I built a simple chess board based on an idea I saw in a book. Once I had the board, I decided to frame it. Once I had the framed board, I decided to make it become the lid of a box.
Usually a travel chess set involves a hinged board, but I didn't want to cut this in half. I was afraid I'd screw that up, and wanted to keep it simple, so I built a box proportionate to the board. In order to get it to look right to my eye, I made the box 3" tall.
So now I have a chess board with an empty 18"x18"x3" box under it. I want to store the pieces under there, in removable trays, but that's the only detail I've really finalized.
The kings in the plastic set I ordered for this will stand up with 3/32"+ to spare. The most obvious solution is to just Forstner out some holes in something, and stand them up. Easy to make, and I don't see why that's necessarily a bad way to go.
The other way is to make flat trays and cut out outlines. A lot more work. I don't have a bandsaw/scroll saw/coping saw, and I'm loathe to think about doing this with my POS B&D jigsaw. It *could* be done, and it might look good. I haven't ruled it out. I can almost certainly afford a coping saw at least.
I want to line the inside of the box with red velvet. It sounds sort of lame, but I think it will look nice. I figure glue the velvet to poster board, so I can hide the cut edges. Inside the lid, and around the inside perimeter for sure. I could go either way on the bottom, but I'm thinking that lining the bottom too would provide the most balanced look.
I'm debating whether to cover whatever sort of trays with velvet too. Either way, it would be hard to fit it properly, but it would add a certain froofiness to the thing I think.
There's also the question of space. I could build either sort of tray with copious amounts of room left inside the box. What could I use this space for?
I don't own a chess clock, and don't see one in my future anytime soon. What else would I put in such a box? I could maybe do some checkers and throw in a couple decks of playing cards and make it a travelling game center, but neither of those seems somehow worthy of this fine box I've built.
OK, Wreck, hit me with your ideas.
Pictures of this will go up as soon as I scrounge a digital camera. I sure am proud of this stupid thing. It's the most complicated thing I've ever made that had to be pretty, and it *is* pretty. It's one of the few non-mechanical things I've made which I'd actually like to show off. :)