How to (NOT) make a Chessboard | Beginner's Mistakes 

Wow at nearly 3 years old this video has exploded! (At least for me). I appreciate all the views and comments of advice. Just a bit of background. This was my very first RU-vid video and is cringy to watch for multiple reasons! The saw technique being the biggest reason. My editing and voice over skills being another big one for me personally. I still consider myself a beginner in both regards, but the recent response to this video has inspired me to continue to make videos and improve my skills. Rest assured I do not use the table saw like this anymore 😀 Thanks so much for watching and subscribing! If you have a sec check out my other videos!

Don't sweat the early mistakes. You've got a decent mix of tools, and you'll gain the experience over time to do some nice stuff. When glueing strips, clamp a couple of straight rigid boards across the strips, top and bottom, to keep them flat. Use wax or parchment paper to keep them away from the glue. This will really cut down on the planing and sanding.

I'm sure after 4 years your skills have truly improved. I wish you best of luck in your woodworking endeavors.

You made this video some 3years ago and this is my first visit. I think it’s inspiring to any wood worker beginning or experienced. You learn from your mistakes and find a way to make it right. Your shop looks well equipped and one thing I can offer is to use them, it’s a lot easier and safer. Your honesty and narrative made this a pleasure to watch.

Two words --- riving knife.

I love your honesty and humbleness. Mistakes happen and we learn from it. This video inspired me to make one. I hope you stay safe and healthy and nothing bad happens to you in shop. Love your videos man. Keep up the great work.

That was a rough journey. And I only say that not to dog you, but because I know exactly how that feels. Man, you perservered and you made a lot of small mistakes (we all do) but the point to take home was you ended up with a beautiful piece at the end! The mistakes don't matter. What matters / mattered was you stuck it out and fixed them. Great work. I hope mine turns out that nice in the end!

Absolutely beautiful - very generous to share that. I have seen lots of videos with perfect presentations which are obviously geared towards selling. But your video is actually inspiring dudes like me who have never done this and don't have fancy machinery to make something like that. YOUR chessboard and especially the way YOU made it is my favored. THANK YOU

Dont beat yourself up too much over this. Anytime you make your "prototype" project, it always takes a lot longer as you are working through things as you go. The next time will be a lot easier. In the end, you have a really nice chessboard, and unless you are making these for production, thats all that counts.

Tip for gluing - add some salt to the glue, it helps them not to slide around when clamped.

Despite your "learn as you go" errors, it really turned out beautifully! The contrast between the wood squares is really nice. I also liked your choice of finish going with the satin. I am going to try to build my first entire set, starting off with the board and then on to the pieces, but at a smaller scale of 75% USCF size (1.5" squares). I just bought a Dremel 4" table saw for the board and a small Dremel lathe for the pieces. A full size set would likely exceed the capacity of my tools, so I'll just plan on scaling everything down. Great job again!

It’s easy to rave about your successes, but it takes real sand for a man to show others his failures. Cheers for that. You’re ahead of the game for two reasons: First, RU-vid. I wish I had access to so much visual instruction when I first started woodworking. And second, you seem smart enough to ask for help. Best of luck on the journey.

Thanks for the video. I'm a beginning woodworker too. It's nice to see someone else who makes mistakes and has to figure out how to fix them.

There are (and will be) lots of people just starting out to work with wood and woodworking machinery. Experts can explain how they easily make something but the beginner will struggle to accomplish close to the same thing. Watching YOUR mistakes and learning just as you did is much, much better than watching an expert craft a perfect piece. Thank you, tremendously, for showing your mistakes. This video is a treasure!

Dude! Make yourself a decent push stick! A scrap piece of wood is not a push stick. I cringed when I saw you using that thing. As far as bar clamping, use more clamps and alternate them top /bottom to even out the forces and as you say, do not overtighten. Clamping cauls may help to even out the pressure as well.

I love it. Thank you for sharing! I cringed at your mistakes and cheered at your "but I can fix it". A chess board is hard to execute. The theory is really simple but you have to do everything right. A day of woodworking that doesn't involve bleeding is a success. I appreciate your humility. Your board looks great!

It honers you that you talk about the mistakes , but still improvised , adapted and overcame. The result is super and you will treasure this board for years. The little imperfections make it unique and human.

