I Couldn't Let it Lay

 

My coasters were much liked among my family and friends that have seen them and so while waiting on better weather (cooler) to start a slightly larger project, I couldn't help myself and thought perhaps making some coasters to give out as Christmas gifts might be in order. After all, Christmas is just over three months away at this point.

I sorted through my scrap wood destined for the fireplace this winter and salvaged enough odds and ends for two more coaster plugs. I dispensed with the cap altogether and this time just siliconed the PVC pipe forms directly to another scrap block of wood. Not only did that reduce the amount of epoxy needed, the most expensive part of this entire project, but it made it MUCH MUCH easier to unmold later. I also let the silicone sit up overnight before I poured any epoxy so I had zero leaks this time which was a nice perk.

I ended up with two plugs of epoxy and scraps and they came out great. Not only were they much easier to unmold, but I didn't destroy the pipes doing so and I could use them again if I ever want too. I'm not sure I want too, but I could. In the picture above you are seeing chunks of waxed paper that stuck to the epoxy. Wood floats in epoxy so I put a piece of wax paper and some weights on top to hold things in place until the epoxy sets. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll just pour a little epoxy in the bottom on one day and let it set up before pouring the rest and dispense with the wax paper and guessing if I have enough epoxy or not to fill up the form.

Using my previously blogged about coaster slicing jig, I made short work of cutting them down to coaster size. I cut them slightly thinner than the last time and with less waste or destroyed in the process, got three sets of eight coasters from each plug or a total of 48 coasters. That is a lot of drinks!

There were some air pockets due to bubbles that I had to fix up on a handful of them with black epoxy but overall, they came out nice. I rounded over the edges on my router to make them more pleasant to palm and then had to proceed to the step I was dreading.

Sanding is the step I was dreading of course. But before starting, I thought perhaps another jig was in order. So I cut a slightly larger circle than the coaster in a scrap of plywood and glued it to another scrap of plywood. Then I glued a scrap of an old rubber mat that I use when sanding on my workbench to prevent scraping a freshly sanded project. Those mats don't last forever and I have to replace them but I hadn't yet thrown this old one away just in case I wanted to repurpose it. Today was that day. Using the jig made sanding MUCH MUCH easier and soon I had all 48 sanded down and ready for finishing.

Another jig was in order to do that too. I hot glued some leftover sheetrock screws to a scrap of 2x4 so that the points were pointing up. This allowed me to finish eight coasters at a time on both sides and yet keep them in the air for 24 hours while the finish fully cured. Of course this meant it would take me six days to finish them all but with the heat wave we've had and only being able to work a few hours every morning, I didn't mind. It left lots of time for other things the rest of the day. 

I think they turned out nice for no more effort than I put into them.