Wood Coaster

Robin Lewis
by Robin Lewis
10 Materials
$155
1 Day
Easy
These are some quick to make coasters using pine 1x2s (19mm x 42mm). These boards are easy to find in almost all big box stores and they're cheap. This makes them a great project for wood working beginners or someone who want's a simple project to customise their home.
For this project you'll need a few cheap tools and materials. See below for more details.
The actual materials are extremely cheap, so if you already have the tools this project costs very little.
Start by cutting the boards to around 600mm (24 inches). This will allow you to make roughly 4 coasters. You'll need 3 of these boards.
Next, glue the 3 boards together along their edges. A thin bead of glue is all you need.
Once you've applied the glue, put the boards into 2 or 3 clamps.
Make sure to clean as much of the wet glue off before it dries. Use a damp rag for this.
Once the glue has dried you can clamp the new panel to a table and start drilling holes using an 89mm hole saw. A hole saw is designed to drill holes into wood, but we'll be using it to cut discs, the left over from the hole.
When using a hole saw start slowly so you can get an idea of the forces involved. Also, try to make sure you drill as plumb as possible (90 degrees to the work surface).
Once you have drilled a hole all the way through you'll have a disc inside the hole saw. Pry it out and then, using the 8mm drill bit, open the centre hole up. If the drill bit of the hole saw was already 8mm (some are) then you can skip this step.
Now we can take the 8mm drill bit and wrap some masking tape around it at the base of the bit. We're going to use the drill to sand the disc and we need to be able to wedge the disc onto it.
Rotate and push the disc onto the masking tape so that it's firm, then run the drill with a sanding block against the disc.
Before we get to sanding the faces of the coaster we need to plug that centre hole. Cut a small section of the 8mm dowel, just enough so that it's proud of both faces of the coaster, and glue that into place.
Now sit back and wait for the glue to dry, normally around an hour or two.
After the glue dries sand the entire piece. You can do as little or as much as you'd like, depending how rustic you want it.
It's a good idea to add some kind of finish to the wood. I used a water-based polyurethane because it doesn't turn the pale wood a shade of yellow and it dries really quickly.
And you're done! If you have any questions let me know below.
Resources for this project:
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