Big chess set check

Denny North broke was the 2007 world record holder for the largest chess set. I really like his geometric designs for the pieces:

He designed this tabletop set for a local toy store down in San Jose, California. Think its big?

Thats nothing. Heres the world record winner and a picture of a lawn set.

Denny designs them for MegaChess who import the teak pieces from craftsmen who make them from furniture industry leftovers. Although Canada now holds the record with a king that is one inch wider, Denny is looking to reclaim his crown. Good luck man!

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John in Hadley has been working on this soldier for a while and recently finished it. Quite an ambitious project, and hes already considering another one for 2013!Not only that, notice the logo on the hat...a Mere Mortal nutcracker! Thanks John. This is inspiring!

Heres how John describes the build:

The lumber was old rough cut 2x3s from a demo along with a few other scraps. All the 2x3s were cut to 28 inches to start, with a total of 42 pieces. Each arm and leg was 5 pieces glued up, squared and spun on the lathe. I used Titebond 3 and gave it several days to cure since it had to hold up on the lathe at 1000 rpm.

Snipe on the planer was a big issue and left many of the glue joints open. I decided to call it rustic and live with it, but did worry a bit when spinning that right leg since an entire joint was open. The chest and head glue-ups were both done as semi circles, each piece cut at 36 degrees, then run through the planer to get them flat again. 

 On final glue up, I added lumber to the chest for width. I used an electric hand planer to shape them and then a side arm grinder to finish. The chest is capped on top, however the bottom piece is permanently attached to the the top of the legs. There are eye hooks on the the top of each leg and chain that goes up to an eye bolt that goes through the top of the hat. I used a horseshoe washer so that I can thread the bolt with nut already on it to assemble. 

The hair came from the dollar store as did the plume. I need to redo the hair next year as blonde doesnt quite work. For paint I bought Behr exterior paint samples in black, white, yellow, red, blue and hunter green and a tiny bottle of Folkart outdoor Inca gold acrylic.

Like most all of my projects, it does have a hidden bottle wrench, but I decided against making it a functional nutcracker since it could be somewhat dangerous for the size (although I did consider how nice a clamp it would make - you can never have too many clamps.) And finally, I decided to hijack a logo since this fellow is a proud member of the army of Mere Mortals.

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Big and small projects

I always love it when people send pictures of projects they have made based on my designs. Last week, over on Google Plus, I enjoyed watching Bill Akins progress as he built the advent calendar. Its really fun when you can involve the family in woodworking. So really, credit goes to the entire Akins family on this one.

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Remember my candle holder a couple weeks ago? It seemed to me it needed something else in its design. Rob Daniel decided to angle the edges toward the bottom.

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And heres Scott Ritts version. I absolutely love the curved ends. Thats the look I think I wanted!

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Now, Raymond Levesque seems to go BIG with his Christmas. He made Santas sleigh as a float for the Moose Lodges Christmas parade. No plans, just winged it. My kind of woodworking!

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