Pattern Plywood Coasters

These coasters are made using a technique I've been wanting to try called pattern plywood and are inspired from Michael Alm's pattern plywood work on YouTube.

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For this project I used 3/4" furniture grade Baltic Birch plywood and made the mountain peak pattern plywood design. I cut the pieces into approximately 1" strips with a 45° cut on one side. Each mountain peak requires two strips of material that are then glued together using tape and wood glue. Using paper towels and water, I cleaned out any glue that squeezed out and then used a card scraper to remove any dried residue.

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With all the strips glued together, I could then cut the assembled strips into 3/4" thick pieces on the miter saw. All the pieces could then be glued together to make the final pattern. There ended up being some voids between the pieces in the final glue up which I filled in using clear epoxy and then drum sanded down to the final thickness.

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The final dimensions for each coaster are about 3.5" x 3.5" x 0.3125." The coasters were sanded to 220 grit and finished with 3 coats of a polyurethane coating that was brushed on.