DIY Chess

Hello everyone,

in this tutorial I'll show you one of our school projects which we had through high school.

As you can suppose judging by title, it's about chess figures, there were two types of material, aluminium and brass.

The goal of whole project was to recreate chess figures which were recently measured and drawn in CAD software ( Solidworks).

CNC machine is Emco Concept Turn 105 and Emco Concept Mill 105, software was written using Sinumerik Winnc, no CAD/CAM software.

We were using 3 type of tools, left , right and neutral, all three have diamond shaped working plate with 55° angle and 0.4mm radius on the top of plate.

I have attached tool path (for each tool, including path made using CYCLE95) , CAD file and program for each figure. About chess board, it's also DIY, but I don't have images or any tutorial about it, but later I'll try to explain how it's made.

If you can't make chess figures with CNC, you can print it, that's why I provided .stl files too :)

I'll be updating this instructable constantly with new changes/documentations, so keep that in mind too.

So, let's begin:

Step 1: CYCLE95

Here is image of parameters in this cycle, you may find it useful if you intend to change something in program.

Step 2: Approach to the Problem

First of all, drawing in Solidworks with all dimensions so later is much easier to make technical documentation based on CAD drawings, after that comes programming and making all these figures.

These are the steps of machining of almost each figure (some of them don't require right blade ):

1. Turning forehead

2. Cutting contour of the left knife

3. Cutting contour of the right knife

4. Cutting contour of the neutral knife

Programs and toolpaths are in the end of this instructable, they're not 100% finished jet, few minor details needs to be changed :)

In case you want to play these programs on your CNC, be sure that you know what you're doing because you can very easy hit the pads with knife or brake something eventually, or in other words, check your G54 and TRANS X settings.

I'm still working on technical documentation, momentarily I did not provide it, but it will be in few days when I'll have it all, In meantime (and after) feel free to vote for this project if you like it!

Step 3: Bishop

Step 4: Rook

Step 5: Queen

Step 6: Pawn

Step 7: King

File " king scheme" is made for writing cnc program, coordinate of every point is show.

Step 8: Knight

This one is very tricky to make, you will need turn and mill machine for this one. This figure was originally made by one student last year so we are working on this code again, I'll post it as soon I'll have it.

Step 9: Last Words..

Here I have provided .IGS file and used programs with screenshots of tool paths (in case it helps), maybe you'll find it useful, anyway, if you need any other format feel free to comment bellow and I'll post.
As you can see, board is made from wood, on wood is placed some glue and ceramic plates, it turned out pretty well. :)

About documentation, in case you want to make your own program for CNC, I'll upload it in few days when I will finish it.

So, I hope you liked that project, if you have any other questions about it, feel free to ask down bellow.
And of course, feel free to vote to support this and next projects! Thanks!