Coffee Bar Sign

In a later post I will explain the steps that lead to deciding to build a coffee bar but this post is focused on the Coffee & Tea sign for the coffee bar. I'd recently seen some white oak and white epoxy signs and really liked the look. I wasn't sure how epoxy and white oak would behave but I had a few tricks to reduce risk. For some woods, epoxy can bleed through the grain but white oak is very close grained. In addition after I carved the lettering I sprayed on several coats of poly before pouring the epoxy. The only issue I had was there was still some holes in the wood and I got a lot of bubbling that happened during the cure despite using a heat gun. Next time I will use a wash coat of epoxy first. Still turned out great!
 

Battery Storage Tray

Another win for owning a CNC. We have a drawer in our China cabinet where we put all of our batteries and inevitably they get thrown around and start to touch and start to leak. We also will get free sets of batteries at our grocery store and we lose track of which ones are the oldest so we use those ones first. This was a quick evening project and simply involved measuring the types of batteries I wanted to store and doing a layout that fit the drawer. We did have some older C and D size batteries but realized we hadn't used those since our kids needed them for various toys so I focused on the AA and AAA as well as the 9-Volt that we use for things like smoke detectors and water sensors. there was room at the front for the miscellaneous button batteries for things like alarm sensors. A quick coat of spray poly and the project was done. I was briefly worried I might be connecting the batteries in series through the wood but so far so good. Even if they do leak, the chemicals will be contained. Things could get out of hand quickly if I think about all the custom inserts for drawers I can now create. 
 

Glow in the Dark Clock

The purpose for this project was two fold. I wanted to design and build a simple wooden clock and I wanted to prove that those videos of brilliant blue, glow in the dark wood tables was likely not what they looked like in reality. The clock was cut on the CNC. I cut the lettering and the hole from the front and then made a space in the back for the clock mechanism with a separate carve from the back. I then filled all the lettering with glow in the dark pigmented epoxy. You can of course view it very clearly in the dark if you shine a black light on it for a few minutes to charge it but it fades quickly. Would probably work nicely for a cosmic bowling lane. Still looks good as just an epoxy filled clock pattern. 
 

Dishwasher Tags

I work for the local Electric utility and work in Information Technology so I'm in the office at least a couple times a week. We used to have this ratty old sign for the dishwasher to indicate whether the load is clean or dirty. In an office environment it's fairly consistent that someone comes along and opens the door thinking it's a dirty load. To fix this I made a wooden magnet that includes a 'Clean' and 'Dirty' sign on each side. When you turn the dishwasher on you place this over the handle and indicate it's 'Clean'. That way someone knows to empty the dishwaher if the cycle is complete. I've made a few of them and secretly placed them on a few floors. 
 

Crib Board with Card and Peg Storage

My family plays a lot of crib and I've seen many crib boards through my life and I've always wanted to make one that included storage for both cards and pegs. I've done a few with the Rockler hole template but it's a pain to drill all the holes and you'd have to include the cards on the back side which forces it to be thicker to avoid clashing with the holes from above. I got this hole pattern off Amazon and measured a typical set of cards and pegs. I made a separate lid so that I could customize them for whomever I was making them for and I included holes for the magnets to keep the lid on. I won't share the cut files since I had to pay for the hole pattern but it's a fairly easy carve to create in V-Carve.
 

Wood Luggage Tags

I've always been a big proponent of unique luggage tags as it makes it a lot easier to identify your bags when you are picking it up at the airport. I recently got a CNC and wanted to practice some lettering as well as some simple leather work and a luggage tag seemed like a good item. Tag is about 5"x3" with the corners cut off and a 1/8" slot wide enough to fit the leather. I went with Times New Roman for the font and used a 30 degree V-Bit. The deeper angle allows you to paint and then sand the whole thing to reveal the letters. This plus the material of maple makes for some very crisp lines with no bleeding. I bought a box of snaps and some leather off of Amazon. It is a unique item when I'm at the airport. 

Garden Obelisk

Although a classic style I can say the dimensions for this was entirely my own. Everything was made from materials available at your local lumber yard and there is only really one angle though it will help if you have a compound miter saw. I started with a single 10 foot 2x4 for the legs and cut for legs at 1-1/2" square. I then did a compound 12.5 degree angle on either end. The top and end cut should be parallel to each other. The measurements for the three pieces on each side are 5", 13-1/4" and 21-1/4" and I used 1-1/4 inch think cedar deck planks cut to 2-1/2" wide. You can play with these lengths a bit if you want to move them up or down or make the piece wider. you just have to lay the two legs on the bench and measure the distances where you want them. They all repeat the 12.5 degree angle. 

Assembly is done with predrilled screws in from the outside of each leg and I used #10 3-1/2 inch screws. Once the main obelisk is assembled, the vertical pieces are one inch square with the length cut to look good. I topped it off with a cedar fence cap and a wooden ball you that includes a lag screw in it. Finish is a solid stain and I installed some 12 inch screws in the legs to allow me to secure them in the garden with some bricks under the legs to keep them out of the dirt. These look great with a Clematis climbing from the inside.