Chaos Coasters

 

I subscribe to a couple dozen woodworking YouTube channels mainly to get inspiration for projects that I would like to build. But one particular channel The Family Woodworker, I subscribe for a slightly different reason. The channel owner is a very artistic woodworker and has lots of projects simply creating art out of wood which is something I have always struggled how to do. I can design and build a 12=drawer dresser from looking at pictures and knowing how to build furniture but I struggle when it comes to making things that are just artistically beautiful. The Family Woodworker has inspired me over the years with his artistic skills and when this project came up recently, I knew I just had to do it.

As a woodworker, I generate a fair amount of scrap. I generally save the bigger pieces on racks and in piles to use elsewhere, many times as jigs to help me do various wood working tasks or sometimes as smaller projects. But I still end up with a lot of small scraps of beautiful species of wood that I've been tossing into five gallon buckets and using as fire starter for my fireplace in the winter. But with some largish projects like the altar last year and the 12-drawer dresser this year, I have enough scrap kindling for several years. This project is a perfect way to use some of those scraps up instead of just burning them.

I cut a chunk of 4" pvc pipe I had leftover from an old HVAC venting project and capped it with a plastic cap that I had to buy at the hardware store, my only cash outlay for this project. I sorted through my buckets of burn scraps and cut 10" sections of pieces and shoved them into the PVC pipe in a random way. Once it was full and pleasing to my unartistic eyes, I mixed up some leftover epoxy from one of my kid's past projects and poured it into PVC tube until it was filled to the top. I placed some wax paper and weights on top since wood has a tendency to float and left it for a couple days.

I had previously cut a slit in the PVC pipe and then taped it up before pouring the epoxy. I also sprayed the inside of the pipe and cap with a mold release spray so that after the epoxy cured, I could pop it out of the mold. I ended up having to destroy the cap to get it off which had allowed epoxy to set up between the outside of the PVC tube and the inside of the cap wall. Next time if I do this again, I'll have to come up with something different there. With the cap off, I could pry off the PVC tube and end up with the plug of epoxy and scrap wood you see above. Note that I added black dye into the epoxy to give it that dark color.

Then using my bandsaw, I cut coaster size pucks from the epoxy plug. Being lazy, I had a large resaw blade on my bandsaw which was likely a bit too aggressive for this project. In fact, it caused a couple chunks of epoxy to chip off the edges of a couple coasters and on the 10th coaster I was cutting, it caught the plug and threw it clear across my garage and bent my bandsaw blade into an unusable state. I decided I could live with nine coasters at that point once I had changed into clean underwear. 

The bandsaw also left pretty deep groves in the coaster surfaces so I ended up having to do a LOT more sanding than I would have liked to get down to a smooth surface. I still have some scratches left on a few of the coasters but I finally reminded myself that they were COASTERS and not works of art to display in a gallery and that they were more of a proof of concept than building something I might someday sell. 

Still, after applying a coat of finish on them below, I must say they turned out spectacular. I especially like the round chunks of Anahaw or Philippine palm tree wood (the larger circles with lots of smaller circles ranging from dark to light) and the Philippine Kamagong wood which are the other round chunks with the caramel like swirls of color in them. I just may have to do this project again after I'm finished with the 12-drawer dresser and perhaps have some to sell or give as Christmas gifts. It is after all, just four and a half months to Christmas!