250 Broad Stripes and Bright Stars

This project all started when I saw a "make it colorful" contest. I was trying to brainstorm ideas when I thought of making coasters from an old pallet's board that I had laying around in the shop. Then I remembered that this 4th of July, America turns 250 years old. With that I designed and created a simple little project to celebrate the occasion, as well as make me a nice new set of coasters!

Keep in mind that I needed to buy absolutely nothing for this project and nobody else should either!

Tools

The tools I used were a circular saw, palm sander, hammer, speed square, tape measure, punch, and paint brushes. However, you could get the same results using a hand saw, sand paper, tape measure, hammer, paint brushes, and ruler.

Materials

Again, I used only materials that I had lying around the shop!

Red white and blue paint will obviously be needed, as well as some kind of sealant, and a board of the pallet.

In order to get the wood ready I first used a hammer and a really thin punch to remove the nails. After this I thoroughly sanded the wood down on all 6 sides. I made my way from 60 grit, to 80 to 120 grit sand paper. Once the nails were removed and the wood was sanded, I was ready to cut!

To cut the wood I first did a lot of measuring, and then drew lines to tell me where to cut! I measured the wood's width and got a measurment of 3 and 1/8 inches wide. To make a perfect square I measured 3 and 1/8 inches from the bottom of the board, and drew a line at that mark. Then as everyone should, I double checked my measurements, and they were great! Then I made my cut and repeated this process 3 other times to get a total of four coasters.

After cutting the wood it is important to prep it for paint by blowing all of the saw dust off (I like to do this with an air compressor, but you could also do this with just your mouth). After you have prepped the wood you can paint any design that you want on your coaster. I did one with an American flag, another with a white background and red letters saying 250 as well as America, one with Uncle Sam's Top hat and fireworks, and not to be out-done, a coaster with a blue background along with Freedom in red and some white paint splatters all around!

Great job making it this far! Now it is the final step of these coasters. This is very important because it will water-proof the coasters and make the colors pop! Unfortunately though, this is the most time-consuming part of the process because the coaster needs at least two coats of the sealant, and for me, it took an hour to dry. Back to the point, you will want to coat the entire thing in one nice thin layer of sealant. In between the coats it is important to sand them down very lightly with 120 grit sand paper or higher. Then blow the dust off and repeat as many times as you would like. And now you have four coasters to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, as well as to keep your furniture protected!