Chess board

[Maker]

This is the chess board I made as my final piece for my resistant materials GCSE. It's mainly laser cut because using CAM pushes the grade up, even though it's very unskilled work.

The board is made from black and orange 3mm acrylic. I laser cut all the squares out then glued it all back to back so it can be flipped over to be mainly orange. I machined a couple of aluminium rings to poke your finger through to press the board out to flip it over or get to the storage inside.

The wooden sides are assembled with half lap joints, held together by the base and top edge. The bottom, top edge and insides are all 3mm laser cut MDF.
I'm very happy with it overall, now I just need to learn how to play.

Lego Yoda is there because our dog ate the horse.

 

[Wallace]

Lego Yoda is there because our dog ate the horse.

I notice he's not on the dark side......

 

[Wendelspanswick]

This is the chess board I made as my final piece for my resistant materials GCSE. It's mainly laser cut because using CAM pushes the grade up, even though it's very unskilled work.
View attachment 62493
The board is made from black and orange 3mm acrylic. I laser cut all the squares out then glued it all back to back so it can be flipped over to be mainly orange. I machined a couple of aluminium rings to poke your finger through to press the board out to flip it over or get to the storage inside.

The wooden sides are assembled with half lap joints, held together by the base and top edge. The bottom, top edge and insides are all 3mm laser cut MDF.
I'm very happy with it overall, now I just need to learn how to play.

Lego Yoda is there because our dog ate the horse.

Impressive, makes a change your dog eating the horse, our dog eats horse poo if we don't stop her in time, gross!

 

[Maker]

When I get my lathe I'd like to make some draughts pieces, I don't think I'd like to tackle a chess set though.

Impressive, makes a change your dog eating the horse, our dog eats horse poo if we don't stop her in time, gross!

Ours eats anything from socks to sandpaper to poo, he was chewing a chunk of brass bar the other day.

 

[CRB]

Lego Yoda is there because our dog ate the horse.

Yoda is taking the place of a knight, not a horse., and the little bobble-heads at the front are pawns not porns or prawns

Very nice job there Maker, though I do agree that upping the grade due to using CAM is just a sign of the times. It should be admired that those who wish to use their hands to complete a task are using 'proper' skills. Being able to manipulate the graphics in a programme and the adjust the cutting produced is a different set of skills.

I have had a couple of shed days this week and am nearly finished the batch of LT gearshift bushed I started months ago. I am glad I was in there when Now Playing was on 6Music, and during a Ray Davies chat, this tune was played in full

 

[Kent]

Impressive, makes a change your dog eating the horse, our dog eats horse poo if we don't stop her in time, gross!

incidentally that can mostly be cured by adding something that's missing to their diet. making a big fuss about it can however inadvertently reinforce the behaviour.

 

[Kent]

This is the chess board I made as my final piece for my resistant materials GCSE. It's mainly laser cut because using CAM pushes the grade up, even though it's very unskilled work.
View attachment 62493
The board is made from black and orange 3mm acrylic. I laser cut all the squares out then glued it all back to back so it can be flipped over to be mainly orange. I machined a couple of aluminium rings to poke your finger through to press the board out to flip it over or get to the storage inside.

The wooden sides are assembled with half lap joints, held together by the base and top edge. The bottom, top edge and insides are all 3mm laser cut MDF.
I'm very happy with it overall, now I just need to learn how to play.

Lego Yoda is there because our dog ate the horse.

Its a great shame you can get extra marks for using what amounts to a computer, use of hand tools is a skill everyone needs in life but is fast disappearing

 

[Maker]

Its a great shame you can get extra marks for using what amounts to a computer, use of hand tools is a skill everyone needs in life but is fast disappearing

Someone made 2 small jewellery boxes with tapered sides as his final piece. They were made entirely by hand, fitted up perfectly and he had machined the handles to open them. The teacher took one look and said "It's a low D grade... But if you laser cut a tray to put them on, it'll be an A grade." He cut out a few rectangles from black and white acrylic with the laser and suddenly it's gone up by three whole grades.

