What do you do with...

[Gary Chester]

I like turning projects with meaning... you know... somebody gives you a chunk of wood from a tree they planted with their grandfather when they were 5 years old... the new freeway is coming thru and they have to cut it down... lots of memories... lots of tears... yada, yada, yada...

This is on the low end of that scale... :D:D:D

A buddy built a deck... he gave me some of the cut offs... I made something out of them... what the heck can you do with 1" x 4" deck boards??? :confused::confused::confused:

Well if it's Ipe... you can make COASTERS!!!

141616

141617

ahhhhh... wee heavy...



As usual... critiques of woodworking skills and photo work are welcomed.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice looking coasters! Really like the look of the Ipe - reminds me of Teak!

[Ken Mutch]

Hi
Not sure which is the coolest.......the beer or the coasters :D
Well done man. Care to share how you "chucked" em.
Ken

[John Keeton]

Care to share how you "chucked" em.
KenAnother "chuckin' " inquiry!?! Nice job! When I have seen Ipe, it has been rather dull in color, but these look very nice. What kind of finish did you use?

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice looking coasters Gary. Like John most Ipe I have seen has been rather bland. What kind of finish did you use?

[David Hostetler]

Excellent pairing of the Winter Ale with the coasters... Great use of scrap too!

[Gary Chester]

Thanks guys!

The finish is just 2 coats of Minwax gloss poly... simple.

Chuckin' was easy too, I pushed them up against the chuck with the tailstock and turned a tenon, turned them around and turned the top, then turned them around again and held them with the chuck in the expansion mode to turn the bottom.

Ipe is pretty hard and a bit brittle, sanding wasn't fun. I avoided most of the sanding with some gentle scraping... even using my skew as a scraper. I know... thats not the proper way to use a skew... but it gave me those great little fluffy shavings and I could go straight to 220.

And the beer was good!!!

[Baxter Smith]

Neat idea and very pretty too!

[Ted Calver]

Gary,
Don't feel bad about using the skew as a scraper. It's a great drop nose scraper and I use mine for that purpose all the time.

[David E Keller]

Very nice looking coasters. The wood color and grain is very nice.