Using your push stick right next to the fence tends to rotate the stock into the blade-a recipe for mangled stock and a mangled body from kickback. Get or make yourself a decent push stick, one that applies pressure to the top of the workpiece as well as pushing it forward. [Ah, I see one in use at 7:25.] When cutting really thin strips, it is far safer (for you and the stock) to cut the strips so they fall away from blade, not between the blade and the fence. It's a bit more fiddly to get the thicknesses consistent, but it's not that hard and decidedly worth it. When filling gaps, it's best to use wood glue; superglue will darken the wood, making the repair more evident. You ended up with a nice piece, and without having been told about the mistakes made along the way, it's unlikely anyone would ever know.

THANKS MOST WOOD WORKERS WONT SHOW THERE MISTAKES, GREAT JOB. I ALSO A BEGINNER!!!!!!

Great looking chess board! Observation : You need to align your fence to your saw blade, or you will be sanding more than you will be sawing. Spend a few days calibrating your saw fence and making sure your saw blade teeth has enough clearance to material as well as a thick steel so it will not bend during the cut. After the cut you should only need light sanding instead of trying to sand off the burn marks. Let the blade rest on hardwoods and even use lubricate to cool the blade to prevent it from overheating & bending while going through a lot of material.

You weren't born a master woodworker. You learn by doing. Your chess board was a great challenge and learning project. Something to be proud of. Display it with pride. It would be great to see where you are now in your woodworking journey. Keep "doing" and learning.

Checkmate!! Looks like years of fun. It will be handed down. Still have my grandfather’s that he made about 100 years ago. Yours turned out beautiful❤️

That was a lot of hard work behind that beautiful chess board. Looking great in the end. Good feeling to play chess with a home built board.

Wonderful. What a helpful tutorial. Love it. Thanks for your humility and candor.

I have now watched several very skilled craftsmen making chessboards. They come in ultra high-end, using expensive materials, down to this one, which uses off cuts. They are all fantastic, but this one brings it down to MY level. I have to hunt down some wood now. Thanks for the video. It is great!

I'm sure you'll excell at whatever you do - as you clearly seek and accept advice rather than thinking you know everything as (some) others do. Great honest video, which gives someone with far less skill some hope. Thanks for posting flaws and all - it really helps.

I just made my first chessboard and even if I had watched your video, I probably would have still made some of the same mistakes. I learn by doing, and I learned a lot. One thing that amazes me about woodworking is how similar it is to PGA golf. While it’s nice to be in the fairway and on the green, the most important skill is recovering from a bad situation. In woodworking this typically involves a lot of sanding!!! 😂😂😂😂😂 Great video!!!

the best way i find to do accurate forty fives is by fussing and caliberting your saw to a couple thousandths or so true. It is easier to have a high end miter gage like the incra which is tedious to set up true but stays there and will only need to be trued to ninety degrees the forty five settings are true to the ninety to a couple thousandths or so. it has taken me quite a few years to actually learn how to set up my mitre gage correctly using the five sided board method.

Great! i made one for a school project back in 1995 I've still got it. They are things of beauty to me. 👍👍

Really helpful to see how you fixed your mistakes.

When I have some trouble with varying thickness of boards causing trouble on the table saw like you described, I use some hot glue or double sided tape to attach a smooth carrier (MDF of somthing similar) to the bottom and let that slide on the table saw surface. Easy peasy for taking care of that until you get it dressed down smoother. There are also lots of videos using a router sled to smooth the surface down. I have used this method a couple of times and it is great for reducing the amount of sanding required to get the surface smooth.

I made a thinner chessboard in woodshop when I was in high school; we glued the board to another piece of wood and I had no problems plaining the board since it was attached to a base at that point.

Thanks for your humble presentation. Many of my projects are the "second" attempt. You were able to salvage your first attempt with surprisingly good results. The gap filling on the 45's was particularly impressive. If you'd like to play a game... I'll play white... E4...

You're Perfect👍🏻 In your first time. Like me, learning by ourselves. Also, learning from the mistakes. Thoroughly enjoyed your woodwork. I love that two-wood colors.

