Printing BCE Blitz prototypes

Good choice. I'll message you with details.

Dear friends, many thanks for an overwhelming response and orders! The machine is churning away!

-Izmet Fekali

http://bestchessmenever.com

@Haverumwilltravel

But of course. 99.99 euro + shipping.

-Izmet Fekali

Is this YouTube video displaying the brighter white or vanilla colored pawn from the BCE 3D printed set,ifekali?

Vanilla white.

Good evening everyone,

Today my shipment from Izmet Fekali arrived after being detained for a week and a half in the U.S Customs "inbound package inspection division" offices then cleared waivers and was released for delivery to my residence. 

I must say I was very impressed with the quality of the PLA resin material used to fabricate this set it's quite durable and nicely crafted with the 3-D printer he utilizes. The suggestion to pick the Vanilla white color was a very good suggestion on his part because I believe pure white would have been too stark of a contrast against the black pieces and on any chessboard for that matter and cause eye fatigue overtime of the length of play during games of 30 minutes or longer, IMHO. 

I'm quite content with the overall weighting, felting, and craftsmanship of this set. Great job Izmet! I'm one content customer of yours. I may go forward and order the wood version of this set in a brown stained model from Mr. Gregor Novak over at NOJ in the near future. Some photos of the set.

I liked this first set so much that I had ordered 3 more sets from Izmet. Two arrived and 1 1/2 more sets are still en route from Slovenia. There seems to be some sort of pandemic chaos going on with the postal system over there and shipments have been held up since the second week of May. I also had Conor OKane make a Dubrovnik / Zagreb set for me and I'm currently having a new BCE Stage 1 Western-style Blitz light brown stained custom made for me with additional DGT relay coils and 6 extra Eastern style pieces to change up the look when the mood strikes from Western to Eastern style. 2 Kings and 4 bishops with balls for finials contrasting colors for the bishops. My set will probably be ready by mid-June or late June. Some photos to show my new bounty for my collection and playing pleasures.

The Ultramarine Blue and Semi-Transparent set on a USCF board. 

The Silky Gold and Black BCE set.

The Dubrovnik /Zagreb 3D printed set.

The other 2 BCE set still to arrive this one Pure white and and dark brown but mine will be Copper for the "Black" army.

The wood filament BCE Eastern blitz half set with additional copper bishops.

My new maple and light brown stained maple BCE Western and Eastern Blitz set from Noj being crafted.

The very first BCE Stage 1 Eastern set 3D printed I obtained from Izmet in vanilla white and black. 

So out of curiosity are the pieces finished or are they still in rough form like he said they'd be in the other thread.

"ifekali wrote:

Good to hear.

My set is currently doing the customs tango as well.

And similar to you I saw this as a way to see what the set is like with an eye towards a wood set in the future.

@ MikeD:

Yes, they are in rough, unsanded form, but here is my take on them, they have a satin-like quality to them and the fine horizontal groove lines tend to aid in the handling of the pieces during rapid "blitz" type chess matches. In addition, they are weighted and felted nicely. My set weighs in @ 32.41 oz. but this number may vary slightly from set to set that is produced by Izmet's printer. 

Some pieces have some plastic flashing scraps attached to their ball finial tops, (kings, queens, and bishops) but it's nothing that a piece of 320 fine-grit sandpaper couldn't take care of that aspect of the pieces to smooth out and round them nicely. In addition, you may see some rough tooling marks on the body of some pieces but that is very minimal to even complain about here unless you're an absolute perfectionist and must have a flawless set. I can live with these minor aspects of the set.  I attached 6 photos taken in the palm of my hand of both the Vanilla white and Black PLA filament material to determine if this would be your cup of tea. I definitely love this set as is with a few minor adjustments, which I had already undertaken prior to the photoshoot to correct the flashing but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. The vanilla color is spot on what Izmet said it should be the bright ivory white would be inviting eye fatigue if playing a standard 2-hour chess match. 

The fine circular grooves that appear on the body of the pieces tend to give the pieces a better feel when playing blitz type and standard timed games and Izmet had mentioned this aspect of the pieces in the opening of this post. You may have to do a bit of sanding and polishing if you want a smoother set if your plans are to order one of the BCE blitz sets.

In my humble opinion, Izmet did a great job and the improvements to the slender knight profile are a big hit in my books. If you like a smoother set, you may have to do a bit of sanding and polishing to achieve your desired result of "Polished" chess pieces. I like mine just the way it is...Just my  2¢. Here are the closeup photos for your review. Great Job Ifekali!

By the way, that thin dark line you have seen on the base of the vanilla white queen is a cat hair, not a defect from the 3-D printing. I own an American shorthair cat who sheds hair all over my apartment and it sticks to everything especially when I comb his coat.

Yeah I had a friend explain it to me earlier. Those rings he said are actually the layers. For me it's kinda like tree rings I guess. I saw a video on YouTube where you can actually hide the layering with textures. Which is way cool.

I saw that video myself that machine uses an isopropol alcohol misting steam type bathing technique to achieve the smoothness result of the piece(s) you like to eliminate those lines from the 3-D print results. That type of machine could run you from $250-$300 depending on the manufacturer or if you could find a service that would smooth out your set for a nominal fee would be ideal MikeD. 

No here's the video I watched.

https://youtu.be/fZ6IsiIXcJU

Ok, Here's the one I'm referring to it's called a "PolyMaker-Polysher Review" 3D Printing with No Layer Lines using Polysmooth. As follows;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdtFj-jK-ig

If I may ask, what color did you decide to get? The yellow and ivory bright white was too harsh for my eyes to withstand for long games due to eye fatigue. I choose Vanilla White on the recommendation from -Izmet Fekali. FYI.

So it showed up!

Vanilla White and black on a 55mm knockaround board I have.

And next to the standard 3.75" King tournament set one sees all over;

I like the weight and feel. Gives me a good sense of what the wood set would be like, so I think I'll be searching behind cushions for loose change soon.

I'm going to do some smoothing per the videos posted as that is a look for the pieces that I'd prefer, but they should get a good workout before then too. If Western Kings and Bishops get sorted I'll be on the hook for some of those extra pieces as well.