I am making a few crokinole boards for Christmas presents and would like to put a checker board pattern on the reverse side. As this is a minor feature I cannot spend a lot of time on it but would like something that looks decent. Ideas and techniques would be appreciated. Thanks, JG
What's "crokinole" ?
Anyway, a cheap, easy way to make a checkerboard is to cut shallow kerfs into the board, then mask off and stain every other square. I used the technique on this:
The basic idea is to make a spacer strip the width of your squares *plus* the width of your blade's kerf. Set for a shallow cut. Put the spacer against the blade, and set the fence.
Mark a corner with one side A and one side B. Run the A side through. Run the B side through and then turn off the saw. Run the B side back through, and hold it down. Now butt your spacer against the edge of the board and re-set the fence. Repeat. The last cuts are through cuts if you can afford that luxury, so you wind up with a precisely dimensioned board.
If you can't afford that luxury, then you'll have to modify this technique somehow. The boards look respectable though, if not great. I did it again to make a walnut checker box (with another pine top from the same source as the stuff I used on the chess box) that looks even better. My next such project will be a real board though.
Masking tape and a good square.
Run a marking knife groove between the squares, especially across the grain - it stops the stain travelling along the fibres by capillary action.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Just get a pint of "Checkerboard" paint. It should be in-between the striped paint and the pokadot paint. ;-)
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