Magnetic Chess Board and Pieces

My dad wanted a really cool looking chess board and pieces but he specifically wanted them to be magnetic. There are other options online, but I wasn't a big fan. I loved the puzzle board and art deco piece look, so I adapted it for my use.

Notes:

For a full set of chess pieces, you will need the following in each color :

- 2 bishop.stl - 2 castle.stl - 1 king.stl - 8 pawn.stl OR 1 pawn_8.stl - 1 queen.stl - 2 rook.stl For a full chess board, you will need the following:

- 6 board_center_6.stl of each color OR 32 board_center.stl of each color - 1 board_slot_16.stl OR 16 board_slot.stl - 1 board_tab_12.stl OR 12 board_tab.stl - 4 board_corner.stl The edge pieces can be printed in one or more colors.

Make sure to print all of the pieces upside down so the small magnet hole is faced up. You do not need to print the edge pieces upside down.

Post-Printing

Depending on the quality of the prints, you may need to either lightly sand all of the slots for the board, or all of the tabs to get the tolerance correct.

After everything fits correctly, you'll need to add the magnets into the board pieces and game pieces. I used 3x1 mm magnets from Amazon. For everything to work perfectly, you'll need to make sure to get the polarity correct for all of the magnets. Start with one magnet in one board piece. Add another magnet on top on the smooth face. Add it in that same direction into the rest of the pieces.

Design Notes

I used Tinkercad to adapt all of the pieces to meet my need. The original board design had grooves in the top of the pieces, but I wasn't a fan so I cut that off. Also, I changed the hole size on the pieces to fit my particular magnets.