Also, during corona summer 2020, I came up with the idea to create a 3D printable magnetic chess board. Here, my intention was creating my own board that I could play wherever I was, without the need of a flat or steady surface. Furthermore, I had a very specific art style in mind.
So I started modeling everything in Blender 3D, sliced it in Cura and printed away on my trusty 3D printer, an “Anycubic I3 Mega”. For the magnets, the sliced gcode (the instructions file for the 3D printer) is post processed to have “filament change” pauses at the last layer before the cavity for the magnets gets overprinted. Furthermore, Everything is printed on a single extruder 3D printer with several files in multiple steps. This was tricky to figure out, but it is now all documented in the readme file on my GitHub where this project is available under CC0 : https://github.com/0x3b29/3D-Printable-Chess
But before attempting the first complete print, I had to tweak in the printer settings. This was when this cute little chess board got created. One thing is for sure, on this board, green always wins 😉
After I was happy with the prototype, I started the big print which took quite a few hours. Here is when the magnets in the board are printed over:
And this is the first complete board together with a Blender rendering of how it is supposed to look like:
And here are some more pictures of further boards I printed for friends:
And yes, they do get played from time to time 🙂
And the board is definitely rollercoaster proof!
As a 3D printing gadget developer, I am passionate about creating customized solutions for my clients. If you have a similar project in mind, I would love to discuss it with you. Please get in touch with me via email.
