Silk Purse from Sow's Ear (part 1 of 3)

Projects yield scraps. What to do with them? So many options, but Jennifer needed something to hang her rock creations on. We decided to make something to hang on the wall from which she could hang the creations. I had some scrap 1/2 inch pine board, plenty of honeysuckle branches and no expectations.



I decided it would be wise to rip my board in half and glue the halves together so that my board would be double its original thickness (and half its original height). It would then be thick enough to support the hanging pegs. So first, I measured to determine the centerline of the board.


I marked the centerline along the length of the board with a pencil and straight edge.


"Measure twice, cut once" the saying goes, so I double-checked my width between the saw blade and the rip fence. It should be 2 and 3/4 inches from the rip fence to the centerline of the blade.

Success!

I checked my blade height and set it just a smidgen higher than the height of the board.


Being extremely careful (and wearing safety glasses), I ripped the board down the centerline mark.

Where there was one, there is now two!


Then I glued the pieces together. I needed a drill, bits, glue, sandpaper, a countersink and some screws.

I determined the drill bit diameter (about the diameter of the screw shank).

I determined the screw length (long enough to extend about half-way into the second board).

I made note of the depth I would need to drill the pilot holes.


Board clamped down, I drilled the holes.


Since this thing would hang from the wall, the screw heads needed to be countersunk (flush with the surface) into the wood.


I was now ready to screw the boards together, almost.


May as well slap some glue between the boards for extra binding power! I sanded both bonding surfaces with some 80 grit sandpaper.


Wiped the dust off.


Applied glue

Smoothed it out with a putty knife.

Once the glue was evenly spread, I .............

.........screwed the boards together.


Here you can see a countersunk screw.


I wiped off excess glue with a water-dampened cloth and admired my double-thick board! It was now thick enough to support the honeysuckle pegs that I'd make and attach in part 2 of "Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear".


From humble beginnings...................