what's going on guys i'm brandon from
walker's woodworks welcome back to the
channel today i'm going to be showing
you how to do three quick projects in
the shop you can give away as gifts or
sell
the first project on the list is going
to be a combination of two things that
take me back to my roots pallets and
coasters i figured it might be cool to
make some coasters that actually look
like mini pallets so i started out with
some scrap three quarter inch walnut and
trimmed it down to a quarter inch strips
on the table saw
if you guys don't know when i first
started woodworking i built everything
out of pallets as a lot of people do
getting into this hobby
in fact my first business name was
brandon's palette creations my friends
still don't let me live that one down
but it got me to where i am today and to
do what i love
once i had several strips cut up i
trimmed them all down to four inches
over at the miter
saw once i cut the first one i set up a
stop block so i could make repeated cuts
without having to measure every time
this also ensures that they are all
exactly the same length
after i had all those cut i went back
over to the table saw to cut what could
be considered the pallet runners i guess
i cut these all to half inch by three
quarter inch and then also cut them to
four inch links
that's all the parts we're going to need
for these cool little coasters i'm going
to assemble everything using my new
ryobi airstrike 18 gauge brad nailer
in an attempt to make assembly easier i
clamped a square to my assembly table
and then use the pieces for the coasters
as spacers i only glued the runners to
the outer two and the center piece i
used ca glue and accelerator then i
flipped it over removed the spacers and
secured them with 5 8 inch brad nails
that takes care of the bottom then i
flipped it over and just tried to space
out four planks on top evenly spaced as
i could using the same method to secure
them
once they were assembled i used a
sanding sponge to knock down any of the
sharp edges
i decided to try a little finishing
experiment with these coasters i wanted
to try three different finishes the
first one being rubio monocoat which is
a hard oil and wax blend that i use a
ton in the shop and i love it the only
problem with it on these is there's so
many small nooks and crannies to get it
in it took forever and then also you're
supposed to buff it back off so it took
even longer to get the excess out of the
spots
for the second method i used cutting
board oil and just poured it all over
the whole thing capturing what didn't
stick in a bucket to be reused and then
i just let it drain in a clean bucket
this method worked pretty good but it
still left kind of a lot of oil stuck
between the planks and stuff like that
but it eventually dried and turned out
okay the third method is what i consider
the best and most efficient way and
that's spray lacquer this was by far the
easiest to apply and it looks good too i
applied four coats
here's a side-by-side of all three let
me know which one you guys like best
another common gift people get for
christmas a lot i noticed is a nice ball
of wine but it would be cool to put it
in a gift box of some sort and what's
better than a handmade gift box so we're
gonna go ahead and make one out of some
white oak and some quarter inch walnut
ply that i have
first thing i'm going to do is come over
to the table saw and then cut this down
to the width i want which is five inches
this piece is about four feet long which
should be plenty for what we're going to
use it for i'm going to get this trimmed
down to width and then i'm actually
going to cut the grooves down the whole
length of the board for the top and
bottom to sit in because it's easier to
do that now rather than try and run
little pieces through the table saw so
we'll get to doing that
so if you've worked with plywood at all
in the past you know it's not exactly
quarter inch or three quarter inch or
whatever they say it is so let's take a
measurement here it's a little bit less
than a quarter so what that tells me is
we can do a full quarter inch pass
for the
slot that the top is going to go in and
have plenty of room for it to slide in
now so got this depth gauge setter at a
quarter you can use a ruler or whatever
you don't have to use one of these fancy
tools and then we can cut two passes
because this is the full kerf blade
which is only an eighth inch so we'll
have to do a couple passes
we'll also do is transfer those marks
down the end grain so i can see them
because this will be on the
bottom side
just transfer those over here
that way i know exactly where i need to
cut i will use my fence to set it a
quarter inch away and then make a cut
and then just move it
eighth inch and then make another cut
but before i make that second cut i can
look and make sure the edge of the blade
is on that line so i don't make a cut
that's too big or too small
[Music]
so a lot of times when you're using a
regular blade versus a dado stack to do
a small dado like this you'll end up
with this strip in the center and you
can just clear that out with a small
chisel or even a screwdriver or just
anything it's real thin
just anything to clear out the slot
[Music]
[Music]
every wine bottle this style typically
is about 12 inches this one's a little
bit less or maybe right at it so we're
going to shoot for 13 inches
top to bottom on the inside so i'm going
to head over to miter saw and start
cutting this up i'll end up cutting this
kind of knot off here that way we start
with a nice square edge this will be the
bottom so i'll cut that to the width of
this board which is five inches and then
i will go
uh
14 and a half right i'm not good with
numbers yeah 14 and a half and then