 

[Kent]

Someone made 2 small jewellery boxes with tapered sides as his final piece. They were made entirely by hand, fitted up perfectly and he had machined the handles to open them. The teacher took one look and said "It's a low D grade... But if you laser cut a tray to put them on, it'll be an A grade." He cut out a few rectangles from black and white acrylic with the laser and suddenly it's gone up by three whole grades.

My daughter is sitting her second lot of GCSE exams this time (she did a few early) I cant get my head around some of the ways they do things marks wise. BUT this marking policy you speak of is totally ridiculous! laser cutting is not an essential life skill and is easy learned if required, motor skills and effective use of hand tools is far more important to all but then I guess most of the teachers and exam board now never had a trade skill I honestly believe the UTC is the future for all our future hands on workers

 

[Maker]

I think it's not so much the actual laser cutting but the ability to design things on a computer. That said, I did all my drawings on a computer because I can't draw to save my life and now I have to go back and make a load of "preliminary sketches".

 

[Maker]

Yoda is taking the place of a knight, not a horse., and the little bobble-heads at the front are pawns not porns or prawns

Yeah, next your going to be telling me the castles in each corner can be moved or that the baby eating bishop of C1 and F1 doesn't eat the baby pawns if he's left near them for too long.

 

[mike os]

Its a great shame you can get extra marks for using what amounts to a computer, use of hand tools is a skill everyone needs in life but is fast disappearing

Someone made 2 small jewellery boxes with tapered sides as his final piece. They were made entirely by hand, fitted up perfectly and he had machined the handles to open them. The teacher took one look and said "It's a low D grade... But if you laser cut a tray to put them on, it'll be an A grade." He cut out a few rectangles from black and white acrylic with the laser and suddenly it's gone up by three whole grades.

I think it's not so much the actual laser cutting but the ability to design things on a computer. That said, I did all my drawings on a computer because I can't draw to save my life and now I have to go back and make a load of "preliminary sketches".

And there is the reasons our education system is so useless

 

[CRB]

And there is the reasons our education system is so useless

Too right.

Someone made 2 small jewellery boxes with tapered sides as his final piece. They were made entirely by hand, fitted up perfectly and he had machined the handles to open them. The teacher took one look and said "It's a low D grade... But if you laser cut a tray to put them on, it'll be an A grade." He cut out a few rectangles from black and white acrylic with the laser and suddenly it's gone up by three whole grades.

FFS and usually I am even tempered....straw.

What the 'educators' do not consider, is that the ability to create without fancy cutting tools is where the artisan furniture, jewellery, knives, ceramics etc etc command a price in excess of the mass-produced. Most of us, if we had the money to spare, would love to buy the expensive hand made bits, all other things being equal.

I am probably not alone in thinking that the future is safe with young Maker, he has an outlook which although embracing the modern methods of design and manufacture, he still appreciates that the 'craftsman' has a place in that future.

 

[Kent]

All is far from lost with regards educating the craftsmen of the future. Its just High schools and the type of teacher / teaching leaders that now predominate.
UTCs (university technical colleges) never existed in my day or that of my farther / grandfarther etc.. For those who don't know they take kids from age 14 yrs out of high schools and educate them for their GCSE exams but with a bent towards an apprentiship / trade. Their maths lessons etc are all with a bias this way. To illustrate this point I have a B at o level maths (that I got once I left school actually) my wife has a 1st class degree and an A grade at A level ! My kids come to me when they are working with measurements and angles etc on their homework mind you.
I really wish something like that was available when I was in high school, I should have been off like a shot. Unfortunately a lot of this comes from the feminisation of the teaching profession, I don't mean that in a sexist way as both male and female student are excepted at UTCs and rightly so - Just some (often lads) don't care a jot for the teaching and lessons now given and the curriculum and study material.
Unfortunately failing high schools are pumped full of money while UTC funding and FE in general is starved of cash. Kids leave with O levels but then need up-skilling just to complete their course work within FE or have yet to gain the required C or above in maths and English, so the FE establishment has months to fix what the schools have failed at with over a decade of time and taxpayers cash being thrown at them.
Rant over

