Turned Chessmen

I'm finally getting started on this, my daughter's birthday is in the beginning of July, so I have to get this done, heck it is May already for crying out loud!!

I got the chessboard done before christmas, but this is going to take more than a few nights.


The one on the far right I did not even bother turning the base off, but it was a start.

A few practice shots later and the one on the left is about what I want, but I'm sure they will evolve a bit more.

To make a template I cut that one in half....







That poor little chessman got the ride of his life!!


Now I've turned a few more, I'm going to turn maybe a half dozen more than I need and then pick the best 16 pawns, then I'll move on to the the other pieces.

I'm going for a fairly simple classic look called Staunton set....


.... but a bit taller.

We shall see how this works out.

I also want to build a box to house the chessmen in and add a nice trim around the chessboard I built before to dress it up a bit.

Cheers!

This will be fun to follow along.

Good start, Stu!

Anyone else flash back to Crocodile Dundee when they see Stu's Bandsaw blade?

Good luck turning the knights!!!

So I guess it would go something like " That's not a bandsaw blade, THAT'S a BANDSAW BLADE!"

One of my all time favorite movie scenes!

Looks good so far, Stu. Are you going to use all light wood and dye the dark pieces?

Thanks guys!

Art, that has to be one of my favorite movie lines!

Vaughn, I was going to make them all out of Maple and then ebonize one set, but now I've decided to dig out some Walnut from my stash and do one set in Walnut, I think it will look better with the board being Maple and Walnut.!

OK I got some chocolate pawns done......


The Walnut is certainly trickier to turn, but I think they look nice. They are not as dark in real life as they apear in the picture!

Soon the pawns will be done, then I think I'll do the bishops....?

Looking great Stu. Looking forward to learning how you do the other pieces

Thanks Bob!

I guess I should take some pics of the process so you all can see how my mind works on making this stuff, dunno if it is the usual way or not, but it seems to work for me!

Stuart Ablett said:

The Walnut is certainly trickier to turn, but I think they look nice.

Click to expand...

That's a lot more than "nice"...

Looking very nice Stu.

The dark pawns are outnumbered by more than 2:1. They're gonna get their tails kicked.

Looking good, Stu. I think the walnut was a good call.

Art Mulder said:

That's a lot more than "nice"...

Click to expand...

Thank you Art!

The walnut is nice, but it is a lot softer than the maple, and tears out more, so you have to be careful with it.

OK on the last walnut pawn I turned I slowed down enough to take pics to show you how I turn the pawns, this worked for me, quite well, but I'm sure there is more than one way to turn a pawn.


I'm using a bottle stopper mandrel.


it has a 10mm threaded stud and a flat plate that is just about perfect for this job.


I drill an 8.5mm hole in the center of the blank I'm using


and thread the blank onto the mandrel by hand.


I then bring the tail stock up to the blank with the lathe turning so it is centered exactly.
My lathe has a headstock that can swivel out, so it is sometimes just a tiny bit off center, just a smidgen, but bringing the tailstock up while the piece is turning and the tails stock is not clamped down eliminates this problem.

Ready to rock and roll!


Just a note about using a drill chuck in your lathe, I am bringing up the tail stock to hold the work piece in compression, so there is no chance that the drill chuck, on it's morse taper could fall out, but at the very end of turning the piece, I pull back the tail stock to do some final turning on the head of the pawn and some sanding too. I doubt very much that the morse taper on the drill chuck would come loose, but to be certain, I use a draw bar to hold the morse taper into the head stock. Just saying....


Next I knock the corners off and make the piece somewhat round.



Then I use my sharp Bedan to bring the work piece to, in this case 31mm in three spots


And bring the rest of the cylinder down to the same 31mm. The base of all of my pawns is 30mm, so the extra milimeter just gives me some meat to do a nice clean final cut.


I then take my template and lay out where I'm going to do more work.

Cont

I make my layout marks go all the way round the piece so I can see them while turning.


I then define the total length of the piece, I try to keep all the pieces the same height.


The first cut is to a 16mm diameter this will define the narrow point after the base of the pawn



Then I do a 11mm cut just below the head, and the head is a 12mm cut


I then hog off most of the waste


Next up I do the head, I had a lot of trouble turning round heads of the same size consistently, so I made a head scraper out of an old lathe tool I had, I ground the head sized half circle in it, then made the flat part very smooth to give a good scrapers edge to it.


Using a very low angle of attack it works well, you have to be gentle with it, especially on the walnut, but it works.


I then cut a shadow line just above the base


I then turn the skirt of the pawn


Now the body of the pawn gets some work.

Using the template I check the pawn, not exactly the same but close enough.
This one was actually just a bit tall, so I trimmed a little off the base.


Now I turn the top off and move the tail stock out of the way.


The head is turned smooth, and some sandpaper is applied.


A good coat of sanding sealer will make it ready for some clear coat later.


Now to turn off the base, I under cut the base so only the outer edges of the piece will touch


Free at last! the hole I drilled for the bottle stopper mandrel is deeper than it needs to be, but I'll fill that with something heavy.
The walnut pawns are very light!


I cleaned the bottom up a bit, once filled with something heavy I'll put a felt bottom on it to cover the hole.



There all the pawns are done!

Next up are the Rooks.


That is the first one I turned, I like the shape and proportions, but it needs to be taller.


OK, the next one, this one is taller, but the proportions are wrong.

Oh well, I'll keep trying, I've got lots of wood!

Cheers!