Very cute chess set. Looking at your avatar and the king, I think I see the resemblance. 😀
I am "shop ignorant." With a 20" planer and a 12" jointer, what is the largest board you can hypothetically make?
Can't wait to see some of your boards. What woods do you have now?
What price point are you targeting? Some sample boards and prices would be helpful. I mean, are we talking about $150, 2.25" walnut/maple boards? Or $450, 2.25" walnut/maple boards? I'm just using walnut/maple as an example of a basic board.
I really don't have a price target in mind yet. I don't have any interest in pursuing budget friendly are large scale production boards. The biggest production run I might do would be 10 boards once a year, and I would be leaning towards myrtlewood and walnut for those, since they are far and beyond my favorite looking boards while also being unique and locally sourced. Everything beyond that would most likely be custom orders and unique builds for people with specific desires. I'd honestly have to build 4-5 boards as custom pieces before I could price them accurately, same with the production run. If I built 10, I would have a good idea on total start to finish labor time and what the cost would be.
For board sizes, 2.25 is an easy size for me. 2.5 is where my planer maxes out, but the drum sander can push 3" no problem which is larger than I would expect anyone to ever want.
Really though, right now I'm just looking for cool ideas and unique build requests, not trying to turn huge profits. Something fun for me to do over the holidays that could result in people getting a few nice boards is the goal at the moment.
Ahhhhh..... that's actually a really cool idea. At first I was a little confused, but that makes sense. Having the pieces displayed on a little 2x8 section up on the mantle or bookshelf instead of having the whole board set would be great. I like it.
Ahhhhh..... that's actually a really cool idea. At first I was a little confused, but that makes sense. Having the pieces displayed on a little 2x8 section up on the mantle or bookshelf instead of having the whole board set would be great. I like it.
Glad you like the idea… Should I just put in my order now…? 😂😳🤔
Glad you like the idea… Should I just put in my order now…? 😂😳🤔
I'll build one first and see how it goes! I want to try a few alterations to their design, more aesthetically pleasing IMO if it turns out!
Glad you like the idea… Should I just put in my order now…? 😂😳🤔
I'll build one first and see how it goes! I want to try a few alterations to their design, more aesthetically pleasing IMO if it turns out!
Sounds even better! But now I’m super curious about your ideas for improvements.
I'v been hard at work for too long but my machines have finally come in! This wont be a full writeup, just a sneak peak of the first few boards coming out of the system.
First off: I was gifted a set by a retired family member. He doesn't play chess, and has never made a set, so I greenlit him to hand carve whatever he wanted. He knows we spend a lot of time in the garden, so he did a bit of a nature themed set. The pawns are mushrooms, bishops are racoons, rooks are tree stumps, knights are knights. He also carved the king and queen after my lady and I, after transforming us into garden gnomes. She spends the most time in the garden, and she has invested a huge effort into establishing worker bee colonies in the area. I, of course, am a carpenter, so the king is a little version of that. It's a fun set to leave out as a talking piece and I appreciate the effort and time that must have gone into it.
Now for the machines and the first few test boards coming out! this picture shows the 12" jointer and 20" planer. The planer will be the biggest game changer for sure. It's still needs some adjusting to get the finish just perfect, but I can already tell the results are going to be quite magnificent. Here's the first 3 test boards coming out of it. Nearly ready for final sanding and oiling.
Here's the new helical planer cutterhead. As you can see..... there's a phenomenal number of sheer cutting blades inside it. This matters for a few reasons. First and foremost, tearout is dramatically reduced/eliminated in hardwoods like purpleheart. With the old planer, I wouldn't even consider running my boards through it when I was close to finished. This will allow for excellent flattening of finished boards. Second, the noise. If you haven't worked around machines like these it's difficult to really explain the fatigue that comes from being around loud noise, and having to wear hearing protection all day long. With this new cutterhead the noise is so dramatically reduced that you can make a few cuts without having to pop in hearing protection. Still probably a good idea of you are running machines all day, but I felt zero discomfort listening to this machine cut a 16" wide board with the dust collector running. It's quite amazing.
I'm still incredibly slammed with work, but as soon as I can get the machines completely tuned and in place I'll do another shop tour and a little more in depth breakdown on the machines for those who like to geek out on the details.
In the meantime... I'd like to start getting ideas from you all on board ideas you'd like to see made and why. I don't especially have an interest in recreating someone elses designs, but I'd love to hear what you want to see and why it's intriguing to you. It would be fun to do some collaboration builds with people here on chess.com!