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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Pallet Coasters





As I have stated before I am always looking for a use for all my offcuts and when I saw this project on Steve Ramsey’s ‘Woodworking for Mere Mortals’ http://www.woodworkingformeremortals.com/2013/05/pallet-drink-coasters.html#pallet-drink-coasters.html?s=2&_suid=138036292054408656889188224006. 
I thought it was perfect. Steve used old pallets to make these coasters however I used my fence paling offcuts.








Not much to the construction just cutting the pieces to size, the 9 slats are 12 x 5mm and the 3 bearers are 12 x 7.5mm, and the gluing them together with Titebond 3 wood glue, leaving them over night to set and then give them a good sand. Then a couple of coats of polyurethane to finish them off.  






So far they are working well.



 

Friday, September 27, 2013

SWSi Sign

While I was acting in another position at work recently I reorganised my temporary office. When the organising was done I realised that the back of my computer screens where facing any clients or visitors that I had in the office. So a screen was required however rather than just having a blank board to look at I thought I would dress it up with the company’s logo.







I started by cutting dressing and then gluing together some old pine bed slats to form the background of the logo.
 








Due to the size of my panel clamps this had to be done in to stages, firstly gluing 2 smaller sections up and then joining them using my sash cramps and a few smaller clamps to keep it flat.


 







Once the glue dried I used a straight edge and my circular saw to straighten one edge and then ran it through my table saw to get both edges parallel.









Then using Matthias Wandel (woodgears.ca) Big Print Program I blew up and printed out the logo to the size needed and then using carbon paper transferred it on to some MDF to use as a template which I cut out with my Jigsaw.

 




 
In the meantime I had prepared 2 more panels for the 2 different coloured text back grounds, one from Oregon and the other some of my old fence palings. These then got inlaid into the pine background using a Router Inlay Bit and Guide. The wording underneath was routed using a straight router bit with a template guide.
( The block of concrete is a balance weight out of a washing machine that I pulled apart. I use them to weigh down hard to clamp items.) 


 



The remaining text was then inlaid into the initial inlay and the whole thing coated with a two part epoxy pouring gloss to fill the lower lettering.











Since building this I have moved back to my normal office so no longer needed the screen however I took it with me and it now sits above my desk.