Braille Chess DIY

My project was to make a Gift of encouragement for my Dad.

Braille Chess is a bit different than regular chess.

IBCA (International Braille Chess Association) rules:

• At least twenty centimeters by twenty centimeters.
• The black squares are slightly raised.
• A securing aperture in each square.
• Every piece is provided with a peg that fits into the securing aperture.
• Pieces of Staunton design, the black pieces being specially marked (POINTY).

The Main idea was to make a portable chessboard board which is my design and free to use (at least mention my link in your description to support me)

I DON'T ALLOW MAKING MONEY WITH MY DESIGN. IS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE AND ACCESSIBLE FOR VISUAL IMPAIRED.

Read more for more 🙂

Supplies used:

Cosmetic soft Brush (to paint bottom stick out sticks)

Epoxy resin to paint chessboard (more protective than Varnish)

Foam roller

Dart Tips

Doweling Jig (for making sure the side hole for magnets matches)

Philips head Screwdriver

16 screw-in magnets size 6 mm (16 screw M2 to fit inside magnets)

16 Philips screw 6 mm

and some protective paper and yellow spray paint tape.

I'll be honest. To make perfect square tiles you need special tools which I don't because of the lack of space. You can use any wood and cut it by size and sand after or use a link from a very friendly seller on aliexpress which costs me less than 15 $.

LINK: 20/40/50 Pcs 100mm Wooden Pieces Slices Wood Round Square for Children DIY Painted Wood Chip Wedding Household Decoration Board (aliexpress.com)

Slices needed a bit of sanding. After sanding, I used paint tape to glue them to a piece of paper so I was able to Spray Paint ALL in One.

After Spray paint make sure to wait 24 hours for another coat. 2 coats are recommended. I used Matt Black Acrylic paint. You can use a clothes hanger to dry them in fresh AIR.

Since I didn't have any Chess set at home I had to order. If you have a chess set at home, you can use it. Make sure is wood since the material is so much easy to work with. Any mistakes can be easily repaired with some Epoxy Resin.

The black side has to be BRAILLE marked. Chess for the visually impaired does not need letters. The markings are raised black squares and Pointy tips on the black set of figures. Figures also need bottom plugs. They help the visually impaired to properly position Figures on the chessboard. ALL 64 fields have holes in the center to plug the figure in.

On the TOP I used a 2 mm drill bit to make 5 mm depth holes. I used Dart tips, cut them 1 cm at the top, and pushed them inside each black figure TOP.

Step 1 DONE.

At the bottom, I used a 5 mm width wood stick and cut it to a 1 cm long roller. The hole on the bottom is 5 mm deep. If you don't mind the looks you can also use shelf holders which are made of nylon.

If you drill a hole too deep. Don't worry. You can use epoxy and dip the 1 cm wood roller into and push into the hole on the bottom.

The final step is to sand on the bottom so the Chess figure is easily inserted into the Chess Board. You can DIP them into epoxy again to protect the insert or Varnish them with a makeup brush. Why MAKEUP? Is Cheaper and better.

Step 2 DONE.

Making a chessboard is simple.

You can transform your old chessboard easily:

• Get your self wood square pcs according to your chessboard field size with 2mm thickness and glue them on black fields to make them STICK OUT
• Drill a 5 mm hole in every field on the chessboard
• Protect with epoxy or VARNISH.

If you want to use my design you need to make 4 squares 25 cm x 25 cm.

In my case, I used a POPLAR wood board with 12 mm thickness.

• CUT 4 same pcs
• SAND with 250 or 400
• Use a FOAM ROLLER to apply resin. Make sure of the RESIN MIX RATIO. My Resin ratio is 10:6. Yours can be different. CHECK the manual carefully.

If you use EPOXY work in a ventilated area or at least have a window opened. When EPOXY is curing those FUMES are NOT GOOD for you. When using epoxy or spray paint make sure to use FFP2 or FFP3 mask.

The Doweling tool is handy here.

The magnetic design is simple. Each of the 4 boards has 8 holes. 4 holes on 2 sides.

You can use any magnets but I discovered that the best ones are the screw-in magnets.

The magnets I used are size 6 mm with M3 screws hole.

1. We attach the doweling tool to the board and fix it with a screw clamp.
2. MEASURE TWICE before drilling.
3. Check the holes that match on the other board and adjust the doweling tool like watching a mirrored image. Depends on the tool you are using.
4. I have drilled 2 boards on 2 sides each having 4 magnets. The other 2 boards have only (Zn) screws so the magnets attract.
5. I used a 6 mm drill bit for magnet holes.
6. I used 2 mm drill bit for screw holes to fit nicely.

The final rule of Braille chess is that the visually impaired person can distinguish black fields from white fields by touch.

This is simply done by raising the black fields for about 2-3 mm.

The black squares made in STEP 1 are attached to match the regular Chess board.

To glue the squares I recommend using EPOXY quick dry which seats in 5 minutes and fully cures in 24 hours.

I used a spare square to drill a sample hole for the rest of the fields. The drill bit had to be marked for the 5 mm depth so the Figure set would properly stick in.

1. Drill a hole into a spare square in the center.
2. Mark a depth to drill
3. use a 5 mm drill bit
4. Position a square with a marked hole to each field and drill just a tip mark
5. After every center of each field is marked, use a drill bit to make holes.

After all the work is done the finishing touch of varnishing is required to protect the board.

Finish with your taste using oil-based or acrylic-based paints.

I have chosen a more protective way and used a transparent polyurethane finish which is used on Car paint Job as well.

I hope you liked my project and if so write me a comment about where are you from and how you made your own.

Best of LUCK