable. The panel is left smaller than the opening that holds it in the frame to allow it to freely shrink and expand without distorting the overall frame. Test have shown that a solid panel - or a glued up solid panels such as your chess board will continue to shrink and expand with changes in humidity which will stress the glue joint that is holding it to the plywood. The stress that can be generated is thousands of pounds. The better solution would be to make the chess board float in or on a frame. Depending what aesthetic you want you could have the frame thicker than the board with the board inside a groove in the frame - like a typical frame and panel door. You could alternatively run the groove in the panel and have a tongue in the frame. Either way you get a structure that would allow for the inevitable wood movement. I would lay money that you will have some joints opening up on that board within 5 years. Yes it may not show for one year or two but sooner or later that wood movement will be greater than the glue or will split some wood and you'll have a crack.

[droson]

3 years late but have got to say that router bit honestly suited the board really well.

[marktroendle]

Remember when making things it’s not about what you like it’s about what other people like

[ckirkwalsh]

Dang, not used to people openly insulting their client’s taste.

[NerdStuff]

3:53 You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. No clamp can go unused, and you definitely could have added one more tiny clamp at the bottom left corner. Without it, you are risking the whole chess board just falling apart. Im speaking from experience.

[MD-enzm]

It actually does matter how big the squares are if you are selling them and want them to be regulation - 2-2.5 inches for USCF, 5-6 cm for FIDE.

[VeritasNous]

20 years ago my dad made me a chessboard (and an identical one for my aunt) in pretty much exactly this way, minus the nice border strip, questionable edge choice (he just rounded it off), and with a little less attention to lining up the squares perfectly (lol). I still have it today and it's one thing I'll hold onto my whole life. It's a prized possession. Great work on the board! It gave me a bit of a nostalgia trip.

[CMRct]

I think that was very disrespectful to your client.

[mattbrady]

I'm going to be honest I love the video for the most part but when you're blessed enough to find a client that will overpay you by $1, 500 for a chessboard that looks no better than my $500 cutting boards, you probably shouldn't spend 2 minutes publicly dunking on their taste in trim...