Workers Of Wood

I just finished my project ('finished' is subjective... )
I made a chess set, board, and box for everything out of a 2x4 Western Maple 2x4; our Woodcrafters guild allows any local species, softwood or hardwood.
I started with a rough sawn 8' (96") piece, planed the bare minimum off to get clean faces, then cut the last 6" off the board (for the lights quares on the board)
I then ripped a 1 1/8" length off one side. That piece was then recut to 1 1/8" sq. x 90" long, for the chess pieces.
The remainder of the plank was ripped into 5-90" strips and resawn to 1 1/2" wide (the thickness ended up being a tich under 3/8")
The strips were crosscut into 25-18" pieces. We're allowed to use up to 5% of other material for decoration etc, so I used a bit of Walnut to make up the dark squares of the board, rather than staining some of the Maple.
I used 18 of those pieces for the top and bottom of the box and 6 more for the box sides. that left me with one spare.
The board edge frame came from the left over chess piece stock.
There was enough very thin material remaining to make a bunch of 1/4"x1/8" splines. splining the top, bottom, and side pieces made assembly easier in that surface alignment was basically automatic. The splines are only for that purpose and additional glue area.
The chess pieces are 3D scrollsawn.
https://suncatcherstudio.com/patterns/chess-pieces/

Wow, lot of work involved there. Excellent job, lots of hand sanding?
So when you made the board, did you cut all the squares to size and then join them in alternating colors on to a continuous spline? Or did you glue them in alternating strips ,then cross cut them and slide them one space and reglue to make the alternating colors, then spline the boarder around?
Is the sliding top of the box the Chess board?
That colored place mat really threw me for a bit, HAHA

Great job, I like it, do you have a chess partner?
Herb

WOW!!!
OUTSTANDING work Dan...

Respect, Dan. How many hours of work was involved?

Biagio wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:50 pm Respect, Dan. How many hours of work was involved?

Thanks, Biagio! My wife says too many hours...
I honestly don't know what my total hours are but it took me about a week, in 2-3 hour spells, to saw out the chess pieces and sand them.
The board, maybe a day, and the box, about an afternoon. Once I had the 25-18"x1 1/2"x 3/8" strips sawn up and dadoed for the splines it went together quite quickly.
It'll be a while before I do any more scrollsawing... LOL!

I forgot to mention, I used Minwax's 'Wood Conditioner' before staining. It's supposed to stop blotching...I was underwhelmed.

Beautiful set and a whole bunch of detail work...OUTSTANDING...!

A 2x4...whoda thunk...! WOW...!

Outstanding work Dan.

Thanks, guys!

My goodness, wonderful work Dan. Took a lot of planning, looks great.
Did you win?

Bushwhacker

Bushwhacker wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 6:06 am My goodness, wonderful work Dan. Took a lot of planning, looks great.
Did you win?

Bushwhacker

No judging this year. We (the Board) discussed the topic and decided that making it a competition rather than a personal challenge was deterring members with less experience and tools from getting involved.
It remains to be seen if in fact this will stimulate more participation.
There were about 50 attendees last night and a really good time was had by all!
Our current Pres. also made a scrollsawn chess set and it was totally mind-boggling...I'll post pics when I get sent them. You folks need to see them...
This is the style...Notre Dame Chess Set...but our guy's is even more stunning then the ones shown here;
http://sawdustdreams.blogspot.com/2009/ ... s-set.html

The new management of our club,a bunch of young guys has disbanded our 2X4 challenge, we had some great work by the older guys, in the past.
Since the pandemic, we have disbanded in person meetings. We have Zoom meetings now, which all the young ones want, I have lost interest in that now, and haven't been in my shop for 2 years.
Herb

That looks really nice Dan.

Zoom is a buzz kill for sure, Herb. Our guild was doing them as well, and I think it nearly killed the club. We started doing live meetings again after the new year (2022) and we're bouncing back...picked up some new members even.

Dan, the club has picked up a lot of new members, younger people now, and the leaders have created a Forum at my suggestion to try and perk up interest,a lot of the older guys have dropped out.
The forum, https://forum.nwwoodworkers.org/ , has turned into 9/10 ths a "Herb" forum as I do the majority of the posting in hopes to spark some interest in woodworking from the group. My guess there are less than 10 people posting and we have over 40 members. I hope we get back to inperson meetings soon.
Herb

Herb; we're using 'SLACK' as an online messaging app. as well as having a website. The SLACK app seems to function pretty much as our WoW site does. Even with this easy communication app the majority of the older members remain cocooned in their homes(?). not a lot of interaction going on.
I think we're at 48 members now. Ageing out is a serious problem.

The 2x4 'Official Photos' are up on our website now.
here's a closeup of the other chess set's White King...


and the whole set...
He was given a new Dewalt scroll saw for Xmas and he says it's allowed him to reach a whole new level of precision (ie, he loves it!)
Guy's got serious skilz!

WOW!!!!
serious skills doesn't quite cover it...

Herb Stoops wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:56 pm The new management of our club,a bunch of young guys has disbanded our 2X4 challenge, we had some great work by the older guys, in the past.
Since the pandemic, we have disbanded in person meetings. We have Zoom meetings now, which all the young ones want, I have lost interest in that now, and haven't been in my shop for 2 years.
Herb

I never asked why they disbanded it; was it cutting into their time on Twitter?
What's the point of having a hobbiest's club if the members don't get to show off their projects? Seems to me that doing away with the Challenge is counterproductive. Perhaps they, like our group, decided that the 'competition' part was keeping less skilled members from jumping in?
Our more experienced members have bent over backwards to assist newbies in becoming more experienced. They hold regular shop tours and 'workshops' to help develop skills.
For example, a recent spoon-carving workshop;

DaninVan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:05 pm I forgot to mention, I used Minwax's 'Wood Conditioner' before staining. It's supposed to stop blotching...I was underwhelmed.

That's too bad, Dan. I do find I have to use the conditioner for oil based stain; the water based doesn't work as well. I also found the type of wood makes a difference, as well.

DaninVan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:05 pm It's supposed to stop blotching...

.