The Hobby Guy Workshop

A simple customized checkerboard and checkers using wood and acrylic.

Completed

Laser Workshop GuildDiode Lasers Community

My daughter asked if I could make a checker set for my grandsons. I started in Lightburn by making 24 simple discs. I planned on using “cast” acrylic. I only use cast acrylic since extruded acrylic is supposed to give horrible results. I set up to cut 12 discs out of black acrylic and 12 out of red acrylic. Black acrylic cuts better but red seems to engrave better. I am also creating a wooden checker board in Lightburn. I’m sure I could have downloaded a checkerboard design, but I wanted to create it myself.

Session 1

Making some checkers

My daughter asked if I could make a checker set for my grandsons. I started by making 24 simple discs out of "cast" acrylic.
I made 12 discs out of black acrylic and 12 out of red acrylic. (The black acrylic cuts better but the red engraves better.)
After I had cut them all out, my wife pointed out that I should have engraved a crown on one side of each checker for when they are "kinged". I needed to come up with a way to align the crown image on each disc (checker). I used strong magnets to hold down a piece of scrap wood. Using Lightburn, I cut a circle the size of one of my checkers in the scrap wood and used masking tape to remove the cut disc. I centered a simple crown graphic in the cut out disc space location in Lightburn. I engraved each checker (one at a time) with a crown on one side. (I basically made a jig on the fly.) It would have been much better if I had planned out the crown to engrave on each checker before cutting them out. This was obviously not the best way to do it but it worked.

Making some checkers — Starting Files

Photos and project files added when this Project Session was created.

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I like thisManCastleKing

I like the use of both acrylic and wood. And, how he created the checkerboard.

Running the project and preventing power setting mistakes.

Once I had made the acrylic checkers, I set out to to create a simple checker/chess board. I used 3mm mdf and using the settings that I had determined from my material tests, I made two squares on the chess board 30mm x 30mm. I made the squares on separate layers (one in filled mode and one in line mode). I used them to make my 64 square checkerboard (8x8) alternating filled (dark) squares and lined (light) squares. I added the family name at the top and bottom of the board (upside down at the top so that the board would be consistent when viewed from either side). I also made sure to have the unfilled (light) square as the bottom right square (standard for chess and checkers). I grouped the field of 64 squares and created a 12mm outward offset with 12mm rounded corners. I set the outline as a cut line according to the settings from my material cut test. Once completed, it didn't look too good until I cleaned it. Once I cleaned it it looked pretty good.

A very important note: If you use your settings from your material test, and the power on your project seems too high or too low, check your "Constant power mode" switch setting in the Lightburn cut settings editor. If it's turned on during the material test but turned off when working on the project, you may find you don't have enough power to get the desired results. Likewise, if it's off during the material cut test, but on when running the project you may find that you are using excessive power and burning your projects. I learned this the hard way.

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Try thisManCastleKing

It might be too late for this project. But, if you make another one, I like making a jig out of cardboard for all the discs. I had to do something similar for a different project.
I'm a big fan of cardboard jigs.

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Diane Holland
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I like this project. I never thought about doing it. I can't wait to see the final.

Pop Pop MooseProject Owner
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Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I like the idea of using cardboard as a simple jig. I often use cardboard to make prototypes.