Georgian chess table

[mouppe]

I made this solid walnut and maple chess table over the last month or so. Unlike most of my recent projects this was largely done with Festools rather than hand tools, particularly the OF1400 which was very useful when copy-routing the legs from a template and routing out the centre to accommodate the chess board. The precision of the TS55 was crucial when sawing the maple and walnut strips for the board.

The finish is hand-rubbed shellac and wax.

 

[Sean7a]

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing.  I'd love that in my house.

 

[dltflt]

That is great.

 

[nclemmons]

Nice work.  Could you explain how you copy routed the legs?  Are you talking the column or the feet?

neil

 

[mouppe]

Thanks all for the kind comments.

Neil, for the legs I made a template out of 1/4" plywood and after rough cutting the legs out with a bandsaw, stuck them to the template with double-sided tape and copy-routed them on my CMS using a bearing-guided flush-trim bit. Then I tapered the legs in their cross-section with a hand plane and smoothed the curves with a couple of spokeshaves.

The grooves were made by hand with a scratch stock.

For the flutes in the column, I drew an octagon on each end of the column and transferred the lines down the length of the column. Then I clamped it lengthways in my vice so that it was parallel with the workbench top but a hair below the surface. Using the guide fence with stops in place I routed each groove with the OF1400 and a core box bit, then rotated it to the next octagon side and repeated.

I think I saw a video by Kreg using a similar method.

 

[hitandruntz]

Nice work. Looks like a fun project.

 

[mike_aa]

That's beautiful!  I'd be afraid to play on it.  Do you plan on keeping the chess pieces on it ready to go?

Thanks for sharing.

Mike A.

 

[Billedis]

Beautiful table, I would be very proud to display that in my home.  Thank you for sharing.  Bill

 

[mouppe]

Thanks, yes- the pieces are in place. In fact, I sized the board to the pieces because I bought them first!

 

[wow]

Beautiful work, and that table is very graceful. Nice job!

 

[tiralie]

Looks great.
I really like the column and the flutes.
What size are those squares?
Tim

 

[mouppe]

thanks, the squares are just under 2". The table's diameter is about 31", so quite large.