CHECK! phew....
More Board Building Discussion
Sort:
TheOneCalledMichael wrote:
I bet everyone with borderless boards are rushing to get them to check.
lol
mr Malabrigo, how do they make this Drueke board? It seems there is no joinery on the edges...is there?
TheOneCalledMichael wrote:
mr Malabrigo, how do they make this Drueke board? It seems there is no joinery on the edges...is there?
Always hard to tell from pictures, do you have a pic of the bottom?
My guess is.... That's a board dropped into a CNC routered box. Essentially they glued up 10 strips of walnut into a bigger board, then ran the computer machining to groove out the inside, then dropped the playing surface into it.
The most basic, and weakest form of joinery, is used for every single joint in a chess board. The "butt" joint. It's simply two surfaces glued straight together. So yes, there is joinery, just the very simplest form that we see used in all boards.
I'd like to build some frames that are actually interlocked at the corners. Think legos, or lincoln logs.
this is the back
TheOneCalledMichael wrote:
this is the back
That's pretty cool.
Essentially you have a board with 10 ranks/files instead of 8. They just made the outer rank as entirely walnut.
If it was a production shop, they probably made a solid walnut board, and would slice them up and add them to the top and bottom, then the long shots on the side. I like it.
Much appreciated for the know how! Yeah it's cool board I like it.
Malabrigo wrote:
MCH818 wrote:
Malabrigo wrote:
@mch818 is that board veneered? It would be extremely difficult to build a board like that without veneering. It would also be prone to breaking apart over the years since the wood expansion would be pushing in opposite directions.
I am not sure. Here is a photo of it. Now that I look at it again maybe the grain runs in the same direction. I think my confusion is with some of the maple pieces have what looks like extra "grain" that runs in the opposite direction. What do you think?
Ah, I see whats going on there.
#1 is that you have fiddleback maple in that board. The figure does appear to ripple across the grain direction, so that board, while oriented correctly, does appear funky.
#2 The walnut has a decent amount of the softer sapwood instead of heartwood included in the board. I think that adds to the clashing of directions.
For everyones knowledge, the easiest way to tell if your board is veneered or solid all the way through is to look at the edges. You should be able to see the grain wrapping over the edges if it's solid all the way through. I've seen a few now that are "solid wood" but when you look close the grain is running opposite direction, or no end grain can be found on the edges. At the least, that means the edges were veneered.
My problem is with the maple squares. It bothers me that the ripples run in a different direction. It is probably another OCD thing. Haha!
MCH818 wrote:
My problem is with the maple squares. It bothers me that the ripples run in a different direction. It is probably another OCD thing. Haha!
You're going to have to learn all the types of maple figure so you can only order the ones that fit your brain!
Malabrigo wrote:
MCH818 wrote:
My problem is with the maple squares. It bothers me that the ripples run in a different direction. It is probably another OCD thing. Haha!
You're going to have to learn all the types of maple figure so you can only order the ones that fit your brain!
I would have to agree! I just have plain maple now. It isn't very figured so it works for me. I always wanted a chaotic pattern chess board but I don't think I could ever play chess on it. I would be too mesmerized by it.
Apr 5, 2021
0
#32
I discovered that my JLP board has the grain along on one side and across - on other.
Looks like that might be a common board construction. It's stable and easier than adding a full floating border.
I went board shopping... 
2" thick padauk, 2" thick purpleheart, and 3" thick walnut. Should get quite a few boards out of this!
Whoaaa that purpleheart is freshly cut no? It's still sooo purple...nice! Padauk and purpleheart are my favorite for pieces and walnut for boards.
Malabrigo wrote:
Do you care which way the grain runs on the boards you play on? He mentioned that he prefers it running from player to player, as opposed to across the board.
It's a personal preference. I'm sure if you take an organized poll among players, it'll be 33/33/33 between vertical/horizontal/don't care. Me personally, I prefer the grain to run vertical, up and down like a tree. Going towards the opponent. With that said, I have boards with the grain going horizontal. In that case it helps that the horizontal grain is very tight. And if the board is made of a beautifully grained or burled wood, all bets are off. It's a case by case basis.
How did you go about repairing the imperfections in the padauk wood? Assuming the upper left square is a1, are the problem squares: c3, e3, d6, f6? Could you have wet the wood to detect the problems before glue up?
When you originally make the board and it's all files, the wood is much stronger. There is a brief period of time, when the ranks are being made, and the grain only runs 2" or so, that the wood is very weak.
The flawed squares according to your coordinate layout would be c3 c5 f4 f6. When the file included ranks 1, 2, 7, 8 the file was stronger. Legitimately, I barely tapped the boards together and they fractured as you saw in the original photo.
The repair really is as simple as gluing the boards back together. Its actually pretty easy since the fractured pieces have a kind of puzzle shape to them that allows them to interlock together again quick and easy. I put them back in the center of the board to give additional reinforcement.
I suppose I should note that everything that is glued, must be clamped. Without clamps the glue is quite weak.
For grain direction, I'm definitely in the category of case by case basis. I think the tigerwood/walnut looks nice running from player to player. I think the padauk/myrtlewood looks best side to side since the grain lines aren't perfectly straight. I also think you're right about burled wood, anything goes.
Ahh.. ok. Nice job! I can't see any fracturing in the finished board even after you pointed out the squares. Don't scrap imperfect boards. There is a market for discounted imperfect boards on Etsy. Many people would gladly purchase a discounted board with minor issues.
I thought it was a problem with the grain (highlighted in pic below). Which was super puzzling to me because I was completely stumped on how you would've fixed that. But I'm guessing it was all cleaned up with surface sanding after the glue up. Love that padauk and myrtlewood combo!
Pawnerai wrote:
Ahh.. ok. Nice job! I can't see any fracturing in the finished board even after you pointed out the squares. Don't scrap imperfect boards. There is a market for discounted imperfect boards on Etsy. Many people would gladly purchase a discounted board with minor issues.
I thought it was a problem with the grain (highlighted in pic below). Which was super puzzling to me because I was completely stumped on how you would've fixed that. But I'm guessing it was all cleaned up with surface sanding after the glue up. Love that padauk and myrtlewood combo!
Yep! You circled the fractures and can see the repair glue there.
Flawed boards meet several endgames for me:
#1. They are great gifts
#2. I think I'll end up selling most of them for steep discounts. I haven't tried the etsy thing yet, somewhat resistant to it...
#3. Some I slice up and turn into endgrain cutting boards and can usually get a good price on them.
Those look beautiful and I would promptly buy one. I’m particularly interested in what you are thinking about when it comes to borders.
I'll be experimenting with a variety of joinery. Some simple, some elaborate. I simply despise mitered corners (probably because I am a carpenter who has done tens of thousands of them. It's a lot easier for me to put my heart into a project/build when it's interesting and challenging. I'll probably pick up a few books on Japanese joinery and just work my way through them.