Kiwi Co Sponsorship: A DIY Coffee Table Project

As I began working on this Kiwi Co project, I was excited to see how the patterns would turn out once it was assembled and mounted onto the cylinder. I had envisioned a chevron design, but little did I know that the curved surface of the cylinder would add an unexpected twist to my initial plan. The lines would follow the curve, creating a beautiful V-shape on one side, which I found quite fascinating.

I spent some time fine-tuning the pattern and making sure it was even, taking care to get the edges nice and flat. This was crucial since I needed to apply a metal puck to the end of the table that would serve as a guide for pushing coffee down into the cup. The puck is usually made from stainless steel, but I didn't have any on hand, so I opted for a thick piece of aluminum instead.

Using my water jet, which is an expensive tool that most people don't have access to, I was able to cut out a circle with precision and accuracy. This would be the exact size needed for the metal puck, ensuring it fit perfectly into the table's design. If I didn't have access to a water jet, other tools like a bandsaw or an angle grinder could also be used to cut the aluminum.

Once I had my piece of aluminum, I glued two separate pieces together using five-minute epoxy, with the intention of aligning them properly for the final assembly. However, during the gluing process, the epoxy spilled over the edge, leaving the aluminum surface clean but removing some of its original finish. To maintain consistency and ensure that the finish is applied evenly, I decided to use beeswax instead.

As I worked on finishing the project, I couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction with how it was turning out. The addition of the V-shape, although unexpected at first, had added an extra layer of complexity and interest to the design. If I were to redo this project in the future, I would consider making the glue-up process more precise by aligning the pieces before applying the epoxy.

In conclusion, this Kiwi Co project was a fun and creative challenge that allowed me to experiment with new ideas and techniques. The end result is a unique coffee table design that combines functionality with artistic flair. Big thanks to Michael and Andrew for providing inspiration and guidance throughout this process – I'll make sure to link their work down below, as they create some amazing projects.

Final Touches

Now that the main body of the project has been completed, it's time to add the finishing touches. As mentioned earlier, I've decided to use beeswax to protect and enhance the finish of my coffee table. This will not only make the surface more durable but also give it a nice, subtle sheen.

In addition to applying the beeswax, I'll be sanding down any rough edges or bumps to ensure a smooth finish. The final result should be a beautifully crafted coffee table that combines functionality with visual appeal. With a little care and attention, this piece will become a staple in my home, providing years of enjoyment and conversation starter.

