I like the occasional small project. The kind that you can whip out pretty quickly and doesn’t take too much thought towards design or angles or joints or whatever. It’s nice to be able to just check one off the list!
A family member recently asked me for just such a project: a small display for a friend’s military challenge coins.
Sweet! Not only quick and easy, but I can just as easily make two so I can finally have one for my coins as well.
She asked that I just duplicate a display another family member had, so the design phase was eliminated – cool, even quicker to the finish line!
So, based on the existing display, I needed to laminate some oak together to get to the thickness I needed. No biggie there – just another testimony of one never having too many clamps!
The front angle cut was a little tricky since it was a less-than-45 degree cut (no clue what it was exactly – some projects you just wing by the way it looks) and table saws only cut between 45-90 degrees angles. So I whipped together a quick jig to raise one side of the wood to get me to the angle I needed.
Next, I needed to make the grooves the coins will sit in. Easy enough. Based on the pictures I had of the sample display and the measurements I got from my coins, I knew I needed the grooves to be 1/4″ wide. And as any woodworker knows, the kerf width of you basic table saw blade is 1/8″. So two passes per groove and we have a perfect fit for the coins.
The sample display just sat flat on whatever surface it was on. I thought of just lining the bottom with some felt, but decided to cut up some decorative spacer things I’ve had hanging around the shop for years to to make some little wooden feet for the displays. I think this helps our little displays look a little more intentional.
Next, a little sanding and rounding of the edges and we’re ready for the finish!
And as a final touch, I had a local trophy shop engrave some nameplates for these two bad boys. And if I do say so myself, they turned out pretty well!
