Blind friendly magnetic chess set

A chess set I designed as a gift for my blind sister because all the sets we have played with over the years have been adapted to blind players but never made for them. It's main features are distinctive top shapes for each piece making them easy to identify by touch, and strong 8x2mm magnets in the pieces and board to keep the pieces in place while players feel the board while also being easy to move and place without the hassle of having to align a dowel pin with a hole. It also features a 300mm four piece board that connects with magnets so it can fit on most print beds, and cutouts for the pieces and holes for magnets on the back to make storage easier. It takes most of a spool to print and 132 8x2mm magnets. I printed it in lime green matte PLA to try to reduce some of the inherent advantage sighted players have in being able to see the whole board. I included the Fusion360 archive so you can easily adjust or edit the design.

Late night bonus: Stacking checkers pieces. I printed them with no top solid layers, and lightning infill at 70% for the rough pieces and gyroid infill at 70% for the smooth pieces. You will need 24 more magnets of these.

Notes:

I used the Fuzzy Skin option in PursaSlicer to add a rough texture to one set of pieces and printed the board face down with supports touching the build plate to create a smooth texture from the build plate on the taller spaces and a rough texture on the shorter spaces from the bridging.

Post-Printing

Remove supports and glue magnets in. I used a magnet taped to back of a piece cardstock to push the magnets in while keeping the facing the same direction. For the side and bottom magnets put them all facing one way in boards A and the other way in boards B.

Category: Chess