Xmas coasters

[sploo]

After preparing the stock for my inside out Xmas ornament (an-inside-out-xmas-ornament-t102181.html) I had some of the diamond shaped pieces left, so decided to use them to make some (admittedly fairly small) coasters.

I did a better job of joining the two halves (of three diamonds), so no nasty gaps this time:

They are too big for my table saw, so I sliced them up using the bandsaw:

I don't have a drum sander, so it was a combination of my disc sander and then finer grits on a flat surface:

I then gave them a coat of Danish oil, left them for over a week, and applied a few coats of acrylic clear lacquer (Halfords brand):

Finally, I left them for another couple of weeks and gave them a light sand with 600 then 1000 grit wet and dry, and then another couple of coats of the lacquer (no photos of that, but they ended up silky smooth).

 

[NazNomad]

They look great, and very unique. I like 'em.


... and they're made from leftovers, which is extra neat.

 

[sploo]

They look great, and very unique. I like 'em.


... and they're made from leftovers, which is extra neat.

Leftovers are always good

On a couple it's obvious that the points of the diamonds don't quite line up in the centre, so if I'd change one thing, it would be that I'd have sliced them at the stage where I had two halves (of three diamonds), then glued the halves together for each individual coaster (to ensure perfect alignment for each coaster).

 

[thetyreman]

well that's certainly given me a few ideas, I might borrow this idea and do a variation on it, thanks for sharing.

 

[gwaithcoed]

Excellent, Now that's got me thinking is there time to make some before Christmas?? My wife loves them also well done

Alan

 

[sploo]

thetyreman, gwaithcoed - thanks.

It's just a couple of slabs of stock (sycamore and purpleheart in this instance), ripped on the table saw with the blade 30 degrees from vertical. The key is ensuring that, on each strip, the side that's on the tablesaw bed is ripped to the same width as the width of the side that gets cut at 30 degrees (i.e. all 4 faces of the diamond are the same length).

 

[Adam9453]

I guess if you weren't happy with some of them, then you could drill a hole in the centre and glue in a dowel to avoid having to be so precise with getting the points to all line up.
I think they look really nice and i'd love to have some free time to make bits like that

 

[sploo]

I guess if you weren't happy with some of them, then you could drill a hole in the centre and glue in a dowel to avoid having to be so precise with getting the points to all line up.
I think they look really nice and i'd love to have some free time to make bits like that

That's a good idea - you could even then use them as hanging ornaments.

Free time? I forgo sleep - no free time. Being serious though - there's over a month of elapsed time there because I have to do things in bits when I can. Same for pretty much any project I post - I always wait until the end because if I posted one in progress it could be weeks between updates.

 

[Austinisgreat]

Re- your post in the finishing section - these have come out really nice. Will have to try the Halfords spray.

Thanks for posting Sploo, great work!

Andrew

 

[Adam9453]

yeah I keep meaning to post some pictures of things I've made but time just runs away with me.
New years resolution to actually post some pictures of something i've made

 

[Blister]

How big are they ?

 

[sploo]

How big are they ?

Point to point diameter around 95mm. From one inner corner to the opposite (effectively the minimum circle diameter) is around 55mm. Thickness is approx 12mm.

The stock was cut for a turned ornament, but for coasters, a slightly larger internal diameter would likely be better for a glass with a larger base; but they do work OK.