Sectioned Magnetic Chessboard +Box, with Chess Notation Labels and 45mm Interlocking Squares

prusaprinters

<pre><code class="language-plaintext">These files allow you to make a chessboard which also transforms into two stackable boxes that each hold the pieces from one of my two chess sets Backyard Birds Chess Set and Woodland Squirrel Chess Set (or any other set of similar size.)</code></pre><p>NOTE: I generated these 45mm x 45mm chessboard squares using the scad program from <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1732292">Customizable Chess Board by 1sPiRe</a>. &nbsp;You may want to print the test piece first, to verify that your printer is accurate enough to print these parts, or to identify a scaling factor that compensates for any issues.</p><h3>Print Settings</h3><p><strong>Printer Brand:</strong></p><p>Creality</p><p><strong>Printer:</strong></p><p>Ender 3</p><p><strong>Rafts:</strong></p><p>No</p><p><strong>Supports:</strong></p><p>No</p><p><strong>Resolution:</strong></p><p>0.2</p><p><strong>Infill:</strong></p><p>20%</p><p><strong>Filament:</strong> PLA</p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><p>The frame and labels were printed in the Black SunLu PLA.</p><p>The squares were printed with Cura's “<strong>Concentric</strong>” Top/Bottom pattern, in the same PLA I used to print the chess pieces I sized and mixed to use with this board. &nbsp;</p><ul><li>The yellow and purple board (yeah, I know, a bit garish) was built to use with my <a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/144702-gru-minions-chess-set">Gru Minions Chess Set</a> and my <a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/144765-macho-minions-chess-set">Macho Minions Chess Set</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>The brown and bone-white board was built to use with my <a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/130012-woodland-squirrel-chess-set">Woodland Squirrel Chess Set</a> and my <a href="https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/130011-backyard-birds-chess-set">Backyard Birds Chess Set</a>.</li></ul><h3>Post-Printing</h3><p>There are a lot of pieces to make sense of, to assemble this board and the boxes. &nbsp;I have tried to include enough photos to show you the finished products. &nbsp;This section provides the instructions. &nbsp;I have built two of these, so far, and each time I ran into troubles, so I have updated these instructions to help you avoid making those particular mistakes.</p><p>If you find new problems, or if your project goes flawlessly, please post a make and let me know in the Comments. &nbsp;Enjoy!</p><p><strong>Glue the magnets into the frames</strong></p><p>NOTE: I used 2mmx4mm magnets from Amazon.ca, to assemble this board.</p><p>(You could probably use 4mm x 4mm plastic posts instead of using magnets, to pin these frames together. I just happened to have magnets on the brain, when I designed this...)</p><p>It is best to have the magnet faces flush to the edge of the frame. The holes in the frame that I made for the magnets proved to be just a tad deeper than 2mm. In one build, I inserted one M2 washer into each hole before inserting the magnet. In another build, I just ignored that depth difference. &nbsp;Both builds were successful. &nbsp;</p><p>TIP: It is important that the magnets facing each other are of the opposite polarity, so that the quarters will attract each other, not repel. The magnets are quite powerful and will fly to each other if held close-by. I let one magnet fly to the one already installed in the mating face, then carefully pulled it off and stuck it into the opposing hole in the mating quarter, so that the face that had stuck to the opposing magnet was now the face sticking out of the quarter I was installing the magnet in. (I hope that makes sense as written. If you can think of a more clear way to say it, please leave that in the comments.)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Cut the tabs on the Color01 pieces at the mating edges</strong></p><p>Once the squares are glued to the frames, it is not possible to lift the Color02 pieces at the mating faces of the quarter frames, to latch them to the Color01 pieces. Instead, trim the points off the tabs, so that they slide straight into the open slots on the mating squares, as the magnetized faces are brought together.</p><p><strong>Glue the squares to the frame</strong></p><p>I have tried two strategies for this step:</p><ol><li>The first time, I did this using Gorilla White Glue, with 30 minute working time, so that I could make sure all the squares were tightly and neatly packed together after gluing and before "clamping".</li></ol><p>For one quarter-frame at a time:</p><ul><li>I lifted out the black (Colour02) squares.</li><li>I used a damp cotton swab to wet the tabs of the Colour01 pieces.</li><li>Then, for each Colour02 piece, I put a thin film of glue just in the hollowed dovetail joints and laid the piece over the tabs of the mating Colour01 pieces, where that square fit in the frame.</li><li>When I had all the parts glued and arranged, I snugged them all together, connected that quarter back to the other 3 quarters (so that the squares would all be held clearly straight and snug) then I put a heavy stack of books on the glued section to "clamp" it for an hour or so.</li><li>Each time, a little glue squished up through the cracks and stuck to the book cover, even though I had swabbed the glue to a truly "thin film" upon application. Thankfully, that tiny bit of glue did no harm to the books and scratched-off cleanly with a blade.</li></ul><p>2. &nbsp;The second time, I used Super Glue, which set within a minute or two. &nbsp;In that case:</p><ul><li>I first assembled all of the squares on the frames, dry-fit.&nbsp;</li><li>Then I popped-out each of the Colour02 squares, one at a time, without moving the rest of them.&nbsp;</li><li>I put a small stripe of superglue on each visible part of the frame in the hole, then I pushed the square back in &amp; held it down until set. &nbsp;</li><li>With this approach, there was zero glue squishing up through the cracks. &nbsp;I did need to take care that the squares did not slip apart, as I worked my way around the board, but that was very easy to do.