The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever’s on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I’m only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits–mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you’ve got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments.
If you’re interested in making your own and want some guidance, Mother Earth News has a nice tutorial.
DIY steampunk hardware chess set
Chess set made with nuts and bolts
Spanish metal screw/bolt chess set
I’ve designed a hardware set myself, with the intention of not painting them; yellow-zinc and brass against the white zinc pieces.
There’s a photo album with all the pieces, and all the parts needed to build it. I plan to make an instructable soon, with the order numbers for all the parts from an online retailer.
see it here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mordecai.veldt/HardwareSet?feat=directlink