Creating Unique Coasters that Snap Together

I recently decided to try my hand at making coasters that snap together using magnets. I started by sanding down and cleaning up all the edges of each coaster, as I wanted to make sure they were smooth and even before applying any finish. To test out the magnets, I placed two coasters on top of each other and spun them around to see if the opposite polarity would work. Sure enough, it did - once I got them lined up correctly, every other side began to stick together.

I sanded down and cleaned up all the edges of each coaster then I wanted to test out the magnets you can see that the opposite polarity works as you spin them around you just have to get them lined up correctly and then every other side will stick together before applying the finish to these around it over the edges of the top and the bottom and smooths out the surfaces on all of the coasters when they were all done I put several coats of spray lacquer on both the top and the bottom now I've got two set of coasters that snap together just by getting them close to each other you can pull one off use it as a coaster and when you're finished with it put it back in the group you can flip them over to have dark or light you can change the pattern and the shape of the overall thing in fact you could use this as a trivet for something hot and then pull it apart to have individual coasters if you needed this it's almost like a useful puzzle that you can have on your

Of course, I could have cut these coasters out using a CNC machine. They would have been perfectly accurate and easy to make, but it wouldn't have made for an interesting video. I wanted to find out what it would take to cut a hexagon with a table saw - a tool that many people have access to. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't too difficult, especially with the help of a jig.

The main challenge of making these coasters proved to be getting them really precise and precise enough for every single one. This is just about taking your time when you're drawing and making sure that the lines are exactly right and the angles are exactly right - not impossible, but it does take some effort. Additionally, since I didn't plane down both sides of the board, the coasters aren't all perfectly flat on one side - which doesn't bother me, as they're meant to be coasters, after all.

The magnets did work really well for this project, and having a jig helped a lot in getting them aligned properly. Again, it's worth noting that making these coasters perfect could have been even easier with more precise measurements and preparation - but I liked the challenge of it.

One thing to note is that if you want these coasters to look really finished or precise, you'll need to make sure that the wood is exactly the same thickness on every piece. This will ensure that the magnets line up perfectly both vertically and horizontally. You could also customize these coasters in many different ways - paint them, stripe them, engrave designs onto them, etc.

If you want to hide the magnets on the outside of the coaster, you can use an iron-on veneer or paint the outer edge. This would make it look like the coasters are solid wood and don't have any hidden mechanisms inside. The veneer would be thin enough that the magnets would still work properly.

