Anyone try cutting a rollup board in half?

and then gluing a strip on the bottom rejoining the pieces? I'm thinking of doing this on my small analysis board so it can be folded and then rolled [so it packs smaller for travel]. If you've tried it and it worked [or didnt] please let me know what you did- glue used or material strip type etc.  Thanks- Bill.

Is this a vinyl board?

yes. its cheap but even so I'd prefer not to mess it up figuring out what not to do. [seems pretty clear to me that duct tape isnt the answer- my best guess now is contact cement and a strip of nylon tape]

Vinyl chess boards must be rolled up for transport as folding them makes creases that are annoying and pretty much permanent.

Cutting the board in half will not reduce the rolled up thickness or size of the whole board and might even make it thicker because you will need to double the board before rolling.  Plus even a thin tape will add something.  And you will still need to deal with the complete board length.

You could cut the board in quarters.  This would give you 4 smaller squares of half the width and length.  You would transport them flat 

Then you only need figure out how to have the board not separate in pieces when playing.  Hmm, you could tape them in a way for the tape to act like hinges while keeping the pieces from separating. This way the board would fold up and transport easily.

Cut => fold then roll makes the roll length 1/2 previous roll length so it could fit into the bag the pieces are in. Cutting into quarters is interesting. Then one cut you'd hinge with tape and the other cut hinge only half with tape ... possibly. but I wouldnt want tape on the board surface so i need to think about that.

You would tape the underside of the board.

What has been done before is to tape the top left and bottom left sections together horizontally.  Then tape each of the right side parts to the corresponding left side part on the vertical.  The board would fold back completely on the horizontal with each right side part folding over to make the one square.

You can experiment with a piece of paper, poster board or even cardboard.

This is a wonderful topic and I am following with great interest.

My two cents would be to "gently scratch" a line down the middle of the board with a boxcutter (the underside probably) such that the board is not fully cut but still foldable. Then, tape the underside with a thin & wide transparent plastic tape (the type you would use for packaging boxes at the post office). This would make the board foldable and rollable.

If you're going to experiment on the actual board, try trimming the sides. That will give you an idea of what tools you'll need to cut the material cleanly.

Why not use a silicone board? Folds up small and doesn't crease.

https://www.chesshouse.com/products/silicone-chess-board?msclkid=8e2c1a50480c1cec0a6d45d7f8f48a85&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=0.1%20AMG%20Shopping%20051419&utm_term=4577473067253149&utm_content=All%20Products

Uh, no.....why would you do that?

Try the flex boards sold by chesshouse.com. Thinner than mousepad chessboard, comes in 10+ colors, it’s very foldable but will not crease like vinyl.

https://www.chesshouse.com/collections/club-style-chess-boards/products/flex-pad-club-chess-board

All, I got a bunch of questions I'll try to answer. The reason: "[so it packs smaller for travel]" .  It's for a analysis set [something like this -  https://www.chesshouse.com/products/mini-chesshouse-club-chess-set   -so a small board and the first thing I did was cut off the border. I use my wife's sharpest sissors [when she is not home] and it does a precise job [I also use them to cut drysuit gaskets which is much more delicate]. I checked out the flex boards. I may buy one for general use-thanks for the idea- but its 1 size and much too big for my analysis set. Why glue pieces together with something to act as a hinge? -Don't know how to answer this if it can't be visualized from the description.       I'll think more before cutting further. Luckily/Unluckily I wont be travelling for a while so I have time. Thanks all! --Bill 

Well, another idea is to cut the board in half and use a masking tape to attach the two pieces before playing. Take the masking tape off when you want to pack and roll. Masking tapes are easy to take off without creating a mess because it's for temporary use when spray painting. You can also use Post-it notes if you don't have a masking tape.

masking tape- Simple and good and hard to think of! Thanks!

Hi Bill. That analysis set from Chesshouse is a real bargain. I also noticed the 14" vinyl board costs only $5 when ordered separately. That's still a bargain and puts it in the same price range as Tamiya masking tapes on Amazon. Please do share your setup when you're done cutting the board for travel.