Crystal Medieval Chess Drawer Set (3D Printed)

Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played between two players. It is sometimes called Western or international chess to distinguish it from its predecessors and related games such as xiangqi. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Indian and Persian origin. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Today we show how make one.

We needed few things to make the calendar. Below you find a list of what we used (with links) to print our project.

Project .stl files - link

Printing Model using FDM Printer:

3D Printer Qidi X-Max -https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_APV5m1
Wood PLA Filament -https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A3jTwN

Post-Processing print:

Nail Files or Sandpaper

Wood Stain - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Furniture-Clinic-Wood-Stain-500ml/dp/B08CXRY1ZY/

colour Teak

Kitchen Sponge

Brushes

Metallic Acrylic Paint - https://www.amazon.co.uk/perfect-ideaz-metallic-different-creative/dp/B07GH2JK43/

Resin Printer
Qidi S-Box (Large parts) -https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9RW3NH
Qidi Shadow 6 Pro (Small parts) -https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ALZoxd
AnycubicWash and Cure 2.0 (post processing)-https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9ID9BD
Anycubic Resin -https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290296612

When we design our Chess Drawer we think about creating something medieval because chess was very popular in medieval Europe. We design this beauty drawer which we print with Wood PLA more about prosses later. We also combine wood with a crystal look every pawn has a wooden stand and crystal top.

Like we know every 3D printer is different we will share our settings but it doesn’t mean our setting will work better than yours.

Printer: Qidi X-MAX

Filament: Sunlu Wood PLA

Slicer: Cura

Retraction Distance: 3mm

Retraction Speed: 30mm/s

Layer Height: 0.3mm

Wall Line Count: 2

Top Layers: 3

Bottom Layers: 2

Print Thin Wall: Yes

Infill Density: 10% - 20%

Infill Pattern - Gyroid

Z Seam Alignment: Sharpest Corner

Seam Corner Preference: None

Print Speed: 40mm/s

Minimum Layer Time: 20s

Printing Temp: 195 C

Build Plate Temp: 50 C

Support: Support FREE (Just in shelf where is handle use support)

If you printed before in resin then good you know we used Chitubox. For setting, Chitubox has the best settings for every machine why we don't write our settings. Just choose the printer from the list in Chitu and all settings will be ok. More important with resin printing is model orientation. Our tip just marks the model and rotate it for -30 degrees and create auto support. You are done with our printer after this print everything. :) You can also print it using FDM printer just will be hard to creat crystal pawns.

After printing base, shelf, handle and 32 stand time for post-processing our prints. We do three steps for the post-process drawer and stands. Sanding, Staining, Painting. We start from sanding.

Wood PLA can sometimes require sanding. Most of the issues on prints can be strings. Simply we used sandpaper or even nail files. Very rare but can be visible blobs but then can be removed by hand. After finish sanding time for staining.

When we finish sanding we can start straight away to staining our drawer. Like always we will use a kitchen sponge as a cheap useful solution. We choose a sponge because doesn't leave marks like the brush. Just apply little on the sponge and always move in one way like this we paint all our projects. When you finish layer leave for dry a little and apply again layer. Later leave model for 24h for completely dry before painting. Stain everything also handle you you don’t do this will be lighter colours on some part of print.

When stain dry we can begin to paint metal look parts. We choose steel metallic colour. Paint all handle and pipe be careful and do same number layers, like around the drawer. Three layers should be enough. To paint the chessboard we choose Burnt Umber beauty colour. If you do it chessboard will look amazing. Please apply two layers. Leave for completely dry and jump for the next step which is painting pawn stands.

Now, waiting for us little more job we have 32 stands which need to paint. We recommend using a magnifying glass if is possible will be easier, but without it is ok. We need to paint 16 stands using metallic gold and 16 using metallic silver. If you want to have good looking metallic colour paint two layers.

Before we write about post-process pawn which we print in clear resin we need to write about safety. Resin can be dangerous for us why is important to use vinyl gloves, medical mask and Safty glasses. Wear always clothes which hold more and don't leave bare skin. Just this simple step helps you being protected. Never ever touch uncured resin by clean hand always use gloves. If you touch resin wash your skin with soap. Now when you know what you should wear when post-process your resin print.

After print uses a scraper and take prints from the bed.
Remove support using flush cutter later you can sand little bit.

We need to separate our pawns for two teams. All together is 32 pawns every team should have.

8 Pawns

2 Rooks

2 Knights

2 Bishops

1 Queen

1 King

We separate for two teams now we need to know what we wanna do. First Team should have a Gold stand and Clear Top. The second Team should have Silver Stand and Frozen Top. Ok, let's do it.
To post-processing we used:

Scraper

Toothbrush

Kitchen Towel

Anycubic Wash & Cure (can be replaced by bowl and sun)

IPA (Isopropyl)

Crystal Clear Gloss Spray

Gold Team - Clear Top

To get crystal clear tops we need to wash all pieces one by one in IPA but we don't want a frozen effect then we recommend using a toothbrush wet it in IPA and brush pawn after placing them for dry don't use a kitchen towel. When you brush them all and they dry. time for curing use wash & cure machine for 1min max if you place for more pawns will start yellowing what we don't want. When all is cured use crystal clear spray to give them a clear effect. Let them dry again. Don't forget to use the spray in a very well ventilated room but better outside.

Silver Team - Frozen

Top To get frozen effect on our pawns we need a place all 16 pieces in to Wash and Cure machine and alcohol IPA for 6 min after this time remove them and dry using Kitchen Towel microspecies from kitchen towel give our pawns frozen effect. After time for a cure, this again is careful to long will be yellowing our pawns why we recommend 1min in wash & cure machine you can try few times but with breaks. This simply we get frozen effect tops.

The next step will be the last glueing of our pawns.

We have almost done all now time for glueing our pawns to stand for this we will use simply super glue. Just be careful don't glue your fingers. When you glue them just leave them for complete dry.

We are done from now we can enjoy our beautiful set of chess in this amazing drawer. Chess is a great idea for developing kids they help them teach the mind is also a great game. We all know chess and this game is for everyone. Did you know Sergey Karjakin is the youngest chess grandmaster in history? He learns to play chess at 5 years and become a grandmaster at 12 years.