[blindwoodworker] Plexiglass Chessboard

  • From: "JDM" <sunnyday001@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 19:05:43 +1000

Hi John,
I read your post on making Plexi glass Chessboards with great interest.  I've 
recently finished making several Chess boards myself. However, I cannot 
entirely envisage your construction method.

Are the Plexi glass black & white chess squares pre-cut to size, with the plan 
of fitting and gluing them 1 by 1 into a surrounding frame?  I've not ever seen 
or felt an adaptive chessboard, so I cannot quite picture the idea. I'm  
guessing the centre hole in each square is to locate and lock each of the 
chess pieces into place, so that they cannot easily be bumped out of position?  
Also, the name or term "plexi glass" is not a trade name used here in Australia 
so far as I know.  From googling the name plexi glass, it seems to be what 
would simply be called Acrylic here.

Several google searches I did on gluing plexi glass or acrylic, seemed most 
often  to suggest the use of 100% Silicon glue.  Some also suggested that if 
gluing plexi glass to plexi glass, then the use of a powerful acrylic solvent 
called methylene chloride, is the way to go. Apparently, it partially dissolves 
the mating surfaces, and then the two parts sort of weld together.

My own recently made wooden Chess boards were made from English White Oak and 
Peruvian Walnut.  to construct the Chess board pattern, I simply machined up 
the 2 different  coloured timbers into 2 inch wide strips.  These strips were 
then edge glued together, alternating the dark and light colours, to form a 
long panel. When the glue had set and hardened, I cross cut the panel of glued 
strips at 2 inches width into 8 strips.  So, I now had, 8 strips of 2 inch by 2 
inch squares, where the glued squares alternated between dark chocolate brown 
and pale creamy white. Next, I took every second strip and swung it end for 
end,  to make the familiar Chess board or Checker board pattern. These were 
then edge glued together, and set into  a frame I'd previously made. The inside 
of the square frame measured 16 inches by 16 inches.

My Chess boards are quite flat, and do not have the darker squares an eighth  
of an inch higher than the white squares. But, I could have achieved that 
differentiation by simply machining my white strips to be an eighth of an inch  
thinner than the dark strips.

Hope this has been of interest and, hopefully, some help.

Cheers,

John Milburn

Melbourne Australia.
From: John Sherrer 
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 10:02 AM
To: blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [blindwoodworker] Gluing Plexiglass


Hi WoodWorkers

I have an almost woodworking question.

I am working on making a frame or template, I am not sure which is the correct 
term, for a adaptive chess board.

An adaptive chess board has the black squares about an eight inch  higher than 
the white squares.  Each square has a hole in the middle.  The current plan is 
to make 30 or 40 boards at a time.

What I want to do is make a plexi glass board with the alternate squares higher 
 where I can put the black squares in place and put the base board on top for 
gluing, hoping that the glue will not stick to the plexi glass.  I need to know 
what is a good glue for gluing the plexi glass squares to a plexi glass base?

John
http://WhiteCane.org
http://BlindWoodWorker.com
http://HolyTeaClub.comcom\whitecane
http://anellos.ws

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