I hope that this project was helpful to you in some way - maybe you'll try making your own coasters that snap together using magnets! And if you do, I'd love to hear about it. You can post pictures of your projects on my Facebook page or tag me on Instagram and Twitter.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob but I like to mix up today we're going to make some coasters that stick together pretty much any wood will work for this but I had a piece of red oak it was a piece of barnwood that I had from a previous project so I ripped it down to a five inch strip I set up a five inch stop block on my sled and then cut it down into seven five inch squares this wood is one inch thick which is thicker than I need but I'm going to end up cutting them in half figuring out how to make a hexagon in a square is actually not that hard I started by making cross lines to find the center of the square and then used a compass to draw a circle that went all the way to the edges address center line and found the middle of the square and I use the ends of that with the compass at the same settings to make intersection marks with the circle doing it this way you have six points that are equidistant and then you can use a straight edge to draw lines in between those points and there is your hexagon I've followed the same process for the other six squares if you can take your time at this point and try to be really precise you'll end up with much more uniform shapes later on in the project the first step in cutting these is to rip off the two edges with extra material you can see that here then you use a miter sled set it to 30 degrees and put the piece on to line up the lines that you've drawn with the blade you do one rotation to get the next cut this is a place where you also need to take your time to make sure that you're cutting right along the lines so that all the sides are the same length now once I had these cut I found the center of each piece and drew a line on three sides this gives me a guideline that I can use on the bandsaw to cut these in half doing it this way you actually get two coasters for the price of one so after I did a bunch of these I needed to make a jig to hold it in place so I could drill a hole I traced it onto a scrap piece of plywood and then cut that on on the bandsaw and here's one more place where the more precise you can be the better results you're going to get especially on the inside of this cut you want to try to follow those lines as closely as possible mine wasn't perfect and the end result turned out just fine but you know the more precise you can be the better result you'll get I test fit a couple of the pieces in place just to make sure that they fit right I measured the center of the inside of my shape and marked it with the punch I use this as a pilot hole to drill a hole with a 3/8 inch bit all the way through I ran the bit through so it barely stuck out the other side of the wood and mark that position with some tape I clamp the jig down to the table and then I could drill through the pilot hole into each side of the coasters the tape told me where to stop so that the holes were very shallow then I just drilled those holes on every side of every coaster I found some packs of rare earth magnets which are really strong magnets at Harbor Freight and you get ten for about three dollars they're pretty inexpensive I've put in a small drop of glue and then pushed in a magnet flush with the surface into each hole as I moved on to the next hole I flipped over the stack of magnets so that every other magnet on the perimeter of each coaster had opposite polarity without really thinking about it I grabbed gorilla glue to use for this which works fine but it expands as it dries so when it was dry I had stuff I had to scrape off and cut off and sand off to get it clean so if you make these you might want to use CA glue or some sort of epoxy that's not going to expand I sanded down and cleaned up all the edges of each coaster then I wanted to test out the magnets you can see that the opposite polarity works as you spin them around you just have to get them lined up correctly and then every other side will stick together before applying the finish to these around it over the edges of the top and the bottom and smooths out the surfaces on all of the coasters when they were all done I put several coats of spray lacquer on both the top and the bottom now I've got two set of coasters that snap together just by getting them close to each other you can pull one off use it as a coaster and when you're finished with it put it back in the group you can flip them over to have dark or light you can change the pattern and the shape of the overall thing in fact you could use this as a trivet for something hot and then pull it apart to have individual coasters if you needed this it's almost like a useful puzzle that you can have on your so of course I could have cut these on the CNC machine they would have been perfectly accurate and it would have been really easy but it also would not have made a very interesting video I wanted to find out what it would take to cut a hexagon with a table saw that's a tool that a lot of people have access to and it turned out not to be that hard now the difficulty could be in making them really precise making a bunch of them to have the exact same precision and that's really just about taking your time when you're drawing and making sure that the lines are exactly right and the angles are exactly right not impossible it's just a time thing over all the magnets worked really well for this I think the jig helped a lot and getting them aligned but there again it could have been a little bit more precise and they would have lined up a little bit better now since I didn't plane down both sides of the board they're not all the same thickness and they're not all perfectly flat on one side that's okay I mean they're coasters they don't have to be but because of that that made so the magnets don't line up perfectly on a vertical space they are really close and they're close enough to where you can't tell and it works fine on a table those are the types of things that if you want these to be really finished looking really precise then you'll need to make sure that the wood is the same thickness on every piece and then the jig will help get the magnets in the exact same centered location vertically visually you could do lots of different things to these to make them look however you wanted you could have them really finished really rustic you could paint them you could stripe them you could engrave things on them with the CNC or with a dremel tool or whatever you want there's tons you could do to customize these especially if you're planning on selling them or giving them away as gifts if you wanted to hide the magnets on the outside you could either paint the outer edge and that might be interesting or you could use an iron-on veneer on the outside and that would make it look like these were solid wood and you didn't have the magnet in there but the veneers would be thin enough that the magnets would still work really well so even though the end product looks really simple it was an interesting challenge to try to get the shape cut try to get the jig built and I hope that you found something interesting in this project to help you with something that you're gonna make I hope you like this one and if you did I'd love to hear about it I also love to see the stuff that you are working on you can post that on my facebook page tag me on Instagram or Twitter I love to see that stuff so please continue to do that I've got a lot of other projects and playlists all sorts of stuff that you might enjoy I've also got a podcast that I do with Jimmy deressa and david picciuto called making it I'll put a link to that down in the disc if you want to check that out that comes out every Friday if you want to help support these videos patreon is the best way to do that there's some exclusive content that the patreon creator's get a bunch of other stuff so be sure to go check that out that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next time hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to make some