Checkmate: Process

Research:

After thoroughly reading through the assignment brief, my group began researching the different pieces used in chess.  The results of our research are shown below:

1. 1. King
      1. Most important piece.  The objective of chess is to capture the other person’s king.
      2. A slow moving piece
      3. Only one per team
   2. Queen
      1. The most dynamic piece.  It is the king’s final line of defense.
      2. Can move in 8 directions; the ‘strongest’ piece
      3. Only one per team
   3. Bishop
      1. Can move on a diagonal, unless blocked by another piece
      2. 2 pieces per team
      3. Recognizable by the diagonal slit in the top of the piece
   4. Knight
      1. Moves in an ‘L’ Shape pattern
      2. Only piece that can ‘jump’ over other pieces
      3. 2 pieces per team
      4. Recognizable by the ‘L’ Shape structure
   5. Rook
      1. Only moves straight in the vertical, or horizontal direction
      2. 2 pieces per team
      3. Recognizable as a tower figure, demonstrating the straight movements
   6. Pawn
      1. The first line of defense.
      2. It can only move 1-2 spaces per turn, and can only move straight unless capturing an enemy on a diagonal
      3. 8 pieces per team
      4. Recognizable as the smallest and most plentiful pieces

Source: https://www.chess.com/

We began thinking of ideas, either conflicting or related, that we could use for each side of the three person board.  We did this to get as many ideas down as possible, so we had a large list to chose from for the final.  The list we created is as follows:

• • Elemental dominance
    • For example: Grass, Fire, and water
  • Abstractions
    • Similar to Mondrian
  • Medieval
    • Dragons, Elves, Trolls, Orcs
  • Royalty based off different countries, cultures, and status
    • For example: Ancient Egypt, and its caste system
  • Heaven, Hell, and Earth
    • Modern Christianity approach
  • Games
    • Mario, Legend of Zelda, Pokemon
  • Thunderstorm
    • Thunder, Lightning, and Rain
  • Politics
    • Democrats, Republican, Green
  • Food
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
  • Geometric Abstractions
    • Squares, Circles, Triangles
  • Time
    • 70’s, 80’s, 90’s
  • Music
    • Each person choose their favorite music genre
    • Mimics how everyone is pushing their own music tastes on others, and feels that their taste is superior
  • Emotions
    • Anger, Happiness, Sadness
  • Superheroes
    • DC vs. Marvel vs. Invincible
  • Science Fiction

With this multitude of ideas written down, my group decided to choose two ideas to work with, one primary, and one as a back up.  The two ideas we chose to work with were:

1. 1. Lightning, Thunder, and Rain
   2. Heaven, Hell, and Earth

We decided to create a mind map of the first idea, as it would help us come up with ideas and ways to convey each aspect of a thunderstorm.  The mind maps for each word are shown below.

During class, after we completed the mind maps, my group worked to create an object using slip joints.  As we did not have our final ideas formalized enough to work with the lightning, thunder, and rain idea, we created a tree.  Emily and I created the side view pieces, and Zoey created the top view pieces.  The test form we made is shown below.

With the general ideas, mind map, and test slice form completed, my group divided the sides of the chess board, and chose which theme each person was going to use.  I chose to work with thunder, as I had an idea to use sound waves to convey the sound of thunder. Zoey chose to work with rain, as she had different abstraction that conveyed the feeling and tough of rain, and Emily chose lightning, as she could convey the flashing/light aspect of it.

Iterations:

With the different sides of the chess board split between the group members, I could start working to ideate the feeling of thunder.  I had the idea to work with sound waves, adjusting the frequency and height for each piece. Similarly, I wanted to distinguish which pieces could move in a more fluent manor, as opposed to those moving one or two spaces per turn.  To do this, I made the slower pieces (King and Pawns) with sharp edges, and the more rapid moving pieces (Queen, Knight, Rook, and Bishop) with curved edges that lead into each other.  With these principles in mind, I worked to create sketches for each piece.

I realized that I needed to test a couple of these pieces if I wanted to get them laser cut, so I made a basic chess piece (similar to the sketch of the rook).  I needed to test the tolerance for the slip joint to ensure that the profile view and front view fit together; in addition to this, I needed to find a height for the royal pieces and pawns that fit the proportions of the three-person board.  The initial test for the pieces are shown below.

