Weighted Chessmen, Simplified Staunton Style

These glorious chessmen are weighted with 10-mm socket-head screws which screw into their bases to give them stability and a satisfying heft. His majesty towers a head above other tournament kings. The threaded bases of all pieces, including pawns, are a uniform 32 mm in diameter. They fit nicely on a board of executive size (~45-mm squares) as pictured but are plenty grandiose for a larger tournament-size chessboard (~57-mm squares).

This design is also accessible as a public Tinkercad project.

Specifications

• A full 16-piece army, once weighted, weighs 563 g. It takes about 27 hours to print them and three minutes to add weights.
• The king with his crown is 121 mm tall and weighs 57 g. The queen with her coronet is 96 mm tall and of similar weight.
• The knight is 82 mm tall and weighs 39 g. The bishop and rook are comparable.
• The pawn is 49 mm tall and weighs 29 g.

Print Settings

Supports:  No

Resolution: 0.1 mm

Infill:  0%*

Notes:

For a complete orthodox chess set, print one white army and one black army, each consisting of the following:

• 8 pawns
• 2 knights
• 2 bishops
• 2 rooks
• 1 queen
• 1 king

Infill is not needed because the perimeters themselves are designed to provide sufficient structure. This includes the external perimeter, the threaded internal perimeter, and the perimeters of a few slits and pinholes which link the internal and external perimeters together.

Post-Printing

1. Screw a steel 10-mm socket-head screw into the base of each piece.

* M10x25 (~25 g) in each pawn
* M10x40 (~33 g) in each bishop, knight, & rook
* M10x60 (~46 g) in each king & queen

(Optional) Immerse the pieces in a low-viscosity epoxy inside a vacuum chamber, forcing the epoxy into all crevices and pores. This is called epoxy infiltration. Then remove them and cure them in an oven. I'm hopeful that this treatment will combat well the tendency of fused layers to separate under stress, such as when dropped on the floor.

Credits

This design is based very much on Kumoi's travel-size chess set. With most of the men, I simply adapted them for printing at a larger scale, with reduced print time, custom internal structure, and provisions for screw-in weights in lieu of Kumoi's magnets. The knight's head is of my own design, as I found that Kumoi's horse has an unflattering look when impaled by a large machine screw and was impossible to print without supports. The helmet was inspired by Larcthor's Corinthian pawn.

Playing Board

You'll need a chessboard to play on. I recommend an executive-size board, or perhaps tournament size. If you'd like to print a board which doubles as a carrying case for these chessmen, then try my woodgrain checkerboard box.

Additional Chessmen

If you wish to play a chess variant which requires unorthodox men not included in the standard set, then see my weighted unorthodox chessmen.