Folding Chess Board

How cool is this? -- A compact, folding chessboard that can be printed on virtually any printer and assembled from parts.

Joinery - shapes used to connect parts to create an assembly - is an important skill every 3D designer should master. This chessboard uses two simple yet important joinery shapes, the slider/slot, and the bubble joint. Sliders and slots are used to construct the two halves of the board. The hinge joining the two halves is constructed using FlexMesh bubble joints.

Most of the individual pieces are smaller than 1" or so, though there are also sets of 30mm, 35mm, and 40mm alternative cubes that you can print to create a larger board. Though the pieces fit snuggly, the necessary tolerances aren't obsessive. So parts are easily sliced and can be printed in either PLA or ABS on most any 3D printer, even those with small build volumes.

Follow the Inventor Studios Tinkercad tutorial to see how the parts of this chessboard are designed. The two parts of this tutorial consist of the Tinkercad design, followed by a demonstration of how to assemble the board from printed parts. Follow the entire tutorial collection to refine your modeling skills.

Come on, it's your move.