Quick Reclaimed Wooden Star for Indoor/outdoor Decor

Jim Cox
by Jim Cox
2 Materials
$6
45 Minutes
Medium
A star made from reclaimed fence wood. After seeing another hometalker's efforts I just had to try this. Thx Michelle for the ★inspiration★.

I drew this project in autocad to save some math headaches. As per Michelle's request in her original post, I made a 25" (ish) star. It required Ten ea. 10" sides. Due to the possibility of mistakes I cut 14 pieces from my scrap fence stash.
Sorry this is so dark. Blade tilted left
The inside vertex of the star required a mitered 39° cut. I had to use the compound function on my miter saw to get this right. Put a stop at the right of the saw table so each board gets cut in exactly the same place
I returned the saw to vertical for this next cut. For the outside vertex you need a 72° angle which my saw won't do, so I cut a block of wood at 18° and used it for a complimentary angle ( common carpenter's trick ). I then held the 10" boards against the complimentary block and cut straight down, like a slicing action. I chose not to try and "square up" the ends for final assembly.
Here are the pieces ready to assemble, I cut more than I needed - again just in case I messed one up ( FYI I ended up cutting two wrong ). These boards are about 4" wide, the fence boards vary a bit.
watch your fingers!
I mated two 39° cuts and stapled once in the middle using a pneumatic staple gun. I then adjusted/re-aligned and finished stapling the inside joints. staple both directions - meaning go from each board longways into the other board.


I used the staple gun because it would have been too difficult to hold the joints and hammer/screw/glue/etc but feel free to chime in if you have a better idea.
I used an angle grinder (it was handy) to cut any staples that protruded. This is a rustic look so I wasn't too worried about other marks.
Here are five pairs of boards stapled up and ready for final assembly. Using the garage floor helped me keep them lined up.
I then mated the outside joints. Here you can see how the 'slice cut' mates with another board. If the angle on the end bothers you it could always be sanded down etc. Again with the staple gun to assemble. I'm calling this project 'medium' difficulty due to the angle cutting required
Here's trimming off the extra staples for the outside joints. I didn't have the right length, this was borrowed from a friend and he said I could use what was in it. Enough staples to do this job are $5 at Lowes etc. As far as trimming you could also use side cutting pliers and a file or sandpaper if you prefer.
Here's an assembled star from reclaimed wood. The star came out 24-1/4" tall (the goal was 25) and it looks pretty good for 45 min of work. You can see a bit of sag because this old wood was very soft and the staples didn't have a lot of bite.
Hanging on a front door with some lights wrapped around it for effect. This is the lowest cost project yet. Feel free to ask questions.
1/10 of original drawing
Suggested materials:
  • Reclaimed fence wood   (Friend)
  • Pneumatic Staples   (Lowes)
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3 of 8 comments
  • Bonnie Woolever Bonnie Woolever on Dec 20, 2017

    Absolutely beautiful!


    What sag?? Looks great!!!

  • 17335038 17335038 on Jul 10, 2022

    To help secure the lights against the wood (if you were wanting a more exact star shape with the lights) I would recommend using these Command clear mini clips.


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