3D Printed Class Chess Set
This week, our class decided to 3D print a class chess set. We looked for a few designs on Thingiverse.com, and found an awesome set of spiral chess pieces that came with a matching board. We decided to use our school colours (red and black), and we did some basic math to find out how many pieces we'd have to print. We needed the following numbers of the specified items in EACH colour:
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​Pieces: 8 Pawns, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, 1 Queen, 1 King
Board: 2 Corner pieces, 12 edge pieces, 18 centre pieces.
Lock Rings (to hold the board together): 123 Rings
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​In total, the pieces took about 20 hours to print, with the board taking about 16 hours to print. Despite there being 123 lock rings required, we were able to print 10 at a time, and they took only about 4 hours in total to print. So, altogether, the entire board was roughly a 40-hour print.
Problems We Were Able to Troubleshoot:
The original circular lock rings were a little too tight and were pushing the pieces too close together, causing them to push up and not lie flat when flipped over. We fixed this issue by increasing the width of the circle by 10% to make it slightly more oval-shaped. This fix worked perfectly to give the pieces a bit more room to separate, and we were able to push the rings into place with a flathead screwdriver.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I was very happy with the way this chess board turned out. My students had fun taking turns checking on and removing the many prints, and, with only one minor setback – which we were able to overcome – the process went very smoothly. Any issues we encountered served as problem-solving lessons for the kids.
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We are currently printing a second chess set for students to use in the classroom. Eventually, we want to hold an in-class chess tournament.