Light-up Chess Board

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Light-up Chess Board

For this project, we'll be constructing a neat little chess board with some attached LED lights to give a nice customizable look. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why not just buy a regular chess board at Toys R Us and be done with it?" Well I'll give you plenty of reasons. Say you're on a date with someone, and they come to your house and see this fine titan of collectibles, they'll be thinking two things, either: "Wow! This guy plays chess, he must be Mark Zuckerberg!" or: "Wow this dude made his own chess board, he must be a man's man." Or if you're hosting the Turkish chess ambassador to Armenia for a game of chess, he'll be overwhelmed with how much effort you put into giving him a pleasant stay. Now let's get started!

Getting Started

First things first is to gather all of your materials. Below are all of materials used in the making of this project.

2'x2' Wood board with a width of 1/4"

12 Small Red Non-Blinking LED Lights

12 Small Blue Non-Blinking LED Lights

Black Crayola Paint

Black Duct Tape

Set of Glass Chess Pieces

Cutting the Board

If you go to your local Home Depot, Ace Hardware, what have you, you will be able to purchase this fine piece of wood. In the end, you're going to what two pieces of wood 10"x10". You'll probably be able to have it cut down into one foot by one foot smaller pieces at whatever establishment you end up going to. If not you can use a simple power saw that you may have at your humble abode, or perhaps you have a nice workshop that you house your magnificent tools in.

Laser-Cutting the Wood

Once you acquire the wood, you will want to get two 10"x10" pieces. I used a laser cutter for a more precise cut, but you don't have the means to use a laser cutter, as I mentioned earlier, a simple power saw will do just fine. If you plan on going the laser cutter route, which I highly recommend, you will have to use the OnShape system, so you can virtually create the board. This design is a rather simple one, and I'm sure it will take you no more than half an hour to get the hang of the system. Create a 10"x10" square, extrude it, and upload it to your laser cutting machine to be cut.

Painting the Board

Before you can paint the board you are going to want to decide which piece of wood you want to act as the board, and which you would like to be the bottom. After you pick out your favorite, draw lines on the board using a ruler. You are going to want to make seven straight lines both vertically and horizontally approximately 1.21 inches apart from one another. After you accomplish this mighty feat of the human spirit, you will want to paint alternating squares using fine dark gray paint made by the fine folks down at Crayola. This takes a bit of accuracy, and it is important to note that, unlike that of a child's coloring book, drawing outside the lines probably, but definitely, isn't the best idea if you are going for style points

Adding the Lights

To add the lights basically just take some duct tape and stick them on there. I decided to use red, and blue lights, because America is the greatest country in the world. Merica. However, if you are from, say, Bulgaria, you might want to use red and green lights if you have any respect for your nation. Anyway, I put five lights on each side, so 20 in total, alternating red and blue. Take a piece of your duct tape, and rip it down the middle long ways, and then do that again, giving you four very narrow strips of tape. Put the lights where you believe they should go, and tape them so you are still capable of turning the lights on. Below is an image of what the lights should look like.

Finishing the Board

Once your lights are attached and secure, you're more or less done. At this point, all that's left is to turn the lights on, put some tape on the bottom of the painted piece of wood, and stick that on the other piece, and put the chess pieces in their proper position, and you've got yourself a nice little creation that will tickle the fancy of your friends for years to come.