Laird's Chess Set
by laird, published
Description
The set is designed to be artistically interesting, but also to illustrate the moves of each piece, with the names labeled, to make Chess approachable for kids.
The king has the tallest 'body' and has its name printed in large type to indicate its importance. The circle represents the king's ability to move one space in any direction.
The queen is about as tall as the king, with the 'head' indicating that the Queen can move any distance in the eight directions.
The knight is shorter, with cubes arranged around a central diamond indicating the eight squares that the knight can jump to. The arrangement of the cubes on the top and the back, and the angle of the supporting head, are intended to evoke a horse's head.
The bishop and rook are the same height, with 'heads' indicating their ability to move any distance in either the diagonals or horizontal and vertical.
Finally the pawns are the shortest. The 'head' indicates the ability to move forward one square, or capture diagonally. I couldn't think of a way to indicate moving forward two spaces, or capturing en-passent.
Recent Comments
view all
I rebuilt the chess set in OpenSCAD, and posted as http://www.thingiverse.com/thi... . Let me know what you think.
Andrew, can you take a look at the updated STL file?
Andy, I think that I cleaned up the geometry. Can you take another look at it?
Tags
License
Give a Shout Out
Instructions
Note that the entire chess set is in one file. It would probably make sense to output each piece into a separate file for printing.
There is some overhang on the knight, but only a quarter inch, which I hope will be printable using an extrusion 3D printer.
chess_fixed.stl is the same geometry, but run through cloud.netfabb.com, which fixed quite a few holes, and the geometry is now manifold. I don't see a difference, but perhaps the result will print?
File Name
Downloads
Size
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I ran the file through Blender, and exported an STL file, which appears plausible in SkeinForge. But I don't have a 3D printer yet. If this actually prints, I'd be thrilled to know, and happy to pay for someone to print me a set.
Hey Laird,
I found a free sketchup script that will export items to STLs.
http://www.guitar-list.com/dow...
but i believe for it to be properly printable, each piece has to be one solid object, right now each peace is composed of a bunch of separate objects.
when skeinforge hits this it slices each one separatly and then overlays them on each layer. Which makes them really messy, but might still print.
this is a cross section of a rook that i sliced up.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ru...
Thanks - very cool. I'm not entirely sure how to convert the intersecting objects into a single merged object in SketchUp, but I'll play with it.
Guys, thanks for trying. Any suggestions of how to make these properly printable? SketchUp has an add-on that claims to make clean STL files, but it would cost a fortune to upgrade to Pro and then buy the add-on, so that is out. Any other suggestions?
Or should I start over in a different CAD app?
I tried to do the file conversions necessary to send your models to ShapeWays for 3D printing, but I lack the requisite skill to make the models "proper" for printing. SketchUp seems to make some errors when it exports that I don't know how to fix. *DONT_KNOW*
Andy, I think that I cleaned up the geometry. Can you take another look at it?
I've spent a lot of time sketching this chess set out in a notebook. I would love to see what it looks like in real life. (And it looks like it'll take some time to build a Mendel...)
I rebuilt the chess set in OpenSCAD, and posted as http://www.thingiverse.com/thi... . Let me know what you think.