Wood Movement on a Chess Board? – Viewer Question
This Viewer Question comes from Reggie who writes:
“Marc, first thanks for the wonderful website!!! Second, I am relatively new to woodworking and have a question about wood movement on a chess board I am building for my son. My choice of woods are 3/4″ hard maple with a very little curl, and walnut. My procedure so far was to face and edge joint, thickness plane, and saw 4 2″x 25″x 9/16″ sections of each wood. I then edge glued them to each other using Titebond II. Next was to cross cut the piece into 2 inch sections and flip every other section to give me the checkerboard pattern and re-glue. I have just finished hand planing one face perfectly flat. Now I want to edge/frame the board with mitered 3″ sections of walnut.”
“Now the problem. I currently live in Louisville, Ky but my son lives in Southern Louisiana. I know without a doubt that the climates are VERY different and I need to account for this, but how? He has taken to playing chess with his friends and I know that it would be very appreciated by him, so I don’t want to mess this up! The only advice I have been given is to glue the board I have made so far to some 1/4 inch plywood. Cut a slot in the mitered frame and let the board float in it. Would this work or do you have a better idea? Also, will Titebond II be good enough to hold the walnut through expansion when glued end grain to end grain on the corner miters (I don’t have a biscuit joiner and working for the military doesn’t allow me to afford one right now.) To sum up … HELP!!!!!!!!”
And my response was:
Hey Reggie. I am glad you emailed me BEFORE framing the board. I made a board almost exactly like this one. And I still have it today. I have it as an example of what NOT to do with your projects, lol. I didn’t know too much about wood movement at the time and surrounded the board with a frame anyway. Big mistake. I have posted a video that highlights my mistakes with this board.
Anyway, the idea about the plywood will work, but only if you glue the chess board to the ply at the center. If you glue the whole thing down, you aren’t allowing the wood to expand and contract. So a little glue at the center would be all you should do. Now this plywood trick is a slightly less elegant (but simpler) way to do what I would recommend. What I would do is cut a groove around the perimeter of the chess board. Cut a similar groove around the frame pieces. Then use strips of ply as splines that are cut just short enough to allow some movement all around the board (or at least the two sides that run with the grain). But the fit in terms of thickness of the strips and width of the groove is such that the board doesn’t wobble around. This will allow the chess board to move within the frame. Like I said, a different way of accomplishing the same thing that was recommended to you. But no big piece of ply involved.
And there aren’t many choices beyond that. One way or another, you need to allow the wood to move. And you could always get creative and suspend the board inside the frame using a dowel at each end, and cutting the holes a little extra deep to allow for movement. Kind of like the table top on my end table from a while back. But that completely changes the look. You could also cut your solid stock into veneer, and glue that down to a stable substrate as a method of eliminating wood movement. Something to consider. As for Titebond II, that should be strong enough assuming you have tight fitting joints and good pressure, and its a relatively light duty piece. Hope that helps and good luck!
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About the miter joints, Reggie… End-grain soaks up the glue and will eventually starve the joint of glue. You can’t rely on any joint that has no long-grain to long-grain glue surface. It’s not a question of what glue you use; it is just a fact of joinery. While miters are not strictly 100% end-grain, they’re not very strong by themselves. I would recommend a spline in the corners: Glue up the frame and, after it’s all together, cut a saw kerf into the edge of each corner. Insert a thin piece of wood into this kerf with the grain running the same direction your saw went (i.e. perpendicular to the joint line), let the glue dry, and trim it flush. Now you have long-grain to long-grain glue surfaces inside the miter joint, and the joint will be much stronger. If you don’t like this, you can hide a little dowel or two inside the joint.
I’ve always wondered why this works, as you’re still encasing the board inside a frame. So, you cut a grove in the board/frame and put in an undersized (in width) spline. This allows movement of the middle half (height) – but still not the very top/bottom of the board. That 1/4″ maybe? is still completely encased. Any good diagrams/explanations out there?
Is the answer that it’s enough to allow most of the wood to be able to move?
I think my explanation leaves a little to be desired. Sorry about that. What I didn’t elaborate on is the fact that the board must be undersized. This means there will be a slight gap all the way abound the board. That is where the movement occurs. Putting a loose spline in place, while having the board butt up against the frame directly doesn’t really solve anything, as you indicated. So the big question is, can you live with that gap there? I couldn’t so I ignored the rules, and my chess board is all jacked up as a result, lol.
I’ve seen little rubber balls sold as spacers for rail and stile panel doors. The panel sits in grooves (dadoes) in the frame, with enough room to slide around. The spacer balls are dropped into the dadoes to keep the panel centered. As the panels expands, the rubber balls deform.
I guess the same approach could be used for the chess board. If I was doing it I’d cut little pieces of foam rubber instead of buying “spacer balls”.