another five and then another 14 and a
half so we should have plenty of wood
here and then i'll show you what to do
after that
at the time i'm recording this video if
you guys don't follow along the channel
that closely i just got in the new shop
so this is my super sweet miter station
for now it's just a plastic bench but i
will be making a
proper miter station here in the near
future
[Applause]
at this point we're going to need to
kind of keep track of what's what these
are obviously the sides don't need to
worry about that but the top and bottom
are actually going to be different from
this point forward so i'm just going to
write on there
bottom
and top
helps me keep track of things and the
difference is going to be we're going to
go back and cut this top piece
even with the bottom side of this groove
here and that will allow the lid to
slide in and out on the top side the
bottom we're going to leave alone
because it's going to be a fully
captured panel to obviously keep that
from sliding out and keep the wine
bottle in but we're going to go over the
table saw and cut this off now
so we've got all our pieces cut we can
kind of mock it up now
the only downside to this method
some people may not like it i really
don't care that much on something i'm
trying to do quickly and give away as a
gift is you're able to see these notches
right here where the blade came all the
way through if you really don't like
that you want to spend a little bit more
time what you can do is take a quarter
inch router with an edge guide or
something come in
as far as you need to to allow room for
this
which would be what half inch a little
more whatever it is plunge down go over
and come out and that will leave these
ends closed so you won't be able to see
them or you could just do mitered
corners and you won't be able to see
them that way either but
for the sake of this video doing it
quick
and uh just that most people can do
easily we're doing it this way next step
i'm going to clamp this together and get
a measurement of how big our panels need
to be
with this floating panel method it's
going to be just that's going to be
floating we're not going to glue it in
we're not going to make it exactly to
fit so what we're going to do is take
this inside measurement add about 3 8 to
it because it's a quarter inch on both
sides so that would be half inch but you
don't want to take up that whole room
with the panel that way there's room for
the outside wood to move around as the
seasons change and things like that so
we're going to take the inside
measurement add a quarter uh what i say
3 8 of an inch and do the same thing
this way that way the panel has about an
eighth inch
on two sides or sixteenth all the way
around to move
i almost made a mistake because
the bottom will be that size but the top
will not because we want the top to come
all the way out to the edge perfect
workbench measure this inside to out
here so 14
all together
let's try to slide this in here
it's a little bit long so trim it back
just a little bit
so it sits flush up against that edge
we go
nice and flush so now
i think we're
ready to do some sanding before we put
it together it's a lot easier to do it
that way so i'll get to sanding all this
and then we'll get it put together
now we get to assembly this is the back
side that i want to apply for the bottom
kind of matches the inside actually so
it looks pretty good but what we're
going to do is glue clamp get the bottom
piece in there as well get everything
nice and straight and then we can
drill countersink and put our screws in
and that'll act as clamps so we can take
the top clamp or these clamps off
and it'll pretty much be done
so this is what i use for this it's a
tapered bit and then it's got a 3 8 inch
countersink up here that you can run
down into the wood to clearance out some
space for that dowel to go we're going
to be using 3 8 inch dowels obviously
this is a dewalt i believe and you can
find these in home depot around all the
other drill bits they're super handy i
use them all the time obviously this
one's at the end of its life and i can't
find my new one unfortunately but it
should work
[Music]
so my original plan for this was to use
walnut dowels to give it some contrast
but i can't find any anywhere without
driving like 45 minutes one way to pick
them up so i just ran to home depot and
grabbed this birch
3 8 dowel it was like a dollar fifty
which is pretty good so i'm going to cut
off like inch sections just to make sure
i have plenty sticking out when i glue
it in and then we'll glue them in and
then trim them off once they're dry
so all i'm doing here is just giving a
little round over so it'll go into the
hole a little easier
now we can glue them in
you can hear that sound change when you
get to the bottom
[Music]
i realized a couple mistakes i've made
this morning already one is i didn't
have my mic plugged into the right port
so the audio probably sounded horrible
um apologize that made it into the final
video and also this will probably stay
together a lot better if i actually put
the screws in before the plugs so we're
gonna pull these back out put the screws
in and then uh put all the plugs back in
it happens
there we go just gotta get the right
technique
apparently wiggling i think i can reuse
these
most of them all right let's put the
screws in and then and then the plugs
second
i need more screws what is happening to
me
today got em
i think these are longer
oh well
be fine
this driver's kinda loud but it has tons
of power
all right
now the plugs
re-glue
make it a mess
okay
now we wait
while that glue dries i want to take a
second thank the sponsor today's video
which is home depot they invited me to
be part of the prospective program for
