I'll probably never build a chess table, but some of the techniques that you use are easily translated to just about any fine furniture project. Great work, please keep them coming. - Chris
I've watched this video no less than three times now. I'm just starting to mill up the wood for a commissioned chess table. Mine will have a drawer on each side with foam and fabric to custom fit each chess piece and also have room for a clock and notepads. Like yours, the gameboard will be removable. Thank you for making these videos! They've been very helpful!
I would love a chess table like this with a removable top, but modify the chess board to be able to turn around and the other side be a backgammon board, so you can play either game on the table. Two drawers or a split drawer for the chess pieces and backgammon pieces.
A very nice piece, lovely straightforward lines and very clever construction, you are obviously not afraid of any amount of work. I congratulate the owner, he has something to last the generations.
I would have truly become rich the day I would be able to order any of your chess table including the shipping charges to India and not feel bad having to spend so much extra on the shipping.....love your work Sir..... you make such beautiful boards with such fineness....keep making them
Gorgeous table. I’m designing something like this for a small apartment - it will be a dining table for 2 as well as a chess table. Thanks for the inspiration!
I would not make it because I don’t have the space for the tools. And no experience making something like this. But I must add, this is the most beautiful piece of furniture I have ever seen. I really enjoyed watching you make the table. I may try to make simple chess board with no boarders. That is my speed.
A very very nice project. If I had large pieces of timber I would give it a go. I have access to some good timber but to get the most optimun use I would rip it down to 12mm for the chess top and use a 12 mm ply as you have. The table is fine and I do like the taper of the legs. I think I would use an inlay of checkers rather than the ball foot . Thanks very much for the views when doing this project.
Nice! Well designed. I like the idea of the removable top. I've found Titebond's liquid hide glue to be good where I need long set up time as in your drawer. Supposedly, you can maintain the joints in the future just as with traditional heated hide glue. You just need to be sure and get a "fresh" bottle at the store. The older it gets, the less likely it will cure. If I ever make a chess table, I believe I'd make two half drawers with a middle separator/support so each player could store their own pieces and possibly contribute toward quicker game setup. Thanks for your video.
Allan Wolfe and then some sort of lazy Susan jig inside it so a person working through ideas alone can turn the table and drawers around easily to look at one side and then the other.
Looks great! Wonderful video. Smart move gluing a chess board to both sides. Many years ago I made on by gluing end grain pieces to only one side. When the weather changed and the squares changed size, it turned into a trough. I threw it away. "Balancing" the construction was very smart.
I have stumbled upon your Chess board making videos. Having never made a cutting board or such, which for the most part in my own mind this chess board construction reminds me off.. I am quite pleased to learn of the many steps taken here to ensure Accuracy of the many cuts you have made. These chessboards look amazing in the end. As of this video I do not own a jointer nor a drum sander.. perhaps a future investment. The craftsmanship is what I am seeking here. Not a rushed video with poor lighting and audio. I prefer your step by step explanation along the entire build. As you know , those whom make things with wood can spot things very quickly.. lol and no lol. In these videos, again, the quality I see in the finished pieces can only be achieved by Paying Attention to every detail. This separates the Amateur from the Chef. Well done would be the short version of what I could have said.. I feel though my long explanation touches each aspect of the build. Looking forward to the next videos. Stay safe ...
If I could afford it I would commission a table like this. The removable board really is a smart practical feature. The only change I would make would be to add pull out slots to the sides for a clock.
Blown away. An incredible piece, your workmanship shows throughout the video. I wood make it but have nowhere near the talent to do it. Love the spherical feet. The only change I may have made would be to make the opposite side of the board a backgammon board as long as the top is removable anyway.
something I would do differently is making the feet adjustable in case I need to fix a wobbly table. For that I would install threaded inserts into each of the spheres.
Quite by chance I will be taking delivery of a chess set and board - all made from real wood - I think on Friday. I love the one you made with wood and passion!
amazing! The spherical feet really make the board look next level! My family had a board like this, but it got left out in the rain one summer and it got badly warped..
@@Woodumakeit Still honeymooning here, about 2 years in from diagnosis. Enjoying low (ish) doses of MDI until a pump is truly necessary. I'm like a hawk spotting CGMs and pumps. Already have a few of your projects put on the queue - going through your "for Leo" videos now, and thinking of things for my 8 month old son!
I cannot find it at the moment, but someone had made a jig for cutting the legs that would have made it a little more simple. They drilled holes in the guides for the head and foot of the leg guide to hold it in place, and put those on T-Tracks so they could be adjusted on all three axes (I think that is the plural of axis?). Then you just put the leg in the jig and adjust the foot in or out to the desired cutting depth, and as you rotate the leg you are on the same axis so you do not need to put the shaved down portions in to try and keep things lined up.
Thank you Mike for making a beautiful video of your beautiful table. I enjoyed this video so much and it's because you had such relaxing background music and a great narrative voice. I find woodworking very relaxing and you just nailed it with your combination. I love watching your videos and your style of building, well done and thank you 😊
Truly amazing! Thank you for sharing your wonderful skills! I would make it, my next summer project. However, don't have your tools and especially your knowledge.