This test showed me many flaws with my design.  The most important result was the inaccuracy of my tolerances for the slip joints.  As the wooden board I was using was 5 millimeters thin, I made the tolerance 5 mm.  I did not take into account the extra room that the laser would need to burn away material.  The joints for this test were too loose, and caused the two pieces to wiggle when put together.  One positive result from this test was the height of the pieces; I cut out 2 of each piece, changing the height to 3.5 in. and 4.5 in, respectively.  I found that the royal pieces would be most stable and apparent if they were 4 in. tall.  I adjusted the height and tolerances once more to create a stronger piece that fit together better.  The resulting piece is as follows.

With this new test, I noticed that the tolerances were still off a bit.  While the piece fit together much more snug than the last test, there was still a bit of wiggle room.  Aside from that aspect, I was happy with this test-the height was strong, and the base circle piece fit perfectly with the bottom tolerances.  As time was winding down, and the laser cutter availability was running low, I decided to start making the illustrator file for the rest of the pieces so I could cut them.

I initially tried to cut the pieces out at the laser cutter in Hopkins Hall, as I figured the bed size was perfect for the board I needed cut.  When cutting out the file, which I did with Zach, I tested the different speeds and laser strengths.  Once I had levels that cut through the board, I ran the file through the laser.  When I removed the board from the laser cutter, I noticed that the cuts did not go all the way through the board, even though the test did.  I attempted to sand the back of the wooden board so I could find how far the laser cut through.  To my surprise and dismay, the laser cut through different thicknesses of the board.  Rather than risk losing more materials, I went to the laser cutter in Pomerene Hall.

The laser located in Pomerene Hall worked perfectly- the chess pieces cut through the board, and came out clean, with no fray marks.  I took these home and organized them based on the different piece and where the slip joint was cut from.

 

Concept Statement:

With the checkmate project, my group focused on the components of a storm: thunder, lightning, and rain.  Each component corresponds to a bodily sense; for instance, thunder-sound; lightning-sight, and rain-touch.  As my side of the board centered around thunder, I made abstractions based off the movement of sound waves.  I worked with the element of line, creating hard corners, and rounded edges.  This indicates the movement of the specific pieces: hard cornered pieces move slower and more stagnant, whereas the smoothed indicate swift and further movements.  I utilized the principle of proportion, making the royal pieces taller, and the pawns shorter.  The element of color was important to this concept, as sound waves are not visible.  I used a stain with a very dark pigment to conceal the pieces, while still giving a rustic, grain-like texture.

Production:

After getting all the pieces laser cut, and ensuring that the edges were cut out clean, I attempted to assemble the pieces before I painted them, to make sure that they all fit together nicely.  When assembling the side and profile views, I noticed that the side tolerances for the slip joints fit well, but the top of the slit hindered it from fitting flush.  I tried to assemble the other pieces, but they had the same problem.

As I couldn’t recut the pieces because the laser cutter was booked, I tried to adjust it by hand, working with a Dremel and precision sanding attachment to slightly increase the tolerance.  I first tested this method of slowly sanding parts away on the pawns, as I had an extra one if something broke.  The first attachment I used was a rounded course stone, which proved to be too big, and would not fit in the slit.  It also destroyed the slit of the extra pawns that I made, which meant that I had no extra pieces to test on.  Rather than using sanding attachments, I switched to engraving attachments, as they were more precise and allowed me to adjust the corners of the slip joints.  This proved beneficial, as the slip joint was the perfect size for a flush connection.  After adjusting the pawns, I moved on to the other pieces, again, slowly increasing the vertical tolerances.

With the pieces fitting flush, I sanded the exterior faces, and the sides that the laser burned, ensuring that no soot remained.  I first used 120 grit sandpaper, then moved on to 220 to give the pieces a nicer finish and feel.  Once the texture of the pieces was to my liking, I cleaned off each piece with tack cloth, removing the remaining soot and sawdust.  I then moved onto staining each piece.  I chose a dark ebony stain to bring out the grain of the wood, and to also mimic the invisible nature of sound waves.  After staining the pieces, however, I noticed that the pigment was too dark, and that the wood grain was not visible.  The pieces looked as they do below.

In order to better see the wood grain and structure of the chess pieces, I decided to disassemble them and, once more, sand them with 220 grit sandpaper.  This greatly improved the appearance of the pieces.  Once I was happy with the depth of the stain, I worked to assemble to chess pieces, fitting the slip joints of the side and profile views together, then adhering the bottom, locking piece to the perpendicular slip joint pieces.  Once the glue dried, I adhered the structure to the bottom disk for stability. The final pieces are shown below.

Each individual piece is shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to Portfolio Project:

View the Checkmate Project at Checkmate.