Laser Cut Two-Sided Checkers

When I was brainstorming with amandaghassaei on things that could be laser cut or 3D printed, I thought it would be fun to do checkers.  I mean, they are just circles, so how hard can it be?  Then I remembered checkers are double sided.  I thought I would have to give up on this idea until I found out how accurate the laser cutters are.  And so my adventures with checkers began :)

After making these I realized I didn't have a checker board!  So I made on.  Check it out here!

I made this at Techshop in SF!

It is time to design your checkers.  

• Decide on your size (I found most checkers are 1 1/4 inch in diameter so that is what I went with)
• Decide on two designs (front and back) that can be alternated (one will be mostly bold engraving while the other will be just engraved lines to differentiate).
• If you want all the checkers the same make sure you have different stains for each team.
• Once you have your design, make one document with all of the regular side of the checkers.  Line them up as shown in Photo 2.
• Make a new document and line up your kings as shown in Photo 3.
• Now you are ready to laser cut your checkers!

Here are some tips on cutting your checkers.

• You need a board that will fit no matter what way you put it in the laser cutter (like a square).
• Cover both sides of your board with tape.  Since you are etching on both sides, you want both sides to be protected from burn marks
• If one of your sides designs (regular or king) doesn't reach the edge, do that one first and do not cut them out yet.
• Flip your board so the top edge is now along the left side and vice versa.
• Now etch the design that does reach the edge.
• Now cut them out.  Cut them out last no matter what or you will obviously not be able to flip the board easily to etch the other side.

Now you need to make sure you pull all of your tape.  Don't forget to remove any and all before doing any staining.  I actually forgot to remove three little pieces and now I have to fix that one .

Use your stain or your Polycrylic and protect all your checker pieces from all the action they will be getting in the future.

I put the Polycrylic on both flat sides and all around the checkers, but I only put one coat on each surface.

Have fun playing checkers!