Additional Resources

For those interested in exploring similar projects or learning more about DIY woodworking, I recommend checking out the work of Michael and Andrew – two talented individuals who create incredible pieces that inspire creativity and innovation. Their work can be found by clicking on the links provided below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're gonna make a coffee tamper out of plywood while I've been stuck at home I've been trying all sorts of new things and even things that I used to do a long time ago in fact when I was in college I was a barista recently I decided to buy myself an inexpensive espresso machine so I could make some drinks at home with that machine came this terrible plastic little tamper to squish down the espresso and I decided I wanted to make another one and then right after that I saw this awesome guy named Andrew on Instagram making one out of recycled skateboards and then I also saw the awesome Michael all making pattern plywood so I decided to put all those things together and make my own tamper this is actually gonna work out really well because it's something I need in the house and it's something I can make out of scraps that I've already got here I've got a vague idea of how I'm gonna put this together and the first thing I need to do is cut down some plywood this thing is finally out of the clamps I've got a weird little set of stairs here that I need to cut down to a block so that I can turn it on the lathe what I'm gonna do here is actually take it to the bandsaw get myself kind of a flat edge here then flip it over and cut off the other side on the table saw this is gonna be two parallel sides and from there I can start to cut this down to a block after I get it down to a block I'll show you what the plan is I don't have a real clear idea of what this is going to end up looking like but at least I have a blank now that I can start cutting up and then repeating together to make different patterns so my plan is to cut this into four equal parts take two opposite corners and flip them around and glue it back into a block I'm gonna do that see if I like the way the pattern looks and if I need to do it again I can always chop off different corners glue them back in place and see if I like it so I'm just going to keep doing that for a while until I get an interesting pattern on the outside then we'll take it to the lathe I'm using an excessive amount of glue here on purpose because I want this thing to be absolutely stuck together so that when I turn it on the lathe there's not a little gap on the inside of this that causes it to explode in my face it's not gonna hurt to have too much glue but it could hurt to have too little I'm also trying to get the grains on these two pieces to line up I don't know if it'll really make a difference but I think if you can get the same pieces to cross over the Chevron it'll probably end up looking pretty cool and try to get those lined up and then clamp these two pieces together and then I'll flip it over and do the same thing on the other side before I try to get all of the pieces clamped together this video is sponsored by Kiwi Co and they gave me a bunch of talking points but I'd really rather just tell you my personal experience because we have been getting Kiwi coke crates in our house for well over a year it started because my sister-in-law sent one of my sons a crate as a gift for Christmas and after watching him do it I decided immediately to let all of the kids pick out a crate on the website that matched their personality and their interests and then we got each one of them a subscription so every single month we get a box with all of the crates and they immediately jump in and want to do the project right away and when you get one of the boxes they have everything you need in it you don't have to run out for extra supplies it's got everything in the box plus a fantastic set of instructions in addition to the instructions they have another little magazine which has more information on whatever the subject of the crate is and gives them some stuff that they can continue to learn after they finish the project so if you go to the Kiwi code website you can browse by interest you can browse by age group and you can pick out one that works for you or if there's a child in your life you can gift them a single crate or a subscription if you want to find out more about Kiwi Co go to Kiwi code comm / make stuff and at that URL you'll get 20% off anything you buy subscription individual box anything it's totally worth it use these things to invest in yourself or in child in your life thanks so much for sponsoring this Kiwi Co you're awesome now that I've got this turned onto the cylinder I can actually see what the patterns going to look like and it's funny because I was thinking it would be kind of a chevron forgetting the fact that this was gonna have a curved surface the thing that's really cool is that now you have that chevron look but the lines are curved around the outside obviously it's going to continue to change as I add profile this is actually looking pretty cool this thing turned out pretty cool I really like the way that the pattern is looking and next up I need to add some finish to it and I think that's really gonna make the pattern pop even more of course I could have put finish on it while I was on the lathe a lot of times it's easier to add finish to something like this while it's already mounted in the lathe but I'm not really sure if I'm done with it I might sand it some more I'm not really sure I did get this end nice and flat I sanded it on the table and that ended up working out really well and then I took it to the belt sander just to finish that up so it's really nice and flat because this section needs to have a metal puck put on it so that I can actually push the coffee down into the cup ideally you probably want to use stainless steel for that puck but I don't have any stainless I do have a really thick piece of aluminum so I'm going to use this and cut down a circle that is the exact size of the end of this to make it the exact size I'm actually gonna use my water jet I know it's an expensive tool most people don't have access to but you don't have to use that it's just aluminum you could cut this with a bandsaw or an angle grinder or a jigsaw honestly if you want to take your time but since I have a tool at my disposal that can cut the exact size that I need I'm going to go ahead and use it to figure out that size I'm just gonna take some calipers and measure my final outer dimension here and then I'll go cut that out I'm gonna glue these two things together with some five-minute epoxy and I could probably just put it in here on these surfaces and glue it together and I think it would stay but it's also not going to hurt to add some texture on both of these surfaces so the epoxy will have more places to go and hopefully help them stick together for a really long time I send it off all that five-minute epoxy that kind of came out over the edge so the aluminum is nice and clean on the outside but I also got rid of it on the woods so that when I add to finish to this that finish will be consistent and not be brighter or shinier at the bottom even though most of this thing is not going to be touching the coffee I want to go ahead and make it as food safe as possible so I'm going to use some beeswax finish to cover this up and it's something I'll have to go back and apply every once in a while this thing turned out pretty cool I honestly did not expect having that V happen over a curve I just didn't really think that far through it but I really like how that looks I think if I were to do this again though I would actually make the glue up in two separate pieces I would put these two pieces together to make sure that that V was aligned and then they do the same for the backside but then I would wait to the glue dried on both of those before putting them together because I think it would be super cool if the line were able to completely follow all the way around the piece and then trying to do all four of those pieces at the same time I just didn't focus on getting the outsides lined up but other than that for just goofing around and kind of throw in some plywood together this thing looks pretty cool big thanks to Michael and Andrew the two guys that gave me different ideas to put this whole thing together they both make awesome stuff I'm going to link them down below you should definitely go check them out if this gave you an idea for a project that you could make I would love to hear about it down in the comments we've got tons of projects of all different types and be sure to check some of those out and if you're not subscribed go ahead and do that as well that's it for this one thanks for watching we'll see you next time and I've got this weird little stare type thing mr. Sam