Wooden Chess Treasure Chest

A chess-themed chest of wood and metal, with compartments for two chess armies.

Purpose

I love muddymaker's treasure chests, and I needed one to store my Chess Pieces. But a legless variant with a more wooden appearance suits my taste and will be easier, I think, for me to transport on my bicycle. So here it is, a CHESS CHEST!

I added an optional two-compartment tray. In the pictures, it's holding a full 48-piece Courier Chess set (the regular 32-piece set plus my Courier-Chess Expansion).

Manufacture of Parts

• For the “wood” parts, I use PolyTerra™ dual-color “wood gradient” PLA. Alternatively, a fella might paint these parts with my Woodgrain Stencil.
• For the prints which have multiple parts, I use sequential-mode printing to improve perimeter quality.
• I use minimal paint-on supports on the underside of the lid. No supports are required on any of the other parts.
• To improve bed adhesion:
  • I print on blue painter's tape.
  • I print a raft under the corner pieces.
  • I print a brim around all other “metal” parts.

Assembly

1. Press the metal top adornment onto the box.
2. Glue the metal side trims and metal corners to the box.
3. Press the metal bottom adornment onto the box.
4. To give the chest a subtle chess theme, glue a wooden pawn appliqué to the central space on the front of the box. This appliqué, by the way, is an actual-size silhouette of a pawn from my set.
5. Glue the metal bands and wooden handle to the lid.
6. Join the hinge together using a piece of wire or filament as the hinge pin. It's meant to use 1.75mm-diameter filament, but I had trouble with that so I used a thinner wire.
7. Trim the hinge pin to length and glue its ends.
8. Glue a 2x6x20mm neodymium magnet into the box's magnet space and another into the lid's, oriented to attract each other. Or use 2x5x20mm magnets, which I've found are way cheaper.
9. Insert the tray in the chest in order to divide it into two compartment, one for each color of chessmen.
10. Tie the box-front and the lid-front together with jute twine as I did, using an adjustable loop knot like my Cawley hitch or a taut-line hitch. Or use chain if you like.

Interchangeability

All parts of this design remain completely interchangeable with the parts of muddymaker's chests, in case you'd like to mix their features.

Trimmed the bottom adornment, making it a simple metal band, in order to flatted the bottom of the chest. Omitted the legs, inlays, hasp, upper tray, & all but the simplest of handles. Added two holes to each corner piece for a uniform appearance. Doubled the height of the lower tray. Added a chess-themed appliqué.