Yep, you made all the mistakes i did when starting out woodworking. In addition to the saw/push block/sticks and glue up recommendations, i would recommend getting a nice, relatively inexpensive “lunch box” planer like the Dewalt DW 735 as well as a jointer for 8” wide boards. Most everyone that bought a six inch jointer eventually wished they got the larger one. These tools will save you a lot of time and grief while making your projects better. I also made a slab flattening mill out of plywood to surface cutting boards, which would also do great on chess boards. Finally, exotic hardwoods are usually oily which interferes with glue bonding to it. Prior to gluing, rub/clean the wood area to be glued with acetone to remove the oil so the pieces don’t eventually separate. I enjoyed your video, especially as i tell people the most valuable skill I’ve learned is how to fix my many mistakes so no one could tell i made them in the first place.

Bro! I just went to home depot and cut out a 17x17 , measured out 2 inches for 8 squares and had enough space for the squares to be good enough. I spray painted and enameld my board to whatever the customer. I made about 15 chess boards and sold about half of that now. You still did awesome Bron. Hellz yeaa!

What a great video! The board turned out great in the end. I liked the explanations of the mistakes knowing that I would make numerous errors also the first time doing anything. It’s good to know I’m not alone 😮

I really like the fact that you shared your mistakes. We all make them. Turned out very nice. Well done.

It takes a lot to create RU-vid content. You will always be your biggest critic. Good job finishing the project and posting it. You will want to make a table saw jig for perfect 45 degree cuts. The miter isnt good for it unless you have a high end one.

You did a great job. The only thing is, evenly distribute finishes onto your cloth. It makes it much easier to evenly apply than to apply directly and spread it.

Hope since this video you've gotten a riving knife/splitters, and started using a proper push stick, youre going to send pieces flying

I started using biscuits for glue-ups years ago, and it changed the game for me. It doesn’t totally eliminate the need for cauls, but they are awesome for paneling.

Beautiful job in my opinion! .... And thank you for NOT destroying your video, like so many others do, by thinking it necessary to dub in loud, distracting, unnecessary music... I can actually hear your useful commentary!

Don't let people get you down. Showing your mistakes and willingness to put yourself out there helps all noobs ('m still tentatively on baseboards and garage shelving). You're a light year ahead of most.

I'm not an experienced woodworker, but the strategy that Wood You Make It uses for the glue up is to put weight on the top of the board before clamping the sides. He has a custom jig for clamping chessboards, but yeah having some downward force to prevent bowing seems important.

Nice board, interesting project. Not sure if anyone else has commented on the 45-deg corner issue, but I would highly recommend a shooting board and hand plane so that you can cut them a hair overlong and then plane the corners by sneaking up on the exact final length, doing one corner at a time. It works like a charm. It is SO difficult to do these kinds of joints on a machine to the degree of accuracy you need/want.

Sandwich the strips between 2 pieces of plywood when you're gluing it up, and use some clamps to apply vertical pressure to the plywood, as well as the horizontal pressure from the clamps directly on the board. That should help with the bowing significantly.

Making mistakes = fastest way to learn 👌 Good work chap 👍

Looks great.Love that you shared your errors and mistakes.Everone makes them but not all have the guts to admit it. I don't have a riving knife so don't worry.The sad ones that criticize are usually the ones that don't do anything

One small detail that will make the board more interesting is to alternate the direction of the grain 90 degrees between the squares. This of course would requires starting with stock wide enough to make cross cuts.

This is the second video of yours I have watched and like that you tell viewers about the mistakes you make during the build. It helps me learn as much as learning the correct version the first time.

Well done, nice result in the end. My (humble) tips on doing chessboards and reckon some the issues named: *gluing : the more glue up I do, the less I clamp. If edges are properly jointed, just rubbing on to the other require very minimal clamp pressure *even thickness of the strips is highly recommended. Actually I do cut 4 and 5 of the other and instead of flipping upside down, I slide one to the other keeping same first gluing reference plane *edge around: sanding never gives a perfect edge, jointing with plane and jointer is the way. To even out over height of the edge strips, a block plane would have tackled the job in less than 5 mn * 45 miter: simple jig on table saw like an arrow pointing gives good result And please! add a riving knife behind your table saw blade, safety first !

Great honest video, keep up the good work man, after all, it looks great !!!

You can glue the boarder on as a square pieces to get perfect miters, then cut the bevel after the glue up. this allows you to sneak up on the perfect bevel keeping your fingers well away from the blade.