I'm gonna link them down below they both make autumns be sure to check some of those out hits us I'm gonna get some finish on this thing and it will be fin it weirdhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're gonna make a coffee tamper out of plywood while I've been stuck at home I've been trying all sorts of new things and even things that I used to do a long time ago in fact when I was in college I was a barista recently I decided to buy myself an inexpensive espresso machine so I could make some drinks at home with that machine came this terrible plastic little tamper to squish down the espresso and I decided I wanted to make another one and then right after that I saw this awesome guy named Andrew on Instagram making one out of recycled skateboards and then I also saw the awesome Michael all making pattern plywood so I decided to put all those things together and make my own tamper this is actually gonna work out really well because it's something I need in the house and it's something I can make out of scraps that I've already got here I've got a vague idea of how I'm gonna put this together and the first thing I need to do is cut down some plywood this thing is finally out of the clamps I've got a weird little set of stairs here that I need to cut down to a block so that I can turn it on the lathe what I'm gonna do here is actually take it to the bandsaw get myself kind of a flat edge here then flip it over and cut off the other side on the table saw this is gonna be two parallel sides and from there I can start to cut this down to a block after I get it down to a block I'll show you what the plan is I don't have a real clear idea of what this is going to end up looking like but at least I have a blank now that I can start cutting up and then repeating together to make different patterns so my plan is to cut this into four equal parts take two opposite corners and flip them around and glue it back into a block I'm gonna do that see if I like the way the pattern looks and if I need to do it again I can always chop off different corners glue them back in place and see if I like it so I'm just going to keep doing that for a while until I get an interesting pattern on the outside then we'll take it to the lathe I'm using an excessive amount of glue here on purpose because I want this thing to be absolutely stuck together so that when I turn it on the lathe there's not a little gap on the inside of this that causes it to explode in my face it's not gonna hurt to have too much glue but it could hurt to have too little I'm also trying to get the grains on these two pieces to line up I don't know if it'll really make a difference but I think if you can get the same pieces to cross over the Chevron it'll probably end up looking pretty cool and try to get those lined up and then clamp these two pieces together and then I'll flip it over and do the same thing on the other side before I try to get all of the pieces clamped together this video is sponsored by Kiwi Co and they gave me a bunch of talking points but I'd really rather just tell you my personal experience because we have been getting Kiwi coke crates in our house for well over a year it started because my sister-in-law sent one of my sons a crate as a gift for Christmas and after watching him do it I decided immediately to let all of the kids pick out a crate on the website that matched their personality and their interests and then we got each one of them a subscription so every single month we get a box with all of the crates and they immediately jump in and want to do the project right away and when you get one of the boxes they have everything you need in it you don't have to run out for extra supplies it's got everything in the box plus a fantastic set of instructions in addition to the instructions they have another little magazine which has more information on whatever the subject of the crate is and gives them some stuff that they can continue to learn after they finish the project so if you go to the Kiwi code website you can browse by interest you can browse by age group and you can pick out one that works for you or if there's a child in your life you can gift them a single crate or a subscription if you want to find out more about Kiwi Co go to Kiwi code comm / make stuff and at that URL you'll get 20% off anything you buy subscription individual box anything it's totally worth it use these things to invest in yourself or in child in your life thanks so much for sponsoring this Kiwi Co you're awesome now that I've got this turned onto the cylinder I can actually see what the patterns going to look like and it's funny because I was thinking it would be kind of a chevron forgetting the fact that this was gonna have a curved surface the thing that's really cool is that now you have that chevron look but the lines are curved around the outside obviously it's going to continue to change as I add profile this is actually looking pretty cool this thing turned out pretty cool I really like the way that the pattern is looking and next up I need to add some finish to it and I think that's really gonna make the pattern pop even more of course I could have put finish on it while I was on the lathe a lot of times it's easier to add finish to something like this while it's already mounted in the lathe but I'm not really sure if I'm done with it I might sand it some more I'm not really sure I did get this end nice and flat I sanded it on the table and that ended up working out really well and then I took it to the belt sander just to finish that up so it's really nice and flat because this section needs to have a metal puck put on it so that I can actually push the coffee down into the cup ideally you probably want to use stainless steel for that puck but I don't have any stainless I do have a really thick piece of aluminum so I'm going to use this and cut down a circle that is the exact size of the end of this to make it the exact size I'm actually gonna use my water jet I know it's an expensive tool most people don't have access to but you don't have to use that it's just aluminum you could cut this with a bandsaw or an angle grinder or a jigsaw honestly if you want to take your time but since I have a tool at my disposal that can cut the exact size that I need I'm going to go ahead and use it to figure out that size I'm just gonna take some calipers and measure my final outer dimension here and then I'll go cut that out I'm gonna glue these two things together with some five-minute epoxy and I could probably just put it in here on these surfaces and glue it together and I think it would stay but it's also not going to hurt to add some texture on both of these surfaces so the epoxy will have more places to go and hopefully help them stick together for a really long time I send it off all that five-minute epoxy that kind of came out over the edge so the aluminum is nice and clean on the outside but I also got rid of it on the woods so that when I add to finish to this that finish will be consistent and not be brighter or shinier at the bottom even though most of this thing is not going to be touching the coffee I want to go ahead and make it as food safe as possible so I'm going to use some beeswax finish to cover this up and it's something I'll have to go back and apply every once in a while this thing turned out pretty cool I honestly did not expect having that V happen over a curve I just didn't really think that far through it but I really like how that looks I think if I were to do this again though I would actually make the glue up in two separate pieces I would put these two pieces together to make sure that that V was aligned and then they do the same for the backside but then I would wait to the glue dried on both of those before putting them together because I think it would be super cool if the line were able to completely follow all the way around the piece and then trying to do all four of those pieces at the same time I just didn't focus on getting the outsides lined up but other than that for just goofing around and kind of throw in some plywood together this thing looks pretty cool big thanks to Michael and Andrew the two guys that gave me different ideas to put this whole thing together they both make awesome stuff I'm going to link them down below you should definitely go check them out if this gave you an idea for a project that you could make I would love to hear about it down in the comments we've got tons of projects of all different types and be sure to check some of those out and if you're not subscribed go ahead and do that as well that's it for this one thanks for watching we'll see you next time and I've got this weird little stare type thing mr. Sam I'm gonna link them down below they both make autumns be sure to check some of those out hits us I'm gonna get some finish on this thing and it will be fin it weird\n"