Following the success of the coasters I made as last-minute Christmas presents last year, I made some more this year. They're a different design - end-grain this time - and I made a couple of jigs to help.
Jig 1 is the Yule Log Slicer™... the yule log in question being my glued-up blank of oak and ash boards. The Yule Log Slicer™ is a simple cross-cut jig to help me slice off the coaster blanks with 2 passes from my circular saw. (I wish I had a bandsaw!)
Jig 2 is the Coasterizer™. The circular grooves were routed with a conventional circle-cutting jig, and are sized deep enough to accommodate the bearing of a flush-trimming bit.
Step 1 on the Coasterizer™ is to mount the blanks face-down with screws from the sides, and surface the backs.
Then I can flip them right-side-up and remount them with screws from underneath. The bottoms of the coasters will eventually be covered with a layer of cork so the screw holes will be hidden. Now I can surface the tops, and run a flush-trimming bit round to cut them to shape. The final routing operation in the jig is to run a small bearing-guided round-over bit around each coaster.
I also made a holder for each set. The bases of the holders are cut on the same jig, but with a few turns of tape around the bearing of the flush-trimming bit, so they come out slightly over-size relative to the coasters.
The next picture is a laminated cylinder of thin birch plywood that I cut the sides of the holder from. 2 layers of 1/16" ply, softened by ironing between wet towels, then bent round a paint can with polyurethane glue between. It worked pretty well, there was only a tiny bit of spring-back when I released the clamping straps.
Final picture: all done! The finish was Rustin's grain filler followed by satin poly.
Jig 1 is the Yule Log Slicer™... the yule log in question being my glued-up blank of oak and ash boards. The Yule Log Slicer™ is a simple cross-cut jig to help me slice off the coaster blanks with 2 passes from my circular saw. (I wish I had a bandsaw!)
Jig 2 is the Coasterizer™. The circular grooves were routed with a conventional circle-cutting jig, and are sized deep enough to accommodate the bearing of a flush-trimming bit.
Step 1 on the Coasterizer™ is to mount the blanks face-down with screws from the sides, and surface the backs.
Then I can flip them right-side-up and remount them with screws from underneath. The bottoms of the coasters will eventually be covered with a layer of cork so the screw holes will be hidden. Now I can surface the tops, and run a flush-trimming bit round to cut them to shape. The final routing operation in the jig is to run a small bearing-guided round-over bit around each coaster.
I also made a holder for each set. The bases of the holders are cut on the same jig, but with a few turns of tape around the bearing of the flush-trimming bit, so they come out slightly over-size relative to the coasters.
The next picture is a laminated cylinder of thin birch plywood that I cut the sides of the holder from. 2 layers of 1/16" ply, softened by ironing between wet towels, then bent round a paint can with polyurethane glue between. It worked pretty well, there was only a tiny bit of spring-back when I released the clamping straps.
Final picture: all done! The finish was Rustin's grain filler followed by satin poly.
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