I’ve found getting the rough stock true on one face and edging them helps. The gluing and a hand plane to finish the glued boards square

I thought at first to advise you to become a firewood supplier but joking aside it's refreshing to see your honesty and watch your self learning process you have very good kit especially the Festool and I'm sure you'll be a master carpenter/ joiner in the future good luck.

Thanks for sharing your trials and errors with your adventures in chess board making/ building. How do we learn!!?? We learn from our mistakes that we make. Hopefully we don't keep repeating the same ones over and over, because that's the definition of insanity.

Good job! I realize you (like me) aren't a master woodworker, but I'm impressed with your perseverance. The end result is great and that's what matters most. 😊

edge: work big to small. Make angle cuts (table saw bevel) on one long piece, safer to cut on table saw and cuts (45 angle) will match up

A way to make close fitting miters is to clamp two pieces back to back and use a block plane to smooth both at the same time. Like making a rub joint between two boards, the angle are complementary.

Hey, that turned out to be a lovely, classy-looking board! I'd buy it. 😀

Look into making and using featherboards with your tablesaw, it will make ripping small strips and not rectangular pieces easier, safer, and you will get more professional results. Just search for "featherboard" in RU-vid for details.

You can try using small double-ended tacks in the chequered strips before gluing together so they don't slide

Great video. It doesn't matter how long you work with it, it's wood mistakes happen. Board turned out great. You recovered very well.

It turned out pretty nice in the end. One thing though, the direction of the grain of the squares should be horizontal to the player. All old boards are like this. I'm probably not the first to point this out.

I love how you fixed the mitres. They look great after the fix 👍

It’s beautiful 👍 I hope he also made chess pieces afterwards

Use cauls to put across the board - clamp then to the table/workbench and then clamp the glued surfaces together. You do not need to clamp super tight just enough to get the glued surfaces to adhere to the next one.

Thank you for this video. I learned a lot about fixing some of the mistakes I’ve been making. Great final product!

As you realized, plane the original strips to equal thickness and glue them good side down on a super flat surface on a piece of wax paper. Now cut the strips at 90 degrees, flip every other one and glue again good side down on wax paper. Now the sanding of the final board will be less of a chore. Most of the uneven surface will be on the bottom of the board

I just made a checkerboard to play with my new jointer, planer, and parallel clamps and man was it ridiculously easy when you have the right equipment

To prevent the bow when glue/clamping you want to get a scrap board for the top and bottom so you can clamp it vertically as well as horizontally. That should keep it straight. And if you don't have a planer I can see at least two instances in this video where you could have saved yourself a lot of time/hassle by buying a chisel. That way you could easily shave off the little slivers instead of sanding it the whole way down.

Great vid, thank you! I'm going to give this a go this year (when it's warm enough to be out in the shop) and your video has been really helpful. I think I'll keep the border square, cut the 45 degree angles and then add a chamfer with a router after its glued. I don't have a table saw so that's going to be my biggest challenge I reckon. If it comes out half as nice as yours I'll be happy!

fun process if I get some smiles but it was worth it this beautiful congratulations

Good job! It looks nice as a final product, don't fret about the small stuff, it's the final product that counts.

I cringed at quite a few points watching this, but the end result was NICE! Glad you were able to see it to the end without scrapping it. I've still yet to make a full size chess board but it's definitely on my short list of personal woodworking projects.

I learned in orientation for my job, I build guitars, that too much clamping will only build stress into your project. They had us make a 100% glue joint out of broken coasters, using hand pressure to show us that you dont need much pressure to create a 100% connection. Im watching this because I was inspired to build a chess board last night. Im going to use mahagony and maple for mine. If I can get my hands on some ebony that would be kick ass, but Im not holding my breath, even though the company I work for owns the Crelicam Ebony Plant in Africa.

Brave soul for putting your mistakes out there Haha. It’s sad how RU-vid can be such a negative place where people put others down and think they are the greatest at everything. This is excellent work because you learned something and you will only get better with time. Everybody starts somewhere and the board came out great! What else matters? :) keep making dust man!

mistakes or not, that's a beautiful chessboard bro

This is great! Thank you for sharing the entire process and all the pitfalls!

