Oh!
Hey Guys!
It's Mike from The Geek Pub!
And on this episode we're going to make this awesome Cheese Tray and Coaster set.
And we're going to make it... from this log.
So I need to turn these into useable stock, and since they're not flat and I can't run
them up against the fence, I've made this little jig out of a couple of scraps of plywood
and I'm just going to screw them together and then I can run this straight edge along
the fence.
Now that I have two reasonably flat sides, and they're not perfect.
They are just there in order to create a 90 degree angle so that I can run this up agains
the fence without the jig in place and I can trim the rest of it off and I can make some
usable material out of this.
So I've got three sections milled down and there is still some live edges on them.
And I did that on purpose because there are some places I can cut out some center sections
and get some usable material.
And my goal here it to get as much 4.5" by 5/8" strips as I can get with no live edges
on them.
And so I am going to do that on the table saw.
So I've got everything cut up into these 5/8" by roughly about 2" to 2 1/2" strips and I
am just going to run them through the planer because I want to make sure everything is
an equal thickness before I try to cut these out and glue them up.
So I've got everything milled down to its final dimensions and most of it is fully usable
like this piece, but I have a lot of material that still has a little bit of a live edge
left on it and those won't work for the project that we're doing.
So what I am going to do is use the table saw and the crosscut sled and I'm going to
figure out how to get the most usable material out of each one of these boards that has the
live edges left on them.
Alright well now it is time to glue everything up and I went ahead and got some Titebond
III Ultimate which is waterproof and since we're going to be using this for food and
it's probably going to get wet from time to to time I thought that would be a pretty good
precaution.
So lets go ahead and get started.
OK.
So now that everything is glued up, I am just going to cut the coasters down to their final
dimensions which is roughly 4" by 4".
For the cheese serving tray I got this really cool template from Steve Ramsey over at Woodworking
for Mere Mortals and I'll post a link to that, its a free template you can get on his website.
I had to shrink it down and flip in to make it fit my material, but it still worked out
really well I think.
And so we're just going to cut that out on the band saw.
I'm just going to give everything a quick sanding down to 100 grit before I put it on
the router and then I'll come back and do the final sanding.
I'm just going to use the router and put a 3/16" round-over on all of the top surfaces.
To finish this project we're going to use this General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish and
it is a non-toxic food save finish.
And due to the nature of this project I did not want to use any wood stain.
I wanted to keep it very natural and so the Salad Bowl Finish adds just a slight amber
tint but for the most part it leaves the natural wood grain.
I'm just going to apply that with a paper towel.
Well hey guys!
Thanks so much for watching this video!
Let me give you a little back story on this.
So about a year ago my father called and he said that his pecan tree in his front yard
was hit by lightning and that there were a whole bunch of branches that were down and
I went over to his house and I helped him clean them up.
And there was one log that was pretty, or branch I guess that was really pretty large
and I thought I bet I can use this to make my own something or another and I didn't really
know what it was at the time.
I knew that the wood was going to have to try, and also we were in the process of moving
and so I decided to just put the log in the garage and let it sit for about a year.
And a year later this is what I made out of it.
And I think a project like this is fantastic because it allows you to take something that
would have either been burned in the fireplace or thrown in the trash to make something that
is actually useful.
And I hope this inspires you to make your thing out of something that other people might
think is trash.
Well guys if you like this video, please hit the subscribe button.
And I'll see you next time!