Just finished my travel chess set build and I'm kind of amazed it works

I went through the same hinge headache last year with a folding checkers-and-chess board I made for camping trips. Mine was slightly bigger than yours, maybe six inches across when closed, and the trick that finally worked for me was building the hinge out of a row of 1x2 plates overlapping a turntable base rather than loose plates on thier own. Once I had two studs of overlap on each side it stopped tearing apart when I grabbed it off the shelf. For keeping it open on a wobbly table, try putting a couple of tiles underneath the bottom edge of each half instead of hunting for a grippier hinge part. The tiles lift the whole board just enough that the weight sits on the hinge line and it stays put. Cheap fix and it worked on a picnic table that was about as level as a seesaw.

One thing I did differently on the pieces: I never bothered with a color stud on top. I made the king a full stud taller than the queen and gave him a slope piece for a little crown shape. Even my brother-in-law, who plays maybe twice a year, stopped mixing them up after that change. Height reads faster than color when you are leaning over a board the size of your hand. The dark board idea is worth trying. I swapped my tan squares for dark bluish gray and the green ones popped way more than I expected.

I took a different route with piece identification on mine. Instead of a colored stud on top, I just made the kings a full plate taller than the queens and left everything the same color. Height difference turned out to be easier to read in low light than color, since my dining room lamp is basicly a candle at this point. My opponent has never once picked up the wrong piece, whereas a friend of mine with a similar colored-stud setup mixed up his kings and queens twice in one evening game. On the board itself, I'd say go even darker than you're planning. I started with a light and dark scheme similar to yours and found that on a train or in a cafe, glare washed out the tan squares completly. Swapped to dark bluish gray and black tiles and it reads fine anywhere now. Tiles instead of plates also stopped the board pattern from scratching after a few months of pockets and bags. For the staying-open-on-a-wobbly-table problem, I never bothered with more friction at the hinge. I just built the two halves so each one is heavy enough at the base to sit flat on its own, and the folded set lies open flat like a book. Solved the same problem without hunting down any fancy hinge parts, and it survived a whole camping weekend on a picnic bench that rocked every time someone leaned on it.

Not sold on the tiles-under-the-edge fix. On a proper wobbly picnic table those little tiles are the first thing to slide sideways, and then your board rocks on one tile anyway. Worse, if you fold the thing up mid-game to move it, you've got two loose tiles rattling around in your pocket waiting to get lost. I'd rather the board rock a bit than babysit extra loose parts, which is kind of the whole point of a travel set. Curious how yours held up after a few trips, did the tiles ever wander off?

Total beginner question incoming, be gentle. I've only ever built sets from instructions and never designed anything myself, but this got me wanting to try a little travel backgammon for my dad since he's always complaining the one he owns weighs a ton. My worry is the pieces getting scuffed rattling around in a bag. Did yours show much wear after the pocket test, or do the colors hold up ok? Also, where do people even go to get a bunch of parts in one specific color without buying three whole sets? Still figuring out how that side of things works.