A group of chess enthusiasts returned to their hotel room after a tournament, and were still standing in the lobby while bragging about the defeats of their opponents. After an hour of loud nerds, the manager told them they needed to disperse.
"But, why?"
"Because," he replied, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
Perhaps, I had better apologize for the pun. I'm not sorry for it, but I will apologize.
I'm one of "those" kinds of people who loves chess, cars, and I do spend my fair share of time on Pinterest. I spend little precious time playing video games, and a lot of time just exploring. And, while in Pinterest, I have seen numerous instances of chess sets made out of fasteners (you know, nuts-and-bolts kinds of things).
Now, a little insight into me in general - I have chess sets. I have chess sets my dad gave to me when I was 8 or 9 years old. I have marble chess sets, glass chess sets, wood chess sets (a folding one, and a wall hanging one), and I had a friend make a set for my dad in a machining class out of aluminum (it's anodized blue and clear - it is a beauty). I'd even made my own by using an existing set and creating molds, and casing my own out of green and gold resin (I made a folding chess board back in 8th grade wood shop class - it is definitely rough, but I'm keeping it as is). I have sets for Lord of the Rings, and I'd like some other resin-cast variations. Simply put, I LOVE chess sets!
But I do not have my own metal set, and these looked intriguing. I wanted one. The materials are not a cheap way to get into the game - trust me, you can find MUCH better options out there (that are even regulation sizes and a bit more portable for things like chess in the park) as cheap as $21.
So, I decided to try my hand at it, just because they look pretty darn cool. Here's what I ordered :
- 10 brass M10-1.5 20mm bolts (for 8 pawns and 2 knights)
- 2 brass M10-1.5 25mm bolts (for 2 rooks)
- 4 brass M10-1.5 40mm bolts (for 2 bishops, a queen and a king)
- 10 brass acorn nuts for the pawns and bishops
- 4 brass M10-1.5 nuts (simply to lock some other parts to the bolts)
- 3 "castle" M10-1.5 nuts - if you find these in brass, I'd be surprised, so you are looking for actual castle nuts with a gold tint - it's close enough for the boys my wife dates
- 2 brass lamp rings (these were M10-1.0, because you will not find these with a 1.5 thread - but that's okay, because you're just going to tighten them on anyway (without the nuts to lock them) as far as they'll go.
- 1 brass flange nut (for the queen)
Repeat the purchase for the other color (I went with black to give it a good contrast - for machining, you basically have brass/gold, black oxide, polished stainless, or just a steel). I've thrown it all into an amazon list if you are extra lazy. Just know this is not exactly cheap.
Now, it is time for assembly.
For a pawn, just take 8 of the 20mm bolts, and tighten the acorn nut on as tight as you can by hand. Maybe a little tighter, but this isn't structural, so you don't need to worry about it being really tight.
For a rook, spin onto the 30mm bolt a regular nut, followed by one of the "castle" nuts (they are officially called "castellated" nuts, and they are used with cotter pins to keep a nut from spinning off of a thread for shafts in things like cars). Put the peaks upward, and when you have all rooks top nuts in the right position, bring the other nut against it to lock it in place.
For the knights, just thread the lamp rings on. The improper thread size will lock them in place fairly quickly.
Bishops, treat JUST like the pawns, but with the 40mm bolts.
For the king, just like the rook but with a 40mm bolt.
And for the queen, use a flange nut upside down and a lock nut.
The set doesn't look bad at all in the above photo, (it is incomplete, e.g. the queen is not done). Additionally, I assembled some black pieces, because contrast between black and gold is just... beautiful.
If you look closely enough, there are still some parts missing (black rooks and king are both missing the "crown", brass queen is missing the flange nut). Once those arrived, it was relatively easy to complete the set.
Still, I'm debating in my head around making a chess board using gold and black without machining one from stock and going through the black oxide process, etc. Still working on that thought, but it might ultimately come to that.
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