Saturday, January 12, 2019

3D Printed Chess Board + Pieces

January 13, 2019 | ATL 

Chess is a game of strategy, patience, mind, and intellectual mettle. Chess pieces and chess boards are also a whole category of art and craft onto themselves.


We've created this chess set to show once again what 3D printing is capable of.

The chess pieces themselves were modelled in Sculptris, a free 3D sculpting software made by the creators of ZBrush. The pieces are modelled after Thai Makruk pieces. The pieces correspond to Western chess so you can actually play both Thai and Western chess on the same board with the same pieces.


The board itself is fairly large, with each square being 50x50mm and the overall width at 510mm.

Despite its large size, it is still printed out of plastic and fairly flimsy when finally friction welded together. That's why we decided to fill it with concrete giving it extreme heft and producing that satisfying 'plunk' sound chess pieces should make on a proper board.



It was by no means an easy project. The friction welding alone took 8 solid hours to do, and we are fairly experienced and proficient with the welding process. We also have a fair amount of practice with mixing and using concrete for 3D printed bases for lamps and interface devices, but if this is your first time trying, practice on something else first.  

Before adding in the concrete, there is a fair amount of volume inside that could be used to add electronics, LEDs, and other features if you desire.

The Sculptris design process. 

But it did come out really well. You may be wondering why the squares are all black. That's because in Thai chess, the squares are monochrome. Pieces representing the bishops in Thai chess are able to move one step forward as well as one step diagonally in any direction. That means it is possible for these pieces to end up on any square, negating the need for white and black squares.

We've found that the mind quickly adapts to the monochrome layout even when playing Western chess. But of course, if you decide to print this board out, feel free to print out white and black squares.

All the files and details on assembling this project are available on Thingiverse here. The chess pieces are here.

Follow ProgressTH.org on Facebook hereInstagram here, or on Twitter here. We also put all of our 3D printed models online for free at Thingiverse.com here.