Texas Trivet - No CNC

[gee-dub]

My son in law stopped by yesterday with a glued up blank he wanted turned into some coasters for his co-workers. After doing that he brought up how he would like a Texas shaped trivet for his sister (who lives in Texas) to set her hot items on when doing prep or dining. I am still percolating on my own latest project and so took a detour.

I have this block that I glue random scraps to over the years.

Every now and then I slice some off and make stuff. This seemed like a good source for some end grain material for some trivets. I grabbed a public line drawing for the state of Texas and made a template.

X-Acto knifed out the paper and made a plywood template since we have multiple friends and family in Texas and so needed a template that would last a while. I know from previous experience that if I send one of them something the grapevine will have them clamoring "where's mine!?!". I wanted to stumble through one first to see if it was viable.



I'm sure many of you are familiar with the "washer as an offset or scribing tool" trick. I used a little bit of white pencil here to make it show better.

This just lets me rough cut a lot of the blank away before doing surface prep. No need to waste time preparing areas the will become spoil later on.



I then use the template to draw the lines I will use at the bandsaw.

Ta-da.

Some surface and edge sanding, a little mineral oil and there you go.

Now that I know how I will make a few more for the other folks.

[fcschoenthal]

Very nice use of scraps. And you can never go wrong with Texas. 

[gee-dub]

I did the edge sanding on the spindle sander.  I have enough raw material.  After lunch I am going to try to template route one.  I am not sure how the vertical material is going to react but, I have some scraps to test on.

[fcschoenthal]

On 3/27/2026 at 12:50 PM, gee-dub said:

I am not sure how the vertical material is going to react but, I have some scraps to test on.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever template routed vertical grain. A good compression bit will help slice instead of dice.

[gee-dub]

Apparently someone spilled the beans. I already have an order for 6 of these . . . I figured four, tops! It's like slicing bread . . .




Anyone else asks for these I am going to scratch my head and ask them what they are talking about.

[Coop]

TEXAS just got bigger! @gee-dub, have you had a chance to template route one yet? 

[gee-dub]

I did a test template routed cut on some actual scrap with a shear-cut Freud bit.  The results were good.  I plan to try the full deal later today.

[Mark J]

Interesting experiment!  I'm imagining that that it might be more prone to chip out at a corner. 

[gee-dub]

A report back on template routing versus spindle sanding. When I make multiples I gang them whenever I can.

This lets me rough cut them to size and surface prep them. Then I use the template to draw a line I will get to within 1/16" of at the band saw.





Then I double-stick tape on the template.

Here we are right off the router table. I use a top/bottom bearing bit to control the feed direction.

These two tight corners are not so good due to the bearing diameter.

Two or three swipes with the dovetail saw take care of that.

I'll do the others and then sand and oil.

[Mark J]

Success!

[gee-dub]

I knew this was gonna happen.  Got tagged to make one for some friends in Arkansas.

 

[fcschoenthal]

You need to start making friends in Colorado or Wyoming. Their cutting boards would be a lot easier. 

[wtnhighlander]

Bet you don't get many requests for Maryland...

[Beechwood Chip]

Better hope no one wants Hawaii.  I guess that would be a set of coasters instead of a cutting board.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 5/22/2026 at 9:30 PM, fcschoenthal said:

You need to start making friends in Colorado or Wyoming. Their cutting boards would be a lot easier. 

I think it was on the Simpsons, there was some sort of contest going on and the main prize was a "State of Kansas Jello Mold". It was a standard rectangular baking pan. Lol