The 10th Coaster

 

Not long ago, I attempted to make some chaos coasters out of scrap wood and while cutting the 10th coaster, my bandsaw blade caught the wood and epoxy plug and threw it clear across the garage, damaging the blade irreparably in the process. At the time I decided I didn't need a 10th coaster when I had nine others but I never through away the plug.

As the weeks went by, I decided that I could do better and perhaps get one more coaster out of the plug after cutting off the broken end if I made a jig to do the holding which can be much tighter than my own grip strength. So with a scrap piece of plywood and some scrap 2 x 4 material, I made the jig above. The block with the V-groove in it on the right is permanently glued to the scrap piece of plywood. There other block with the V-groove on the left isn't attached at all and the short square block above acts as a spacer. Unseen beneath the plywood is a scrap of wood that slides in the miter slot of the bandsaw allowing me to feed the whole contraption into the blade in a straight controlled motion.

As you can see above, I can put the spacer and loose V-block in place with the coaster plug in-between and then  by adding a clamp to the whole affair, I can hold the plug quite firmly. I also upgraded my blade when I replaced the destroyed one and got one with carbide teeth on it which for the layman, stay sharp longer and leave a much smoother cut that the bent alternating cabide-less one I had before.  The face of the plug above has already had the damaged end removed before I shot this picture but you can see the face and see it is quite smooth looking which is what I had hoped for. It meant a lot less sanding later.

Here is a shot from a different angle, this one showing the damaged end I had previously removed. As you can see, the blade impact took a huge chunk out of it which I later found in another corner of my garage. The setup worked well. The yellow block with a black handle is a strong magnet you can turn off or on by turning the handle. I attached it where it is so that each slice I take would be 3/8 inches thick. After one slice, I could simply loosen the clamp, slide the plug forward until it his the magnet and retighten the clamp.

I ended cutting two more slices off before calling it good. I think I could have safely taken at least one more but during my previous attempt at cutting off the end cap to my mold, I had cut a groove into that end of the plug that would permanently mar the edges of any coasters cut from that end. Of the two I did get off, one had a large defect on one side as it was so I was only to get one more coaster that I was happy with. But at the end of the day, that was what I was after so I now after some sanding and applying a finish coat, will have a set of ten coasters and not just nine with is a bit odd... pun intended.