Yet More Coasters

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Project Timeline

December 2020 – December 2022

Inspiration

I love all types of coasters – wooden or steel, loops and inversions, twists and drops. I have fond memories as a kid of going to Six Flags Great America to tame the Raging Bull or soar on the wings of the American Eagle. At Cedars Point, I recall setting aside my fears to brave the Millennium Force, and passing up the Top Thrill Dragster as common sense returned to suppress bravado. 

Hmm, wait a second, wrong type of coaster… the thing underneath a beverage? Oh, right! I have previously written a post on the process of making CNC routed coasters, and I encourage you to check that out if interested. Below are some of the completed coasters from earlier that Clog.

I have since made a variety of other coasters, though nowhere at the rate of those initial ultra-productive months.

Coasters Overview

Rather than go in depth on the process of machining the coasters, which I previously wrote about, I will instead share some mini-projects (in chronological order):

1. New York Hospital

2. Johns Hopkins University

3. Apex for Youth

4. A Hopkins Wedding

5. Vanderbilt University

6. Miss Porter’s School

7. Pickleball

8. Stuart Little

9. Coffee/Workee

10. Mount Sinai

11. University of Pennsylvania 

 

1. New York Hospital

Project Date: December 2020

Wood stock: 5/8″ Redheart

I have always wanted to make a coaster of NewYork-Presbyterian, but the logo is remarkably bland. However, a few years back I went to the school ID badge office to get a replacement ID, and I saw a distinctive logo on the front of one of the chairs. After some sleuthing around on the internet, I found that the seal was that of the former New York Hospital, before it merged with Presbyterian Hospital in 1998.

The astute observer would recognize that this seal depicts the Parable of the Good Samaritan, along with the command “Go, and do likewise.”

2. Johns Hopkins University

Project Date: April 2021

Wood stock: 1/4″ Maple (x5)

After half a year of churning out coasters, I decided to incorporate epoxy resin into the mix. I used quarter-inch maple stock for my first attempt, and I used the Johns Hopkins seal as it was simple with no text. I chose Art Resin as the epoxy brand given that it is non-toxic with without fumes during curing. 

The epoxy is a two-part mixture, one part resin and one part hardener, and requires a full day of curing before sanding. After pouring the resin, I used a butane torch to go over the surface are remove air bubbles. These coasters came out great, though I forgot to engrave part of the open book for one coaster, and I also sanded away some corners of the Hopkins shield. 

3. Apex for Youth

Project Date: July 2021

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cherry (x4), 5/8″ Maple (x2)

I made these coasters give to recipients of the Mentor of the Year award for the Apex for Youth year-end celebration. I could have used red and black resin to make the logo pop against the cherry or maple background, but it was a last-minute decision to make the coasters, so I didn’t have time for this step.

The second and third images of the series highlights how the finish can considerably change the appearance coasters. As usual, I soaked the coasters in mineral oil before finishing with a coat of beeswax / mineral oil mixture.

4. A Hopkins Wedding

Project Date: August 2021

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cheery x2, 5/8″ Maple x2

My brother asked if I wanted to make wedding coasters for an upcoming wedding he planned on attending. I didn’t know the bride or groom at all, but I was up for the challenge. After all, it couldn’t be more work than the time I made a few hundred coasters for another friend’s wedding, right?

I previously CNC routed Johns Hopkins coasters using 1/4″ maple with a squarish design, but this time I decided to use thicker wood stock for a circular coaster. Since these coasters were a wedding gift, I customized the backside with the first initials of the bride and the groom, along with the date of their wedding. 

Once again, the coaster colors completely change after application of the finish. So satisfying! If I had more time (and if I had known the bride and groom), I probably would have used epoxy to inlay both the school shield as well as the backside details.

5. Vanderbilt University

Project Date: May 2022

Wood stock: 11/16″ Maple

Three of my friends and I spent a week this past spring on a road trip to visit the cities of New Orleans, Memphis, and Nashville, along with to hike the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah. During our overnight stay in Nashville, we had the fortune of staying at the apartment one of my friend’s college classmates. As way of saying thanks, I made a Vanderbilt University coaster for her warm hospitality.

The gold pigment is a beautiful contrast to the maple. I normally like to arrange the longitudinal grain pattern in a side-to-side manner. However, for this coaster, I mixed up the axes!

6. Miss Porter's School

Project Date: November 2022, December 2022

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cherry x2, 11/16″ Chechen

Miss Porter’s School is an all-girls private preparatory academy located in Farmington, Connecticut, with such distinguished alumnae (a.k.a. “Ancients”) as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt. My significant other also called it home for high school, so I decided to make her a MPS coaster for the holidays, along with a pair of cherry MPS coasters for her host family. We dropped the cherry ones off during a Thanksgiving dinner at her host family’s house, and the gift was very well-received.

There are challenges with a design of this sort that has text of varying sizes as well as numerous circumferential rings. I often purposefully engrave text at different depths to bring out smaller details, and I make sure that the work surface is level so that the rings are of equal thickness. Still, this can be tricky to get right!

7. Pickleball

Project Date: December 2022

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cherry

My friend HK has recently taken up the pickleball fad that has swept across much of the United States. I don’t have too much experience with pickleball, though I did play a bit during high school gym class and also in San Diego last year with a friend. I spent quite some time on selecting the perfect quote / design, and I ultimately used a design I found online. I modified it the “Born to Play” phrase by placing it over an arc, then moving the pickleball ball down beneath the design. I also personalized the paddles with a Korean character. 