2021 and 22. for this project they sent
me out the rigid four piece toolkit
which includes the driver drill a
reciprocating saw as well as a
multi-tool which you'll see in just a
second i think it's a good thing to have
in the shop i don't see a lot of
woodworkers using the multi-tools so i'm
excited to incorporate it into my future
projects and see how we can use it
around a wood shop and also they sent me
the ryobi 18 gauge and 16 gauge brad
nailers cordless so you want to drag the
airline around which will be nice i've
actually wanted this for quite a while
so i'm glad i have it in the shop now to
utilize i'll leave links to these and
everything else i use in the video down
in the description below for you guys to
check out
and i appreciate the support all right
back to the video
all right it's been about an hour hour
and a half so we got plenty of time take
clamps off and now what i want to do is
utilize that
multi-tool i was talking about
so here's the multi-tool i got from them
it's the ridgid
it is uh really ergonomic i like that
best about it also it's a tool-less
change so you just pop this up take the
blade off put a new one on it's
adjustable speed
um but mostly it's light and it's easy
to handle so i got this fine toothed
flush trim blade here but what i want to
do first is put down some tape to try to
protect this normally what i do is use
like a a japanese pole saw or flush cut
saw of some sort to trim these off but i
want to try this down see how it works
[Music]
pretty good
[Music]
see it kind of tore the tape up but i
don't think it messed up the wood
so tape did its job now i can just sand
those flush
and be good to go
get the rest of them cut off
[Music]
the last piece i want to put on here is
a little handle for the top i'll just
glue it on there this is a piece of
scrap from the coasters we just made and
that way you'll have some way to grab it
to slide the lid in and out so i'll get
that glued on and we can continue to a
final sand and put some finish on this
thing to see what it looks like
before i add this on i want to actually
do a little bit of sanding so i just
want to break over the corners
a little bit of saw marks in there
i want to very lightly sand the corners
of this ply i don't want to do too much
because then it'll reveal the mdf
but i also don't want it to splinter
looks pretty good
all right
and get it glued on
try to be sparing with the glue so i
don't want it to i do want to come out
of the bottle however
well that's nice
this glue i'm using is a
quick and thick from tybon and it
actually dries clear so if you get a
little bit of squeeze out it's not going
to be the end of the world just going to
utilize the edge of my bench
try to get it pretty centered just clamp
it down this glue dries pretty fast so i
shouldn't have to leave it for too long
let that dry and move on to final
sanding the box
[Music]
it's time for finish i'm going to go
back to that hard oil and wax blend
i really like this stuff especially when
it's
big flat surfaces like this so you don't
have to worry about getting into a bunch
of
small
crevices and stuff like the coasters
stuff works really good on like tables
and desks i just like the natural color
and sheen that it leaves no shininess a
plasticky look etc
so now we've got the bottom and the top
finished i'm gonna let it sit for a
while let it cure before i've actually
put it together so we'll move on to the
third and final project while this dries
and then we'll come back and show you
the finished product of this so when i
started this video i knew i wanted to do
three projects you give away for
christmas gifts or sell that you could
do quickly in the shop and i knew i
wanted to do the coasters and the wine
box but i wasn't quite sure what i
wanted the third one to be i thought
about a serving tray or cutting board
but everybody makes those and i have
videos on those already so i thought
maybe it'd be cool to do a nice modern
style pencil holder and these pallet
coasters kind of gave me the inspiration
to do that so let's get into that build
so i don't know about you but walnut is
one of my favorite woods to work with i
found this piece in my cutoff pile it's
three and a half inches wide 24 inches
long and
three quarters of an inch thick
so i thought about doing this with just
the full three-quarter but i think
that'll be a little bit too bulky for
what i'm going for so i'm gonna run over
the planer and plane this down to a half
inch i say run over to the planer like
it's
mounted somewhere i can actually use it
nope it's a nightmare took it out and a
potential back injury
but for now it is what it is i need to
build a cart for that thing
did not foresee this when i
was setting the shop up
it's fine we have an extension cord and
a plug-in look at that seems safe no
trip hazards or nothing i'm just gonna
pretend this doesn't
isn't really how i do things
it is
80 of the time
so much prep for one board
[Music]
all right now this thing is down to a
half inch thick what i'm going to do is
set my fence to a half inch so i get
half inch by half inch squares and just
cut as many strips as i can get out of
this and then we will cut them down to
final length
all right we got our strips all cut
ended up with five of them what i'm
gonna do now is cut them down into four
inch sections because i want this to be
four by four and then about five inches
tall or something in that area for the
base i think i might actually use a
different wood i just like using
contrasting colors so i think it'll be
kind of cool but what i'm going to do is
get out a
miter gauge and cut these with that
because it's a little safer than trying
to do it on the miter saw and it'll
leave a little cleaner cut
so this is a pretty glorified miter
