Poppin' Tops

For the wedding, I wanted make my groomsmen something functional that also looks nice. Since we all enjoy a good brew, I made constructed some wall mounted bottle openers from granadillo and patagonia rosewood (leftover from the ukulele stand). I thought the colors contrasted well but weren't too overwhelming. The stock was already S4S so I didn't have to do any milling which is great since I haven't yet bought a jointer. I did start by planing the boards all to the same thickness though.

Thickness planer makes a mess without a vacuum.

Glue time.

After gluing them up I sent them through the planer once more to even up the faces. I then cut the three planks out of the boards and cut the ends square. This gave me my final size for all of them.

Cross cut sled came in handy.

All three planks sized.

I wanted to personalize each one for the guys but I don't have a letter templating kit for the router. I asked the kind folks at Woodcraft and they directed me to a couple that does laser engraving at their home near the 7 Mile Fair. It was a bit of a drive but the results were great and didn't cost all that much. Before engraving, I had to apply a coat of urethane to protect the wood surrounding the engraving area. I'm glad I did because they showed me examples of boards they had lasered without a finish and the wood around the area is charred and has a strange film on it that would be difficult to sand off without affecting the engraving.

One coat of urethane.

Engraved and routed.

After engraving, I used a cove bit on the router to dress up the edges a bit and then applied three more coats of urethane. The finish really brings out the colors of the woods and should hold up to quite a bit of abuse. If it does end up getting scratched I can just sand it a bit and apply a few more coats of urethane.

Several urethane coats.

Next was to work on the backs. I wanted these to mount flush to the wall and to catch the bottle caps when opening a tasty beverage. This meant I had to route out some slots for the mounting brackets and a magnet. I used key hole hangers for the mounting hardware and a 1-1/2" diameter neodymium magnet for the catch.

Burned my stamp in the back.

Testing router setup.

Marked the tape for start and stop points.

Key hole hardware fitted.

Hardware installed.

Magnet installed with Forstner bit.

The last step was to attache the actual opener bracket on the fronts. I made sure to arrange the back hardware screws to not interfere with the mounting screws for the opener.

All three finished.

Close up.

The end results looks really nice and the urethane provides a glossy, smooth finish that should hold up to years of abuse. I attached the magnets with epoxy which I haven't worked with before but I don't expect any problems with it. All the guys really seemed to like the gifts and I had a lot of fun making them.