Modern Elegant Designer Chess Set - "Phoenix"

About

I have envisioned this chess set for quite a while, inspired by fire and steel. Since I was limited to plastic as a medium, I experimented with the board’s texture and surface patterns to achieve a metallic shine. For the black and white pieces, I chose Prusament Galaxy Black and Prusament Galaxy Silver, as they provide the best effect for this purpose.

The shapes of the chess pieces remain within traditional boundaries to ensure recognizability, featuring pure, elegant forms enhanced with striking red flaming accents.

The cone-shaped opening at the bottom of each piece is designed to prevent wobbling on uneven surfaces, particularly when using a concentric fill pattern for the chessboard squares. 

The board's dimensions are 210 × 210 mm, ensuring compatibility with all Prusa MKx printers.

The photos, apart from the two 3D rendered images, show the actual print on an MK4S, without any post-processing (except for removing brims and the supports for the Knight pieces). Printed without the red accents on the pieces because my MMU3 is yet to arrive - but I am very happy how it came out, even in mono-chrome!

Printing

This set can be printed using a multi-material printer like the Prusa MMU3, but it is also compatible with single-material printers by using manual filament changes.

Use the PrusaSlicer 3MF project files for your printer, as they already contain all the necessary settings.

• The concentric infill pattern is used on the surface of the board to create a 3D effect on the chessboard squares.
• Supports are used only on the print bed for the Knight, with enforced supports on the cross of the King's crown.
• 100% infill for the pieces, for improved weight and stability
• Scarf seam along the entire perimeter of the pieces
• Brim on the pieces (to prevent a long print from failing - you need it, believe me!)
• Painted accents on the pieces for printing with a Multi-Material Unit (MMU).
• Painted squares with an accented red frame, suitable for printing with an MMU or on a standard printer using manual filament changes (use a corresponding 3MF file for your printer)
• When printing the white figures ensure that the red color is not bleeding into the white, by making a test-print of a single pawn. If the white is getting a pinkish hue, increase the purging volume settings for transition from red to white, until you get a good result.

Reducing the infill to 10% with a gyroid pattern will significantly shorten print time, but the pieces might become too light.

Filaments

1. “Black” – Prusament PLA Galaxy Black
2. “White” – Prusament PLA Galaxy Silver (or Prusament PLA Blend Pearl White)
3. “Red” – Prusament PLA Lipstick Red

Printing on a Single-Material Printer

For a single-material printer (without MMU), the chess pieces will be printed in a single color, and the board will be printed in 3 colors, using only 4 manual filament changes. You will be prompted for each.

Printing Pieces

1. Open Pieces-Plain.3mf project file in PrusaSlicer.
2. Print the white pieces using Galaxy Silver filament.
3. Print the black pieces using Galaxy Black filament.

Printing The Board

1. Open Board-MK4S-MMM.3mf in PrusaSlicer.
2. Disable Stuck Filament Detection on the printer.
3. Insert the Galaxy Black filament.
4. Start printing.
5. When the printer pauses, press “Resume” and carefully observe the printer display, as it will briefly (for 4 seconds) show which color to insert next.
6. The printer will eject the old filament.
7. Insert the new filament as indicated in Step 5.
8. Press “Yes” when prompted to confirm filament insertion. The printer will resume printing.
9. Repeat from Step 5 until the print is completed.

There are only four filament changes, all occurring in the final 20 minutes of printing.

Total print time on a Prusa MK4S is 2 hours 50 minutes.

Printing on an MMU3

For multi-material printing, use the project files in the MMU directory. The chess pieces will have red accents.

The 3MF project files are:

1. Board-MMU3.3mf - the board (2:47 hours)
2. Pieces-Black-MMU3.3mf - black pieces (10:55 hours)
3. Pieces-White-MMU3.3mf - white pieces (10:55 hours)