Bespoke Drinks Coasters

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Originally Posted by Wal

>It took some will power to finish it

Tell me about it. Here's the finishing routine I went through:

1. Wet sand out the edge machining marks and roundover transitions - P180, P320, P600
2. Wet sand the resin back flush to the tops - P180
3. Wet sand the tops - P240, P320, P400, P600, P1200
4. Maroon Scotchbrite edges
5. Grey Scotchbrite edges and tops
6. Polish tops and edges.

Everything by hand. All 125 of 'em... (I did try out a random orbital sander with an interface pad. A non-starter. In practice it was very awkward to use on items of this size which needed a smooth transition into the edge. Regardless - the quality of finish when doing it by hand was orders of magnitude better.)

The material starts out quite grey and gets darker as you polish it. Consistency was important, so I ended up using a phone app interval timer which would count-down the sanding stage and then give me 20 seconds or so to select the next coaster before repeating.

Attachment 25905

Heh. All good fun..!

Wal.

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How did you pick up the job Wal, packaging looks just as sophisticated as the products!

Hi Lee,

I know a guy who runs a design agency that looks after a few high profile clients in food and drink. He knows I make stuff, likes my attention to detail along with the fact that we can talk in depth about processes, finishes etc.

Packaging was put together by Synergy Packaging Solutions as a short run job. Top company. I gave 'em an idea of what I wanted and they got back to me with something which was going to work better and be more efficient to produce as a short run. Indeed, they looked great packaged up and ready to ship. I did miss a trick there, though - the bar is a piano bar - I should have left spaces in the foam which resembled the keyboard layout on a piano..!

>The big question is: Is there a better/easier/ way to do it?

Boyan - heh, there's usually a better/easier way..! For this job I had very little time to try stuff out and barely enough material to finish all the coasters (I ended up with two surplus). I think I would have needed to put together a couple of heavy duty contraptions to help me out with this - in the time I had that wouldn't have been viable..!

Wal.

They look and feel fantastic. A lot larger and heavier than I thought they would be. Very well made.
Attachment 26007

Heh, ace! Cheers Gary. Nice to see that they're holding up.

They started off a fair bit smaller and grew and grew as folks began to consider the inevitability of a few 'going walkies'... I think they're just a little too big to fit into a back pocket.

Wal.

I thought the size was good, and they really looked good quality. I totally understand about them going missing, i was tempted but decided to have a pen instead.

Heh. I've been told a few have gone already. That's partly why they upped the order from an initial 50/60 to 125, they wanted a few in reserve for as long as the Songbook menu is being served.

Lovely to get your feedback on it.

Wal.