Patriotic DIY American Flag Build (Easy as Red, White, and Blue)

Gabe
by Gabe
2 Materials
$50
4 Hours
Easy
This American Flag, was built for a special friend and fellow veteran. It is a Challenge Coin Holder, (challenge coins are for another story) icon . It is 24" X 36" and was made with standard Pine boards 1/2" thick. But I have seen these made with everything from exotic woods, to palets. If you want to build this beauty as a wall hanging then you needn't make the small shelves I created to hold the coins. but if you are looking at making something for the "man cave" or for that matter the "lady cave" "MERICA!!!" you can add a small shelf to the bottom for "oh I don't know" "SHOT GLASSES" "just sayin" icon I
took a trip down to the local big box store and picked up some pine boards, I had them cut them down to length 36" to save some time back at the shop
You gotta start somewhere! yes it's a pretty simple list! wood (Pine) and paint, Red, White, and Blue! yes you can pretty much pick whatever shade of red white and blue, I stayed a bit more traditional so these are what I used
I had to figure out what the height of each of the boards that would represent the 13 colonies would be, "since my buddy wanted it a specific height "24" so yeah math isn't my strong suit but after I figured it out I cut each board at 1 13/16" each. "I know! what an arbitrary number" but that's what it was.
in order to make sure each board was aligned perfectly square. I made a jig out of some perfectly square boards and used my table saw to lay them out. you can use a carpenters square, or even the edges of a square table as a reference point. this really helped me lay out the boards and keep them perfectly square
so then came the hard part. I had to figure out the length of the blue portion where the stars are. Also called the "union" I have a great reverence for Old Glory and wanted to get this as accurate as possible so I took my time taping and measuring this portion. if you would like help with dimensions check out this link: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-an-American-Flag/
Yes It was time consuming and very tedious but I painted each portion of the flag individually, "just me" this is not necessary, you can assemble the flag and tape and paint but again this was how I did it. icon
Super excited as things began to come together and I dry fitted a lot and double checked everything before I assembled the final piece
Lot's of glue, but also lot's of "overkill" on my part, you can assemble the flag by attaching braces to the back of the flag, just ensure that you put enough glue or screws or "both" in order to make sure the final piece doesn't shift or come apart. I simply lost the pics that I took of me doing this but, simple enough to do.
This was a crucial part in the entire build, but like I always say, there are many ways to do the same thing, I made a template and individually cut the stars out. "YES ALL 50" LOL "IS LOL STILL A THING?" icon hit me up if you need ideas on making a template, not hard, also there are links to buy templates, but let me be honest I'm kinda frugal and so if I can save a couple of bucks well then..
time to bring it all together! as I said earlier, You don't need to build the coin holders in, this flag is beautiful simply as "Old Glory" Lots of stain, lots of paint and a few cocktails in between icon and it all came together
A short video showcasing the flag and the coins.
I hope you like it! my buddy is gonna receive it any day now. I had to ship this bugger to New Mexico!! I could do another post just on packing and shipping icon


Suggested materials:
  • Pine Wood
  • Red, White and Blue and Polyurethane paint
Gabe
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Charlyn Liming Charlyn Liming on Feb 13, 2018

    Can you make me one and I buy it from you and how much would it cost. My husband just retired (he did 8 trips to Afghanistan) and wanted to give this to him at his retirement party! I love it!

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