</li></ul><p>IMPORTANT: Remember that once the labels are installed, there is only one way to put the board together correctly. Make sure that the Light corners are installed to the players' right when the players are at the "letter" label ends of the board. The White player will see the letters a-h, reading left to right. The Black player will see h-a.</p><p>I recommend that you dry-fit all of the squares on the assembled frame, before glueing any of them to the frame. &nbsp;</p><p><strong>Glue the notation labels to the frames</strong></p><p>The worst thing I have done so far is that I got the board rotated 90 degrees, while glueing-on the labels, and I had already glued those labels on before glueing the squares to the frames. As a result, I discovered that I had started glueing the squares onto the frame with the numbers facing White instead of the letters. &nbsp;To salvage the board in that case, I printed new labels in the two colours and glued those over top of the original labels. (That was the yellow/purple board.) &nbsp; I recommend that you glue the labels on <i>after</i> glueing the squares, to avoid making that mistake. &nbsp;If you also made this mistake (or if you like the look of the colour-matched annotation labels), I have uploaded those “caps” in the model file “Fix for Rotated Board.zip”</p><p>Print each label with the dimensions 185mm x 12mm x 4.78mm. <strong>(You may need to resize them, to do so.)</strong></p><p>NOTE: The file names for the labels indicate on which side of the board they are to be installed:</p><p>_W means install at White's end of the board.</p><p>_B means install at the Black end of the board.</p><p>With the White end closest to you, _R means install on the Right side of the board</p><p>and _L means install on the Left side.</p><p><strong>Print two sets of the model LidRails+corners</strong></p><p>Again, ensure that the rails are each printed with the dimensions 185mm x 12mm x 4.78mm.</p><p><strong>Assemble the two boxes (one at a time)</strong></p><p>Each box is assembled from the following parts:</p><ul><li>LidRails+corners (1 set)</li><li>Quarterchessboard_Box_In-side (x2)</li><li>Quarterchessboard_Box_Out-side_210x12x57 (x2)</li></ul><p>First, using the same trick as described in “<strong>Glue the magnets into the frames”</strong> above, glue magnets into the LidRails, such that each of the Rails is able to magnetically attach to one side of the quarter board that you will use as the top of the box.</p><p>Then dry-fit the two In-side boxes into the two Out-side boxes, to assemble a hollow box, with one quarter-board assembly inside the bottom of the hollow box, facing upward, to serve as the bottom of that box.</p><p>With the Rails magnetically fixed to the frame, stand the other quarter board on top of the hollow box, as a “lid” on the box. &nbsp;For each of the two LidRails, pull the Rail away, put a stripe of glue on the top of the box, then re-attach the rail, so that when the glue dries, that LidRail is glued firmly to the top of that box side. (Tip: Use a weight to clamp the top down until the glue dries.)</p><p>Once both rails are glued to their respective box pieces, you now have the ability to assemble a box, into which the pieces can be stored.</p><p><strong>Glue the corners to the LidRails</strong></p><p>The quarter-board corner is higher than the other three corners, at this stage. &nbsp;We use the other three corners to make all four corners the same height. &nbsp;This gives the top box a place to stand, when set upon the bottom box, and it gives both boxes a “completed” look.</p><p>Notice that two of the corners can be glued to one rail and the top of the box-side, but DO NOT glue them to both rails, otherwise it will be harder to pull the boxes apart when unboxing the set to play a game. &nbsp;The third corner can ONLY be glued to the side of the LidRail, because its box side is inside the other box side, when the box is assembled.</p><p><strong>Glue the BoxFeet onto the bottom of the Colour01 (White) pieces box</strong></p><p>With both boxes assembled, stand the Colour01 box on top of the Colour02 box. &nbsp;</p><p>Notice that there is a gap between the bottom of the top box and the top of each of the four corners of the bottom box. The BoxFeet will be pushed into these gaps, with a dab of glue on the top of each one, so that they will be glued to the corners of the bottom of the top box, when the glue dries. ( Lift the top box slightly as you slide the feet in, to avoid scraping that blob of glue onto the side of the box.)</p><p>NOTE that each box foot has just one rounded corner. That corner should face outward, as the foot is slid in for glueing.</p><p><strong>Store the pieces in the boxes</strong></p><p>Each box is large enough to hold one full set of chess pieces of one colour. With the pieces stored inside, the two boxes can be nested and stored away.</p><h3>How I Designed This</h3><p>I liked the original idea of breaking-down a chess board into quarters, to stow it as a tidy stack. I also liked the idea of using magnets to hold the quarters together, like <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4010619">Sectioned Chessboard (magnetic) by IOI671701</a>, so that I did not have to clip the tabs off the squares completely to be able to assemble the board.</p><p>I was already part-way into printing a 45mm squares version of the <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1732292">Customizable Chess Board by 1sPiRe</a> at the time, so rather than print the squares designed to work with the 16x16 board, I decided I would assemble and glue my squares to these frames. It made assembly of the board much faster and it made the board a more solid playing surface, at the expense of not being able to stow it away as compactly. (Since my pieces are quite large, the set was never going to pack away that compactly anyway.)</p><p>Since I had already sized my squares to 45mm on a side, I scaled-down the 16x16 frame to match, by "assembling" all of the pieces in 3DBuilder and "eyeballing" the alignment of the pieces as I dragged the size handles at max zoom.</p><p>When I put all the parts together, I found I had left about 2mm of space around the assembled board within the assembled frame. To take out that slack, I hit on the idea of adding label strips around the top edges of the frame, with a thin edge that fills the gap. I made those label strips match the profile of the board borders by "subtracting" the board from the labels.</p><p>These files are the result of that work.</p><p>Category: Chess</p>