 

[Rocketman]

I'll be as unpopular as ever but the idea is to show a wide range of skills not just one set and apply them to various aspects of the project you embarked on - people are seemingly missing the point of that. No doubt that was clearly stated in the project criteria (or the teacher was a chocolate tea pot)

Nothing wrong with being able to use your hands with high skill but you need to be able to use the available equipment around you.

The best toolmakers aren't those who are just great with their hand but also use their brains and get the best out of all the equipment around them and to do that takes a lot more skill.

 

[CRB]

I was thinking about this during my 'big box, little box' day. I went to a all boys technical school, as opposed to a grammar, but that went comprehensive and the 'jumper-bump- brigade moved in. Even prior to that year, metalwork and woodwork ceased to be options. I did technical drawing in the first year, was top of the class, and did not do it again until I left school seven years later. It was not an option from first year onwards.

I'll be as unpopular as ever but the idea is to show a wide range of skills not just one set and apply them to various aspects of the project you embarked on - people are seemingly missing the point of that. No doubt that was clearly stated in the project criteria (or the teacher was a chocolate tea pot)

Nothing wrong with being able to use your hands with high skill but you need to be able to use the available equipment around you.

The best toolmakers aren't those who are just great with their hand but also use their brains and get the best out of all the equipment around them and to do that takes a lot more skill.

I agree that a wide range of skills need to be mastered, but to have so much depending upon, what appears to be a very simple task, is preposterous.

Your statement regarding hands and brains, is absolutely spot on.

 

[Kent]

most of the pupils who take this course wont actually be able to call on this tool again unless its part of their work, in which case they will learn more than their teacher could ever teach in a few months. All persons will at some stage need to measure, cut and shape with basic hand tools in life and at home.

 

[Wedg1e]

All persons will at some stage need to measure, cut and shape with basic hand tools in life and at home.

Too true. I had to replace the handle of my digging spade at the weekend after I snapped the original trying to lever up a Triffid.
I had a choice of 28 or 30" length and tapered or straight shaft - but I wanted a 30" tapered which they didn't have, so I got a 30" straight and told Nursy I'd taper it to suit the spade. She asked how I'd go about it so I lined up an array of tools and asked her to choose - Stanley knife, hand axe, hacksaw, panel saw, tenon saw, bow saw, hand plane, wood rasp, wood chisel, sandpaper and a metalwork lathe.
She picked the axe (for shaping) and sandpaper (to make it nice and smooth ).
I opened another cupboard and got the electric plane and air file out...
I'd like to say that I'd have used the lathe but firstly, although the spindle bore is large enough to take the spade handle, there wasn't enough of it protruding from the chuck to turn a long enough taper.
Not only that but it has no hand rest, the 4-way indexing toolpost is a pain to take off and I have no woodcarving chisels... wood-butchery has never been my thing. I'm sure that a standard flat mortice chisel could be used but the point is moot: I shaved it with the plane, tickled it with the file and the Triffid was out in no time

 

[Maker]

The software they use is something I hope I never come across again. It's called 2D design V2 and as far as I can make out, it's made for school use and is a right pain to use. Supposedly it's the only one that'll work with their laser.

 

[CRB]

The 'Management' got two utterly hopeless CNC routers for which they purchased ArtCam software, less than £100. It took me three hours on my day off to find out how to do an open path straight line. It is terribly limiting, but what also does not help is the fact that the same 'management' insists on doing the drawings.......and the CNC operator, not me, cannot edit them.

I doubt very much that 2d Design V2 is the only programme capable of running the laser, it is more likely, as in my case, that the companies have a relationship. Not necessarily in the best interests of the customer.