Thread: coasters

Yes, it is indeed a good thing to save those offcuts

cheers
Wendy

I like the look of the coasters! I can see some good things being done with the offcut box...

On the finish, the shellac will work as a grain filler, if nothing else, so I would put a coat (or in fact a few) on first (I would apply using a cloth or a rubber rather than a brush). As always with finishing, the better the prepared surface, the better the final finish!!!

They look great.

Great idea, some interesting contrasts there, what is the central black coloured timber?

There are 10 strips, (the dark timber was black walnut)
starting from the top the timbers used
Meranti
Braz.Mahogany
purple heart
yew
black walnut
braz. mahogany
sweet chestnut
purple heart
br. Mahogany
meranti.

Thanks for the advice re shellac, I will give them some coats over the nedt few days. Then some coats of varnish and finally put a cork base

Might prepare a few, including place mats so that I dont have to keep opening the liquid finishes thus causing sticky problems.

Neat looking coasters, from what I understand on these forums you will need to protect the purpleheart from UV light or it will go brown. I could be wrong, SWMBO seems to think thats the case more often than I do though.

Corbs

Anyone with experience with this purple heart able to advise how to keep the purple colour permamently?

Permanently? Not possible, as it darkens with exposure to UV, until it's hard to tell what colour it is. At least, the species of purpleheart I'm familiar with does, anyway. UV turns it purple, the more UV the darker the purple, while heat turns it brown... the more heat, the browner.

You could keep it in a well-shaded position, but the most effective method would be to lacquer with a UV-proof finish, such as a good marine spar varnish.

Even then, it'll still darken eventually. Sorry.

Preparing for a run of coasters and tablemats (in time for Xmas presents)

Nearly had a disaster yesterday on the first table mat.

Put it in the thicknesser, first pass through, nice. second pass through same face it snatched and had to release the depth setting handle to get it to pass through. Nasty snipe had been created. Held my breath and passed it through again and got away with it.

Second mat glued up more quickly because timber was mainly sized already from earlier machining
Sooooooooo......




Giving the coasters a rest for now because I dont want to start cutting into fresh timber.

Post again when second mat machined and finishes applied.

Given all the coaster a couple of coats of shellac, they are now awaiting varnish.

But hunting around I have found this amount of offcuts still available

Hmm, two words come to mind - Treasure Trove!!!!

The Ikea flat-pack version of a coaster?

Apparently Armourall helps keep the colour of Purpleheart intact - I guess it makes sense as it contains UV screen?? Can't speak from experience, but maybe you could do an experiment on some scrap and leave it in the sun.