Coaster with 3-leaf Tulip Inlay

Instructions

Step 1: Mill your blanks. ---- I had three blanks: The coaster: 100 x 100mm The centre left: 30 x 40mm The left and right lead: 60 x 30mm Step 2: Make the jig ----- Once I had the blanks made and final dimensions, I made the jig you see in the photo. You need three pockets, one for each blank (i made one of them too large, hence having four in the photo). I did cutouts in the corners, and created a finger hole. I designed these on tool once i had the final dimensions as this was super easy. Step 3: Cut out the leafs ----- I put the walnut blank in the pocket and used tulip-centre-leaf.svg for the centre leaf, and tulip-leaf.svg for the left AND right leaf. Just change the guide for your sized blank. You'll need tape to hold the blank in place whilst cutting. I cut out with a 3mm cutter (Outside Cut). My blanks were 4mm thick. I lightly sanded each leaf as I didn’t want to change the size. On the face of the leaf that was going to be glued, I chamfered the edges slightly with the sandpaper and that gave a better fit. Step 4: Centre Leaf. ---- I put the chestnut blank in the large pocket space (my wife wanted large coasters so my blanks were 100 x 100mm and 9mm deep). I cut out the pocket for the centre leaf using an 8mm cutter. I did this for all the blanks so I didn't need to keep changing the cutter. I then when through all of them and did the final Inside cut with a 3mm cutter and a -0.01mm offset. Each pocket was 4mm deep. Glue in the leaf, clamp and let dry. NB - Keeping the coasters square and the jig tight means that you can take the blanks out after cutting with the 8mm cutter, and then add them back to the jig and cut with a 3mm cutter and it was perfectly in place. This is the beauty of a jig! You won't need tape to hold them in place when cutting out the pockets. Step 5: Right leaf ----- Same process as the centre left. Cut out the right leaf once the glue has dried for the centre leaf. And then glue in the right leaf. Step 6: Left leaf ----- Same process. Finishing ----- I used a thin cork base on the coaster that i got Amazon. After adding this, it added enough hight so that when i added the coaster back into the jig, it was protruding by a few mm which made sanding it easy. I sanded to 180 grit. Finsihed with Odies Oil, and on their advice let the finish cure for 5 days. Round Coaster ----- If you want round coasters, then I would suggest cutting those out at the end, after sanding the face and before finishing. This will maximise your use of the jig as keep it sqaure as long as possible keeps everything aligned.