The barbells may look 'heavy'; but they do not put enough pressure on the board. Let's say the barbells are 20 pounds each. On a board of 256 sq. in. that means a pressure of 0.156 psi., which is close to nothing. For gluing boards on top of each other it is better to use a vacuum bag, and let the atmospheric pressure do the job; that is 14.5 psi, which is about 100 times more than the barbells can deliver.
This is a beautiful piece of work my friend.. Credit to ya bcos that had to have taken a lotta hours to finish this stunning piece just right.. The Spheres on the bottom of the legs were a nice touch. Funnily enough my favourite piece on the table was that drawer front. Sorry I know it sounds stupid after all that work u put in but the drawer front looked so nice with the different colours in the grain of that walnut.. I would love to get some wide boards like that to work on.. A nice thick piece and book end them for a beautiful cabinet of some kind.. Great job mate.. Keep up the brilliant work..
Looks Great. I don't understand using threaded rod for attaching the feet to the legs. I thought you might be using it for leveling later, but the holes were so big that epoxy was used almost as a filler. You've made great use of some nice tools. Nice shop. Good work.
Awesome table, love it. I designed a chess box one time with a lid or top that came off and had the chess board on the inside. You could flip it upside down and fit it on top of the box to play. It also had two drawers for the pieces.
I don't want to tell you but the spheres would have looked better on top where the table legs start. Or I would have cut the table legs in half and put the spheres in the middle. But it is what it is, right...
Fantastic job BUT..... Not sure about those feet. They look a bit too clumpy for what (I think) is a very nice looking table. Apart from that, I love it.
I would love to have one like it, but I recognize that I am not equipped to make anything that nice. My tools and my skills are not there yet, and I can't easily source the materials. Very nice work. Beautiful table.
As usual your workmanship is impeccable. I would love to build this able but I'm not sure about the feet. My father left me a lathe but I have never turned anything on it. For some reason I have a fear of lathes.
You should give it a try. Just start slowly until you're comfortable around the tool. I was fearful of turning these spheres because I was worried that the glued up pieces would break apart, but it ended up being easier than I thought.
Every sensible person has a fear of lathes, they can take your arm off if you're stupid around them. But so can most power woodworking tools, or fingers at least. Just be very careful and think through each action before you do it, and you'll be fine.
I love the chess board. Great video! I found it very relaxing. However, I'm not sure about those round feet. I was very impressed with the way you made them but I'm not sure about the look in the end. Thank you for sharing this. One day I hope to build something similar.
Absolutely amazing build. Everything else is above and beyond perfection, so I do have to wonder why with all the amazing work you did that you did not put dovetail joints in the drawer? As a minor up sale, I may have offered to make a slab (miniature chess board maybe) to fit inside of the drawer with recessed holes on the surface to hold each chess piece in its own felt lined slot. And thank you so much for including links to the items used in the video. I'm getting back into wood working for the first time in about 30+ years and having these items linked helps so much. There are so many new tools, jigs and gadgets that were not available 30 years ago to make this type of precision a bit less tedious.
Thanks for the feedback. My main reason for using box joints was to carry the chess board theme into the drawer by having the square joinery with alternating colors. It would have been even better if I had ended up with 8 full squares.
I feel wrong for saying this in this in you comment section sorry Mike, but i'm actually a woodworker and i make wooden tables, chairs, tabletops, well whatever the customer wants, now i don't know if he makes these chess tables to sell them but i could, let me know if you want one i could definitely build you one.
What a beautiful table! Unfortunately is unusable for an active chess player who plays frequently with clocks and notebooks to write down the moves. It is too low and too small.
Mate, I don't know what's in the various coatings you're applying outdoors with the spray gun, but if it will seal the surface of a peace of timber, you don't want it inside your lungs. Going outside isn't enough - please use a respirator! Better using a workshop respirator now than a hospital respirator later.
Interesting video. It looks like you've made every mistake I made and possibly added a few of your own. Let me explain. Recently I made 10 end grain chess boards all of them were made very much like yours, about a half inch thick glued to a piece of Baltic Birch. As I was wrapping up the project I put a finish of mineral oil and bees wax on the first chess board done. I let the oil and wax soak in really well and wiped clean and let it set out not in my shop but in my house. The next morning upon examination I to my horror saw wide cracks in the end grain surface of the boards. Let me add here that I've made 3D end grain cutting boards with absolute success, as in no cracking. I've been dealing with stabilizing the wood in order to save the project for about a week now and think I've hit upon the answer. Analyzing what I've done brings me to this conclusion. The plywood backing is not allowing the wood to move as it needs to because of varying humidity conditions. When the wood dries even just a little cracks start to open up. I hope you got different results but I don't see how you could. For me, and this really applies just to me, I've come away thinking I've made an amateurs mistake. Let me also add that I never saw your video until this morning so I have no one to blame but myself.
My husband passed away recently and was an amateur woodworker. He would love this piece. I would like to purchase this table for my son in memory of him as they both played chess. Is that possible?
I am so sorry for your loss. I would be honored to make something in memory of your husband. You can contact me at woodumakeit@gmail.com so that we can discuss the details.
Gorgeous except for the feet. I feel chess boards are always complemented by minimalist features as the board is the focus. The feet make it look like it belongs in Willy Wonka's office. Watching your videos make me want to do work again.
