The “Ruler Coaster” 12 Projects of Christmas

The “Ruler Coaster” was conceived sometime in the last 15 years, I don’t remember exactly when but probably after a beer or two.

My plan original idea was to get some wooden rulers, chop them up and make drinks coasters from them. This idea faded and periodically popped back into my head but never achieved reality (probably for good reason). Earlier this year it occurred to me that with the CNC and VCarve Pro, I now had all the tools I needed at my disposal to make one of these. Rather than make it from old rulers, I would instead just make a coaster with a ruler along one edge. As well as being a groan-worthy pun this actually turns out to be quite useful both as a coaster and also a handy desktop measuring tool…

The first one I made was from a relatively thin piece of what I think is walnut board that I found in the Lab. It was pretty quick to layout the project in VCarve Pro, I made a square with two rounded corners and the straight edge marked with some simple lines at 1/16 inch spacing with single line font numbers. With the design done it was a simple matter of V-carving the text, profiling “ON” the rule markings with the same V-Bit and then making a 2D Profile toolpath with a 0.25” End Mill to cut-out the coaster shape with a few tabs to hold it in place.

I cut one as a test first which went well and after that was a success made additional copies that have quickly found homes around the office. These looked nice but really need a more robust finish to make them heat and liquid proof, I only sealed them with some shellac and then added a bit of beeswax polish, as you would expect this has marked and they now have a “aged” look.

When we decided to include this as one of the projects I thought I would cut some new ones in Corian. These were finished with some enamel paint for the letters and rule markings hen the surface sanded off to get rid of the excess. These have not yet been used in anger so I don’t know how they’ll hold up when in actual operation but we’ll see how they go in the next few weeks.