For this design, photo 1 shows what a coaster typically looks like straight from the CNC router sans cleaning. After cleaning, I painted in the ball recesses with gold paint (photo 2), and then poured black, green, and clear epoxy over areas of the design. After waiting a day for the epoxy to cure, I sanded down the epoxy to be level with the wood surface (photo 3), and then finished the coaster with the usual mineral oil soak and beeswax / mineral oil mixture.

I am very happy how the green epoxy contrasts with the warm cherry background. The only issue I have with the coaster is the ball, as sanding removed some of its outline details.

8. Stuart Little

Project Date: December 2022

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cherry

One of my friends, HC, has a keen interest in the literary character Stuart Little, complete with a large doll that has been with her since childhood. Since she also has a passion for tennis, I decided to combine the two of them in one. I used a depiction of Stuart Little, as well as a drawing of a tennis racket.

The process for this coaster was to first engrave the coaster (photo 1), clean the details, and then use black acrylic paint for the outlines. Then, I sanded off the excess paint (photo 2). Clear epoxy was poured over the figure while epoxy mixed with black pigment was used for the outer circle (photo 3). During the sanding process, some details were lost in the shoes and tennis ball (photo 4). I vacillated between painting on color for Stuart’s outfit and fur but decided I didn’t want to obscure details of the black outline, so I opted against painting.

9. Coffee/Workee

Project Date: December 2022

Wood stock: 5/8″ Cherry

Another one of my friends, XY, is a current intern at Cornell, and he has always enjoyed a cup of coffee in the morning before work. Therefore, I wanted to make him a coaster that he could place under his coffee mug! I used a design I found from an Etsy shop combined with clipart of a cup of coffee.

After engraving and cleaning up the coaster (photo 1), I painted in the brown colors of the coaster (photo 2), as I didn’t have the pigment to replicate that color. I then poured black, clear, and reddish epoxy (photo 3) before sanding and finishing the coaster (photo 4). I was apprehensive that the red epoxy would bleed into the surrounding details, but this turned out not to be the case. 

10. Mount Sinai

Project Date: December 2022

Wood stock: 3/4″ Maple

This coaster was made for a friend, JL, who is a current intern at the Mount Sinai Hospital system. The tricky part of Mount Sinai’s logo is that there are three different colors that are in direct contact; one cannot mix three different colors of epoxy and pour at the same time as they will coalesce together (though I did not have any to match the pigment colors anyways).

Therefore, I designed the coaster by recessing a deeper section for the dark blue part of the logo. This allowed me to easily paint the three colors using acrylics (photo 2). I then poured black and clear epoxy for the different parts of the design (photo 3). After the epoxy cured, I sanded off the excess and finished the coaster (photo 4).

11. University of Pennsylvania

Project Date: December 2022

Wood stock: 3/4″ Maple

This coaster is for a college teammate of mine at Penn, SJ, though I haven’t given it to him, he doesn’t know that I made it yet, and I am tempted to keep it for myself!

The process of making this coaster was more complicated than the others. I first machined out the a recessed area (photo 1) before painting the area red and pouring in clear epoxy (photo 2).  Since epoxy takes at least 24 hours to cure to a workable extent, I had to protect the coaster from dust with a glass food container. I turned off the machine in the interim, so I made sure to record the end XY coordinates so I could re-zero the machine when I turned it back on to complete the remainder of the coaster (photo 3).

After machining, I then cleaned up the details and painted the remainder of the seal blue (photo 4). I did some light sanding to see if I was satisfied with the look (photo 5). I then poured in the clear epoxy, waited for the epoxy to cure, and then sanded and finished the coaster (photo 6).

The only gripe I have with the coaster is that the text was engraved without sufficient depth, so the sanding and finishing process removed much of the line thickness.

Lessons Learned & Improvements

It is always fun to spice up the natural grain of a wood species with dashes of color! Here are some additional tips or improvement ideas that come to mind:

1. Toolbit lifespan: I used the same V-bit for many months, and I began noticing the engraved text dropping in sharpness and definition. Keep the bits sharp for a perfect cut.

2. Epoxy runs: As epoxy cures, it tends to settle, spread, and flow downhill… so always make sure the project is placed on a level surface! And if you live in an apartment with a slanted floor, like me, the furniture can be deceivingly level!

3. Clear epoxy for color matching: Unless you have dozens of epoxy pigments, it will be difficult to perfectly mix the epoxy to the desired color. If accurate color selection is a priority, then I find it easier to a clear epoxy coat over a painted layer.

4. Watch out for dust: Dust gets anywhere and everywhere, and the last thing one wants is speckles in the cured epoxy. One trick is simply to use a large glass or plastic food container as a dust cover as the epoxy resin cures.

5. Sanding – take your time: I’ve rushed through sanding with the lower grits, and once the details are sanded off, there is no coming back! Related to this point, engraving a deeper design on purpose can give some leeway in terms of sanding.

Reflection

Life is too short not to sit back, grab a cold beer (or beverage of one’s choice), and enjoy the moment. And if there is a nice coaster to admire as well, all the better!

There are many possibilities to CNC routing with respect to coaster design. So far, all of these coaster designs have been 2.5D contouring, and I plan on utilizing the full 3D routing capabilities of the machine in the near future!