Coasters

[Kathy Marshall]

Last year I turned about 45 small bowls for Deb and Paul (the tree trimmers) to give as Christmas gifts for their best clients.
This year Deb asked if I could turn some Coasters.
December is coming up quick, so I thought I better get started :eek:.

This is the prototype I came up with.
I started with about a 5" x 12" mesquite log, peeled off the bark, roughed it to round and then turned a tenon on the end.
Mounted it in the chuck with the tailstock for support, and re-trued it. Then I set up my steady rest and removed the tailstock.

I leveled the face and then turned a shallow recess, then sanded the face and sides (didn't worry about sanding the recess). Then I parted it off about 1/2" thick. On the main piece, I turned a short tenon to match the recess on the coaster and used a mallet to gently persuade the coaster onto the tenon. It was a perfect fit, it held it securely without the tailstock, but I was able to remove it with just a slight pull and twist.

I leveled off the bottom and then turned a concave starting about 3/8" in, then used my decorating elf to add a little decorative detail.
I applied DO to all the exposed areas (not the recess), then I painstakingly cut out a cork disc to fit the recess (I picked up a roll of cork shelf liner, it's a little thin so I may try to find some thicker cork board). I applied a thin coat of epoxy to the recess, both to hold the cork and hopefully to provide some protection from any moisture that soaks through the cork (although the liner on the back of the cork will probably provide enough protection.

I'm not sure about the final finish to use. It needs to be able to stand up to use and be somewhat resistant to moisture, and since I'll be doing a bunch of these, it should also be quick and easy to apply. I'm leaning towards WTF. I'll try it on this one and see how it goes.

I should be able to get at least 10 from this blank and I've got plenty of logs of a similar size, different varieties, that have been sitting around long enough to be fairly dry.
I'll need to turn at least 45 of these, and if I can get a production line going to do them quickly, then I'll try for 90 and they can give a pair to each client, and on the next one I'll try burning their company name on the face and see how it looks.
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Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques are welcome.

[Marc Himes]

Those are very nice Kathy.

[Alan Zenreich]

A few years ago I attended a coaster making workshop at our local woodturning club.

His approach to the process could speed up your production.

So you might consider a couple of things he did:
1. using pre-cut cork rounds. There are several vendors... like this one (http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/4/-/12/54/-/5252/Turners-Select-Cork-Coaster-Insert/coaster) or this one (http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=packard&Category_Code=proj-supp-other-corcd) (the latter being self adhesive)
2. using a forstner bit to easily and accurately cut the recess for the cork

[Greg Just]

Very nice coasters and the burning. You are going to hate coasters by the time you are done unless you like doing the same thing over and over. I had a shop ask me to make some 2 to 4 inch buttons. After making about 200, I swore I would never make another button!. I also had an order for 24 natural edge coasters earlier this year from a very colorful piece of elm. They turned out very nice, but it was painful to complete. I'm not a production turner and don't like making the same thing more than a couple of times. Good luck with yours!

[Roger Chandler]

Pretty niffty there, Kathy! Good use of wood, and useful items as well. Since they are fairly dry, I would think the pith being in them is not going to be a problem...........I would however put an application of CA glue in those cracks just to add stability to the pith area.........would not want those to grow any!

Great technique you described..........creative engineering! ;)

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking coasters Kathy. I made several sets of these. I finished with Waterlox on some and Liberon Finishing oil on others. Both have held up extremely well. Both are tung oil based and resist water well.

[Richard Jones]

Kathy,

I've done "a few" of these, so I'll offer this for what it's worth.........

I got pre-cut material from Woodturners Catalog, cut a recess and left the cork a little proud, then turned a recess on the bottom that the next cork would slip into, so they were stackable.

You can still leave room for logo/info/whatever, and you can stack them without any type of caddy. Several sets of marked calipers were very beneficial. Wonderful thing to do with small bits of timber.

Great idea, I may do a few for some of MY tree trimmers.............

Rich

[Kathy Marshall]

Thanks everyone!

Roger, the cracks were filled with CA while I was turning it.

I started off tonight by parting off the end of the blank that had the tenon that I used to reverse and finish this coaster. I used the tenon to size the recesses for a couple more coaster and that's working pretty well. Once I've parted off as many as I can get from this blank, I'll turn another tenon and that should work to reverse all of the coasters since they all have the same size recess. I also still have the backing from the cork on the 1st one and will use that as a template to cut out the cork for the rest of them. Keeping everything a consistent size should make these go pretty quickly.
And yes, I'll probably get tired of turning these long before I'm done with them.