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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Build a chess board top by resawing thin walnut and maple stock, gluing strips into a checkerboard, and framing it with a rabbeted frame and maple inlay. The video focuses only on the top (Part 1 of a seven-part series), using basic hobbyist tools. The result is a glassy-finished walnut-and-maple board with drawers planned for each side and the back.
Key Points
- The project uses walnut and maple for strong contrast, with walnut the darker wood after finishing.
- Stock is resawn into thin boards, planed to about a quarter inch, then about 3/16 inch, to maximize yield from expensive walnut (about $10 per foot).
- The checkerboard is made by gluing up 2-inch strips with wax paper beneath to prevent sticking, then crosscutting them into squares and flipping every other square.
- A maple inlay strip is set into a 1/16-inch-deep, 1/16-inch-wide rabbet so the black squares don't bleed into the dark frame.
- The top is assembled with creative clamping (a band clamp and C-clamps) rather than gluing the frame first.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Cut the maple and walnut slightly longer than the 16-inch board so the ends sniped by the planer can be trimmed off.
- Scribe a guide line along the board edge and resaw using a homemade jig that accommodates drift.
- Joint one edge square before ripping the four thin boards into eight 2-inch strips.
- Sand off squeeze-out from the first clamping before the second glue-up.
- Glue the square-checkered strips to 1/8-inch plywood for bulk, spreading glue to the edges, and clamp with bricks.
- Cut a rabbet along one side of the frame with a dado set, a sacrificial fence, and a featherboard to hold the stock tight.
- Set the router with a quarter-inch straight bit at 1/16-inch depth to cut the inlay recess, then cut 45-degree miters for the frame.
- Tape the cut lines on the glued-up strips with masking tape to prevent chip-out, and use a crosscut sled with a 2-inch stop block for even squares.
- The walnut was about $10 per foot, which is why resawing was used to stretch the stock.
- He describes himself as an amateur and hobbyist using basic tools, saying he wishes he had a good table saw but doesn't.
- The speaker notes that the top can be very thin, and that the board needs to be glued up in one shot after dry fitting.
- The speaker quotes "Woodworking is five percent planning, five percent skills, and ninety percent sanding."
Bottom Line
Building this chess top is mostly careful resawing, precise strip-gluing, and accurate rabbet and inlay work, all doable with basic tools. The video ends the top and leaves the drawers and case for later parts of the series.
