Place mats

What a great idea. Could you post some demensions on it, would like to know how thick is the wood??
Thanks

-- Guy Kroll www.thelandsathillsidefarms.org

Very cool idea. I wouldn’t mind having a couple of these around the house myself. I’m like Guy though, I’d love some dimensions, in particular, the thickness.

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

sweet.
On my list!!!

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

This is a great idea and it finds uses for those pieces of scrap that we are reluctant to get rid of.

This gives me a project for using the tambour cloth I have left from repairing a roll top desk. I didn’t know what to do with it after repairing the desk but I just couldn’t seem to get rid of it.

Thanks for the post.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Great idea! How did you go about cutting the strips?

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie – - >How did you go about cutting the strips<
I ran the boards to 3/4” thick, then ripped the strips to 1/8” on the table saw. If you use a sharp fine tooth blade that doesn’t burn, – - the saw marks can be easier to sand out than possible tearout that a planer can leave.

-- Marshall _ Wichita, Ks _ "Growing Old is Mandatory - - Growing Up Is Optional" :)

When is lunch? I wish I could make something like those. What a great project. How many mats did you make? How did you keep the strips from sticking together during glue up? Wax paper? I really like this project and am going to try something like it soon. Wow and thanks.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford. Wood-a-holics unanimous president

Nice idea! I never would have thought of that.

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX

Great! Now that is what I call table scraps. Great use of extra wood.

-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX

This is an AWESOME idea! And so simple to make. Did you come up with it? I’ve never seen this done before. Way cool. I am definitely gonna make some of these, you will see a lot of clones popping up on LJ’s, I bet. (Hope you don’t mind!) We would love it if you would include more info about the gluing process, etc. Favorited.

-- Happy woodworking! http://www.blakeweber.us

Everyone else: As far as ripping the strips, check this out. It might help.

-- Happy woodworking! http://www.blakeweber.us

All –
About the glue-up. There can be several ways to approach this. What I did on mine was to tack some extra strips to a flat surface in a square L shape. Then I stuck a couple of strips of 2-sided tape to the surface and stuck the placemat strips good side down as tightly against one another as I could. I rolled the contact on the wood and vinyl and stuck them together after they were dry. The adhesive was thick enough prevent any flow of glue between the strips. This is not a perfect way to do this. You have to be careful not to let much of the finish flow between the slats because it may attack the glue line and/or vinyl. I wanted to try the vinyl/contact cement method because of the stable and soft property’s of the faux suede vinyl and the flexible nature of the contact cement.

About ripping narrow strips. – - Our shop always has a ton of extra scrap ply laying around. I set the fence to the ripping dimension, lower the blade below the table, double sticky tape a piece of 1/4” ply to the table, turn on the saw and raise the blade to the cutting height. You can now rip the pieces with a push stick and not have any fall or bind with the table-saw insert.

-- Marshall _ Wichita, Ks _ "Growing Old is Mandatory - - Growing Up Is Optional" :)

Nice cutting tip, Marshall. Thanks.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Just brilliant!!

Rob

-- http://www.damnfinefurniture.com

Great use of all those lay-about scraps. Thanks for the post.

-- Peace in Wood ~ http://www.etsy.com/shop/DustyNewt