And as I am preparing to make a ‘River Table’, I thought I could use some more experience in working with epoxy resin. TL;DR, lessons were learned. I have been thinking of making my own chessboard for quite a while, and this was the perfect opportunity to give it a try.
The first step was quite strait forward, I glued 4 pieces of oak onto a thin piece of plywood. Then I sawed this into strips which I then glued back to each other, but with every strip rotated by 180 degrees. Of course I messed up, and the squares weren’t really squares. So I had to do the process again, and I ended up with smaller squares.
From the oak slab I had left over, I formed the outer edge of the board. Both parts were lowered into the mold I made from chipboard.

Then it was time to mix the epoxy together with the glow-in-the dark dye, and pour the epoxy into the mold.

The first lessons were learned at this stage.
LESSON 1: Secure the object with clamps. Wood is lighter than the epoxy liquid, so it will float. I had to clamp the inner part down, but of course the outer part as well. The metal bars were easy to remove, but the chipboard blocs were a bit harder. Note to self: epoxy is very strong glue!
LESSON 2: Do not forget to add a layer of release agent to the mold! I had planned to spray the mold with Vaseline, which prevents the epoxy from bonding with the mold, but in the heat of the moment I forgot. The sides came off quite easily nevertheless, but the bottom was a pita. Not only the plywood had to be routed out, but the chipboard as well. This meant I had to go knee-deep into sawdust.

After thicknessing and sanding the board came out quite nicely.

The next step was to create a pedestal or base of some kind, which would contain the UV-leds. At this point I decided to make the base large enough for chess-piece storage. The led-string was self-adhesive, applying these was quite easy.

The top board fits neatly into the base, giving it a nice glow when the leds are on, and a nice afterglow when turned off.
LESSON 3: Make a test pour with the pigment powder to see how it turns out. I feel I didn’t use enough UV-powder.
The wood was finished with Osmo. This gives the board a nice protective outer layer, while still retaining the feel of the wood. It also darkens the oak a bit, which contrasts nicely with the epoxy.
The final product turned out really nice.


Very nice. Well made too. Looks absolutely amazing….
Thanks!
Sounded like this took continued effort and determination.
Looks really good, a job well done.
Haha, yes there were those moments…