coasters that stick together what if you can turn the right way they stick together today we're going to make some coasters coasters hey I'm Bob and I likedhey I'm Bob but I like to mix up today we're going to make some coasters that stick together pretty much any wood will work for this but I had a piece of red oak it was a piece of barnwood that I had from a previous project so I ripped it down to a five inch strip I set up a five inch stop block on my sled and then cut it down into seven five inch squares this wood is one inch thick which is thicker than I need but I'm going to end up cutting them in half figuring out how to make a hexagon in a square is actually not that hard I started by making cross lines to find the center of the square and then used a compass to draw a circle that went all the way to the edges address center line and found the middle of the square and I use the ends of that with the compass at the same settings to make intersection marks with the circle doing it this way you have six points that are equidistant and then you can use a straight edge to draw lines in between those points and there is your hexagon I've followed the same process for the other six squares if you can take your time at this point and try to be really precise you'll end up with much more uniform shapes later on in the project the first step in cutting these is to rip off the two edges with extra material you can see that here then you use a miter sled set it to 30 degrees and put the piece on to line up the lines that you've drawn with the blade you do one rotation to get the next cut this is a place where you also need to take your time to make sure that you're cutting right along the lines so that all the sides are the same length now once I had these cut I found the center of each piece and drew a line on three sides this gives me a guideline that I can use on the bandsaw to cut these in half doing it this way you actually get two coasters for the price of one so after I did a bunch of these I needed to make a jig to hold it in place so I could drill a hole I traced it onto a scrap piece of plywood and then cut that on on the bandsaw and here's one more place where the more precise you can be the better results you're going to get especially on the inside of this cut you want to try to follow those lines as closely as possible mine wasn't perfect and the end result turned out just fine but you know the more precise you can be the better result you'll get I test fit a couple of the pieces in place just to make sure that they fit right I measured the center of the inside of my shape and marked it with the punch I use this as a pilot hole to drill a hole with a 3/8 inch bit all the way through I ran the bit through so it barely stuck out the other side of the wood and mark that position with some tape I clamp the jig down to the table and then I could drill through the pilot hole into each side of the coasters the tape told me where to stop so that the holes were very shallow then I just drilled those holes on every side of every coaster I found some packs of rare earth magnets which are really strong magnets at Harbor Freight and you get ten for about three dollars they're pretty inexpensive I've put in a small drop of glue and then pushed in a magnet flush with the surface into each hole as I moved on to the next hole I flipped over the stack of magnets so that every other magnet on the perimeter of each coaster had opposite polarity without really thinking about it I grabbed gorilla glue to use for this which works fine but it expands as it dries so when it was dry I had stuff I had to scrape off and cut off and sand off to get it clean so if you make these you might want to use CA glue or some sort of epoxy that's not going to expand I sanded down and cleaned up all the edges of each coaster then I wanted to test out the magnets you can see that the opposite polarity works as you spin them around you just have to get them lined up correctly and then every other side will stick together before applying the finish to these around it over the edges of the top and the bottom and smooths out the surfaces on all of the coasters when they were all done I put several coats of spray lacquer on both the top and the bottom now I've got two set of coasters that snap together just by getting them close to each other you can pull one off use it as a coaster and when you're finished with it put it back in the group you can flip them over to have dark or light you can change the pattern and the shape of the overall thing in fact you could use this as a trivet for something hot and then pull it apart to have individual coasters if you needed this it's almost like a useful puzzle that you can have on your so of course I could have cut these on the CNC machine they would have been perfectly accurate and it would have been really easy but it also would not have made a very interesting video I wanted to find out what it would take to cut a hexagon with a table saw that's a tool that a lot of people have access to and it turned out not to be that hard now the difficulty could be in making them really precise making a bunch of them to have the exact same precision and that's really just about taking your time when you're drawing and making sure that the lines are exactly right and the angles are exactly right not impossible it's just a time thing over all the magnets worked really well for this I think the jig helped a lot and getting them aligned but there again it could have been a little bit more precise and they would have lined up a little bit better now since I didn't plane down both sides of the board they're not all the same thickness and they're not all perfectly flat on one side that's okay I mean they're coasters they don't have to be but because of that that made so the magnets don't line up perfectly on a vertical space they are really close and they're close enough to where you can't tell and it works fine on a table those are the types of things that if you want these to be really finished looking really precise then you'll need to make sure that the wood is the same thickness on every piece and then the jig will help get the magnets in the exact same centered location vertically visually you could do lots of different things to these to make them look however you wanted you could have them really finished really rustic you could paint them you could stripe them you could engrave things on them with the CNC or with a dremel tool or whatever you want there's tons you could do to customize these especially if you're planning on selling them or giving them away as gifts if you wanted to hide the magnets on the outside you could either paint the outer edge and that might be interesting or you could use an iron-on veneer on the outside and that would make it look like these were solid wood and you didn't have the magnet in there but the veneers would be thin enough that the magnets would still work really well so even though the end product looks really simple it was an interesting challenge to try to get the shape cut try to get the jig built and I hope that you found something interesting in this project to help you with something that you're gonna make I hope you like this one and if you did I'd love to hear about it I also love to see the stuff that you are working on you can post that on my facebook page tag me on Instagram or Twitter I love to see that stuff so please continue to do that I've got a lot of other projects and playlists all sorts of stuff that you might enjoy I've also got a podcast that I do with Jimmy deressa and david picciuto called making it I'll put a link to that down in the disc if you want to check that out that comes out every Friday if you want to help support these videos patreon is the best way to do that there's some exclusive content that the patreon creator's get a bunch of other stuff so be sure to go check that out that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next time hey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to make some coasters that stick together what if you can turn the right way they stick together today we're going to make some coasters coasters hey I'm Bob and I liked\n"