DIANA LI
Engineering, Design, Medical Devices & DIY
WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?
For this project, I wanted to create something that would make someone else happy. I decided to make my brother a miniature chess set with customized typography chess pieces. This is completely different from the initial idea I had, which was an infinity mirror for my brother and his fiancé's wedding gift. However, I thought a chess set would be more interactive and useful for them.
Idea Development: Sketches and 3D Designs
For my first design for the chess pieces, I wanted to attempt a 3D design through lasercutting. To achieve this, you laser cut a 2D design of chess pieces, and after the cut is finished, the piece is flipped by 90 degrees on its side for another overlay cut. This results in a representative 3D chess piece. While 3/8" thick acrylic is usually used, I decided I would make two halves of the chess piece from 1/4" thick acrylic due to my limited spending and access to 3/8" acrylic. This process was extremely time consuming since 1/4" thick acrylic would require 2-3 passes in the laser cutter. Further, after so many passes, the acrylic would be very flimsy  due to the amount of heat on the thin chess piece, resulting in very imprecise cuts. Therefore, I decided to look into another chess piece design.
3D laser cut pawn piece after gluing, sanding and painting
3D laser cut pawn piece after gluing, sanding and painting
I decided on a 2D typography design for my final chess piece design. The chess piece outline drawings used were from here, and I design the typography using Inkscape, a vector graphics software. Lastly, I finalized the pieces in SolidWorks. Since this gift is for my brother and his fiancé's, the king is overlayed with my brother's name and queen with his fiancé's name.
For the chessboard, I wanted to design it as a box with a bottom lid that would slide to open. This would allow the chess pieces to fit in the box and contained all together.
Sketches
CAD model and side view
Final Design and Fabrication
Since the acrylic was 1/4" thick, it would require 2-3 passes in the lasercutter, resulting in a lot of burn marks on the clear acrylic. While I would have chosen a different color of acrylic, I only had access to 1/4" acrylic that was clear. Isopropyl alcohol was used to wipe away the burnt marks, and for pieces with remaining marks were painted white with acrylic paint. Initially, I wanted to etch half of the pieces for a frosted look, but after etching, discoloration from the burn marks were still apparent.
Laser cut pieces
Discoloration
Final Design
Here are a couple of things I would improve on:
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1. Thicker lettering for typography on chess pieces. Since the pieces are scaled down and extremely thin, it was hard to take the pieces out the acrylic sheet, and they were extremely fragile.
2. Cut white acrylic for the second team's chess pieces. I didn't have access to 1/4" white acrylic, so I used clear acrylic for every part. I painted the chess pieces, which doesn't look as clean in comparison to clean cut acrylic.
3. Avoid using glue to assemble acrylic pieces. On clear acrylic, glue marks were very prominent.
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Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of the miniature chess set!
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Bottom sliding lid
Final pieces after cleaning and painting
Final design
Final Design