Wine Cork Trivet

My wife and I had attended a local festival in the area where artists and vendors from around the state would bring their crafts to sell. I came across one vendor who was selling trivets made from wine corks. I think she was selling them for 25 dollars or more!

She caught me eyeballing the construction of the frame that the corks sat in. I think it made her nervous because she said to me,

"I don't think you could make these. They are custom frames that my husband designed."

Trying to make her feel better I agreed that I couldn't make them. However, when I got home, I immediately went on the web to look for wine corks. I found a whole lot of used wine bottle corks on eBay. I think I bought 4 or 5 hundred corks for 20 or 30 dollars from a women who owned a restaurant in California! Seemed like a pretty logical place to have old wine corks in the heart of wine country. The frame is made out of oak that I ripped down to 3/4 of an inch. I mitered the corners, glued and used 3/4 inch brads to fasten it together.

The trivet I saw at the festival had exposed the end grain of the back panel that the corks were attached to. I didn't like the way it looked so I chose to improve on the design by routing a rabbit for the 1/4 inch birch ply panel to sit it. I Just glued and clamped the back panel into the rabbit. Once the frame was together and the back panel was dry, a little bit of sanding, stain and a few coats of polyurethane were applied to the frame. Lastly, I used hot glue to fasten the corks into the frame into this pattern. One methods I used to plant the corks in the frame was to make sure they were all similar in length. Not all the corks in the box were the same so I had to cut some down with a sharp razor blade.

I have made about 10 or so of these trivets and I have considered making a big one or maybe a serving tray. The steps would be the same just bigger. I would just have to lay my corks out in a pattern I like, measure to the outside of my pattern and add 1.5 inches to compensate for the frame.

Shadow Boxes

I received a table saw for Christmas about 4 years ago. This was my first woodworking machine. My wife wanted a couple shadow boxes and this was the first project I ever put together. Its a pretty simple concept. Two shelves that I just flipped to give me the effect we both wanted. I made this project out of red oak that I got at Home Depot. Nothing fancy!The boards were fastened with 3/4 inch dado's that I made with my router, glue, counter sunk #8 wood screws and then I plugged the holes with dowel. I used a dark walnut stain and a few coats of water based polyurethane. It was a pretty simple project.

Weather Station

A couple years ago, my Dad and I were talking about some of the complications with his weather station. At the time, he had all of the gages set up on a broom stick out in his lawn but he wasn't receiving accurate readings, especially when the sun was beating on it all day long. He also had a need for a platform for the rain gage to sit on.

Here was my solution. A white, louver wall box, with an inverted roof. I made the entire box out of pine. The hardest part of this whole project was making sure the louvers were even between the top and bottom rail. I did measure quite a bit and ended up trying to make a template first on a piece of scrap before I did it for real. Once I created the dado's in one side, I realized all I needed was a mirror image of the side I just made. I was able to simply nibble out a dado for the louvres with my table saw and my miter gage set at 45 degrees. I made them tight so I wouldn't need anything but glue to keep the louvers in. Each louvre was made out of a 1/4 inch piece of pine that I had a friend surface plane to size for me. As for the frames the louvres fit in, I built each exactly the same size. All the frames were glued, pre-drilled, I counter sunk the screws and covered all the screw head holes with plugs. I basically made a cube!

As for the roof, this is where I got pretty creative. At least I thought it was. The roof was designed to accommodate for the function of the rain gauge. In order for the weather station rain gauge to work, water needed to be able to enter through the top of the instrument and drain out the bottom. In order to achieve this, I decided to invert the roof to create a channel under the rain gauge would. I pitched my table saw blade at 5 degrees and ran the two piece through. From the back of the box, you can see how the roof is pitched. I also found that I needed a couple of wedges to offer some support to the roof. The other roof on the outside of the box is purely for looks to give the illusion that it there is a normal roof.

After 5 sides were finished, all I need was a couple hinges, a knob, and a magnet to keep the door closed. I painted the entire box with flat exterior latex paint and mounted it on a 4x4 pole in my dad's yard. It took quite a few hours of work, but it was worth it! My dad is getting good readings from his weather station I now know how to make a weather station box!

Dart Board

Here is a dart board cabinet I made for my brother as a Christmas present. I made it out of oak and the back panel is birch plywood with some green felt that I covered it with. I designed it in such a way that I would be able to take the back panel off so that it would be easier to hang on the wall without having to hold the entire cabinet while trying to make it level. The back panel simply sits into a rabbit I made in the cabinet, and then the cabinet is fastened with screws on the top and bottom to the back panel. I used my porter cable dovetailing jig as a means of jointing the corners. With this kind of joint, glue was the only fastener that I needed to keep it together. I used a Red Mahogany stain and 3 or 4 coats of a water based polyurethane. It was a pretty easy project and very functional!