Having designed and printed a set of chess pieces, I wanted to try to print the board too. I first tried to print the board in four quarters, but although they fitted the plate on my Makerbot printer, they all curled badly at the corners, so I had to redesign the board in 16 pieces.
The assembled board is 37cm. square and 1.25cm. high. The white base is formed from 8 different pieces each of which has projecting pegs that fit in slots in the adjoining pieces. They are assembled as in the diagram above. Each piece has a specific position, so it's a good idea to label each piece with its number as it is printed to keep track of them.
You will need to print 2 of each white base piece, 32 black squares and 4 black edging strips.
Begin by assembling all the white parts in their correct positions, then push the black edging strips into their slots, and finally drop the 32 black squares into their recesses in the white base. I glued all the parts together with Lepage's 'Ultra Gel' superglue.
The assembled board is greatly improved by mounting it onto a sheet of stout card. 'Flocked' card (with a velvet-like finish on one side,) would prevent scratching on a polished table.
The tallest of the chess pieces (King) is 7cm. tall, and the shortest (Pawn) is 4cm. tall. Each piece has a 2.5cm. diameter base.
Printing:
All pieces were printed at the default settings (layer height 0.20mm., 10% infill, 2 shells,) on a raft.
The white base pieces took between 2hr. and 1hr. 45min. to print.
The black edging pieces each printed in 37min.
The black squares each printed in 25min.
The chess pieces printed between 56min. (King) and 39min. (Pawn).