gauge you can use the one that comes
either saw or a sled or anything like
that but i like this one because it has
the stop block so i can set it up for
four inches and just make repeated cuts
and i know they're all going to be
exactly the same
now that all the pieces are cut we can
start assembling
it's a lot
all right i got the square set up here
like we did with the coasters just try
to keep everything as square as possible
and i also have some type onto dark
which is made for like walnut and darker
woods that way if you do get some
squeeze out which i'm sure i will it's
not as noticeable as the white glue and
then we'll be securing it all with some
one inch long 18 gauge brad nails with
the ryobi airstrike
so what i want to do is
the bottom two will be the top of it
actually
and so i want to drive nails from the
bottom up so this would be the top
put a piece on drive from the bottom up
and then each time i put a nail in i
want to kind of offset it from the next
one so the brad nails aren't hitting
each other so you don't want to do all
in the center if that makes sense once
we get to the bottom we'll just put the
bottom on nailed from the bottom you
won't see any of the brad nails
hopefully at least that's a thought
so once i flipped it over it looks good
but i don't really like how these are
open i think if i put these small pieces
in here it'll give it a lot more
finished look so i cut some to size and
now i'll just glue them in with clamps
instead of the brad nailer so you don't
see the brads
while that's dry i'm going to cut the
piece for the base this is 4x4 square so
i'm going to cut a piece that's 5x5 out
of this white oak that's part of the
wood i use for that box it'll be a
little contrasting again and i'll
probably throw a chamfer or something on
there just to dress it up a little bit
instead of using a router i have my
table saw blade set to 45 degrees and
then i have my fence set to four and
three quarter so i'll basically be just
taking a quarter inch chamfer off so
i'll just run this through on each side
and see what it looks like it may take a
little more off i'm not sure yet
so i got this out of the clamps and i
made another base off camera actually
it's the same thing just with a bigger
chamfer just to see which one i liked
better
and i'm not sure this one looks pretty
good but it's kind of bulky i think but
this one
i think i like best because the chamfer
comes all the way up to the base it just
looks kind of cool let me know in the
comments down below which one you guys
would pick but i think i'm gonna go with
this one
then what i'm doing is just taking the
sanding sponge
and just breaking over the really sharp
corners
i don't want to like round it over
anything i just want to make it to where
there's
not going to be any splinters or
anything like that
i can get it mounted to the base and
then we'll get some finish on there i
really like to have a big overhang on my
assembly table so i can utilize it for
clamping so what i'll do is just get it
close here put some glue on and then
i'll use a clamp and clamp the whole
thing from the top probably put a board
across here just to have an even
clamping pressure and that way the foot
of the clamp can get underneath my table
and clamp from the center so should be
good
actually what i can do is use the other
base i was gonna use
make sure it's all
fairly centered
i think we're good
maybe i should glue this on and put a
candle in it or something
sirens
i thought ambulances went fast
taking their time while that cures i'll
turn my attention back to the wine box
it's all cured up now well mostly cured
it's been a day so let's see if the top
goes in first of all
got to push down on just a little bit
because it's warped but i'm kind of glad
it's warped because like i said that
tension will actually keep the lid
fairly snug but looks pretty good i
think
some people like i said might not like
these little saw saw holes
and like i said you could
get rid of those by just using a router
with a quarter inch bit instead and
stopping before you get to the end but i
think it's all right and the plugs look
pretty good i'd rather have done walnut
ones but it's all right so i got this uh
cardboard shredding stuff i think that
will be good for this
i thought about using like
wood shavings or something but
i had this on hand so
we're gonna use this instead just put a
little bit in the bottom there
put the wine bottle in and then kind of
stuff it around it
make it a mess it looks pretty good and
once i actually go to put the actual
bottle of wine in here i'll probably
put some tissue paper or something over
the top or maybe just cover it with more
of this before slide the lid on to keep
it from moving around and hitting the
lid
but
that'll work
looks pretty good i think what do you
guys think
all right should be dry now or cured
whatever you want to call it
and that's kind of our final product
minus finish i think what i'm going to
do is uh
use the lacquer spray on this as well
because of all these small areas i think
the lacquer will be the easiest
so let's get some finish on it see what
it looks like
[Music]
[Music]
my
and there we go three quick projects
done if you guys like these small types
of projects and these videos with
several things in them i'll leave
another one linked right there that's
real similar you can check out after
this special thanks to home depot for
sponsoring this video i hope this
inspires you guys to get out in the shop
make something cool even if it's small
and quick like these some you can do
over the weekend and leave me a comment
down below letting me know the things
you make in the shop to give away over
the holidays i really appreciate the
support and we'll see you guys on the
next one