As you can see, I love to watch and it doesn't matter as long as I enjoy it. Maybe in some time I'll come back to congratulate you, one more time aguien jejejej

Using a shoot board and hand planer cut your miters long and then approach them on the shoot board (you should have one that's 45 and 90... make them), that way you know the angle is right and you can get a snug fit on the 4th corner. Fixes any mistakes in your miter gauge or miter saw's adjustments. You could also use a large shoot board to have square the large edges, you just need to go slow if they're that rough. Consider using a frame for gluing panels square, and cauls to keep them from bowing. A router would have saved you hours of sanding, since you could have routed the board flat with a jig instead of doing it on the drum sander. You could have thickness planed them by hand too... a hand planar goes a surprisingly long way in the shop.

3:46 Exactly how mine turned out in woodshop class. I got a mercy "C."

I just tried this, and made it a lot harder on myself than it needed to be. Lay down some wax paper on your table saw top, then lay down your glued pieces and clamp. Worked pretty well for me!

How to do 45s so they fit? Adjust your saw so it actually cuts 45. There is no trick. Make a bunch of test cuts until your miter saw is setup right. The angled inside corner of a try square is a perfect 45. Use that to test your cuts until it looks perfect. Then make a test boarder, just like the one you made for the chess board. Any minor errors will be much more visible here. The bigger the frame, the more obvious the error will be. You can tell what adjustment is needed based on wether the gap is on the inside or outside of corner

For glueing flat panels, use a biscuit jointer. It will help align and secure the pieces.

Right off the bat: Use a riving knife, lower the blade, and use a proper push stick!! Accidents waiting to happen (and it looks like one did at 0:31)! Looking forward to watching the rest of the video now...

I like it that three years later, you have learned much.....it's keeping our fingers whist we do so, eh? That was a very nice looking chess board, by the way....you might have gotten there 'the hard way' but ya got there. -Veteran '66-68

Nobody: Stumpy Nubs: Pushing the material at the farthest point from the blade/closest to fence = kickback. Also, standing directly behind blade while pushing the material wrong = sure injury.

Appreciate your mistakes. I make them on every project I have done, but I am getting better too.

I did my glue up and had the same problem. I had made a gig a while back to flatten boards. I used this with my router and a flattening bit.. It is in one of my videos I am sure. Another thing I do is since my planner will only take 13.5 inch material. I make my boards in two glue ups, then run them through the planner until they are the same thickness, then glue the two halves together. As the comment just below mine says, I use straight boards on edge clamped to the pieces to keep the pieces flat while tightening the clamps. I also use wax paper on the work bench to keep the whole thing from sticking to the table while gluing.

It still is a very cool board.I am 15 yo and i rlly live seeing this stuff.Hoping to make one soon

You can make the square and stick it to the board and then give it the shape it is easier to work and make the corner cuts when you have the complete wood, I also recommend that when you have large imperfections you can use a router to smooth everything is faster and It is better, also if you have a problem joining many pieces of wood, simply lighten the task, paste 2 at a time, let it dry and then paste the rest little by little. very good video and do not be mortified that mistakes are where you learn best I do not remember any project that once finished I did not think of another way to do it better that always happens to me

Nicely done, and a beautiful end result. You made some rookie mistakes, like not having all of your material planed to same thickness - that won’t happen again, I’m sure. Also, a router table could have eliminated your terrifying bevel cuts on the table saw... after 30 years, still with ten fingers, I’ve learned that it is STILL a learning process. Respect the cutters, keep you hands as far away as possible, and avail yourself of all the tooling to make that possible. I’ve found that a good balance of routers, bits, jigs and a good table makes the router the most flexible and valuable tool in your woodshop.

Hey man when gluing enything take a small bar clamp and a straight board put it on the top side

Thanks so much for your honesty! Kudos to you for your persistence. Loved the commentary and no music during the demo. Awesome work! 9.9/10 If you haven't already been told how to mitre the corners, there's probably a video on youtube about it. :)

Thats a beautiful board. Great for a first try.

And also a hand plane would straigjten than in 20mins

Nice job. Learn so much when making the first one.

I got a nice piece of granite from the granite place. Told them what I needed it for and they gave me a nice piece of leftover. I use it for my glue table keep it clean and polished and the glue does not stick to it. Using clamps vertically for holding down to the granite surface. and of course the horizontal clamps for squeezing the boards together.