Making Custom Chess Piece Box Insterts

[JoeyGee]

I am planning on making a box for my dad to hold a set of chess pieces my aunt made for him several years ago. I am thinking of a box with a pull out upper tray for one half (16 pieces), and having the bottom of the box for the other half.

Basically, each would have 2 rows of 8 sections, provided by wood dividers. My question is, how can I make inserts for each section to "mold" to each piece for protection? It doesn't have to be a perfect fit, but soft enough with not a lot of moving around room, if that makes sense. I would like to cover it with felt, or something similar to make it look good.

[cabinetman]

I remember seeing a DIY kit called something like "French Inlay" that is sold to do the formed fit bottoms. It consisted of a material that was poured into your box, then the pieces were pressed into the material. When dry, it included a powdered flocking application to look like velvet. If I remember where or who sold it I'll get back to you. If you do a search, I think it's called something like a "Frenching Kit", or "French Tray". I'm pretty sure the word "french" is in there somewhere. Maybe not. My memory has been taxed.

[scorrpio]

If you want completely conforming spaces, you'll have to either carve them or use some sort of cast. An easier solution would be to trace piece outlines onto a workpiece, and then rout flat-bottomed recesses.

[Tequila]

Never tried this - don't know if it will work, but have you considered trying the expanding foam that's used for sealing doors and windows? You could squirt a little of that, let it expand a bit, then set a piece of felt on top with the chess piece. The expanding foam can be coaxed while it's still soft, and retains some flexibility once it hardens.

Just a though.

[Stytooner]

There is some stuff that florists use called oasis or something. Some are standard hard foam type, but they have some for use with water. I imagine this type would be easy to form, but would be fairly fragile. It would not work so well with flocking though. You would need to cover it with felt or velvour or fleece or something.
I did a little testing of different things when I did this chess table.







I wound up just useing some fake fur. It works pretty well and was very easy to do. The draw back is that it isn't portable, but it is a chess table and doesn't really ever move.

If you are going to cover it, you can use regular foam rubber and sculpt it out using a soldering iron with a loop on the end instead of a point. This stuff would not need to be perfect if covered. Just the general pocketted shape.