Finished a Set of Coasters in Walnut, Maple
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8 December 2014 at 9:58 pm #121959
Today I glued the “tombstone” posts into the base of the coaster holder to finish off the project. I used walnut and maple. The walnut was from my brother’s property in North Carolina – he sent me a couple of slabs a few years ago. Man, that stuff is beautiful.
The trickiest part of this project was chopping the small mortises in the base. I actually fractured the wood between the mortise and the edge of the base, but was able to superglue it. Still, it raised a small crack when I tapped home the tenon. I don’t think the recipients will notice, but of course I will know it’s there. It is possible that this happened because I did not have a 3/16″ chisel and had to use 1/4″. This put the edge of the mortise 1/16″ closer to the edge of the base (only 3/8″ away).
The thicknessing jig worked remarkably well. I made two sets of rails for the jig – one set for the 1/8″ thick maple and one set for the 5/16″ thick walnut. I was very careful to plane those rails as precisely as I could. The clamping jig also worked very well (see picture). I probably could have used parallel clamps, but for these small glue-ups, this jig worked fine and I can’t see the glue lines.
I finished with two coats of shellac and two coats of clear satin semi-gloss polyurethane (thinned with mineral spirits). What a fun little project. But Paul is right – it’s fairly labor intensive. I don’t think I’ll try making a living from these.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.9 December 2014 at 9:10 am #121976They look great Matt, that walnut is a wonderful rich colour. I am planning on making some soon, maybe in time for Christmas, but we will see how that goes.
9 December 2014 at 10:52 pm #122035Thanks all. Really fun project. I hope my wife’s daughter likes them. I’ll find out in a few weeks.
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