In my ever widening approach to not getting my Iron Fang Pikeman finished, a friend had seen my tray and asked if I could make him one as well. Naturally I jumped on the chance to help a buddy out and to play in the wood shop. Let's be honest, how doesn't love to play with power tools?
I started by figuring out how many of what type of bases were needed, then headed to the local hardware store to pick up a piece of scrap wood (for free!). After that I asked my wife to do her amazing sign/graphics/vinyl cutting juju and she created a fantastic template that would work. We secured the template to the wood and basically drew quite a few circles. This gave me a guide on where to cut and most importantly where not to!
With the board in hand it was time to go to the drill press. I used Forschner bits and set the depth to about 5mm below the level of the board. This gave me a good cut and prevented me from drilling too deep. It took about 30 minuted to drill all the holes and we had this.
The next step was to sand the whole thing. The goal is to get it nice and smooth to both prevent splintering and to make it easy and smooth when I apply the paint.
After sanding I used a bit of Wood filler to cover up the drill holes in the middle of each cut out. I did not do this on my previous board and now I wish I had. The wood putty dried in about an hour and then it was time to sand that down to level.
Now for the fun part...... painting. I used an all purpose oil based enamel paint for this. I wanted something that would both seal and protect the wood from drops, scratches, getting tossed in the trunk etc. A quick note about this paint, it's sticky and takes hours to dry between coats. So I recommend getting outside if the weather permits, grabbing something cold to drink and a good book or your fully charged electronic device of choice and go at it. Also wear gloves when working with this type of paint. It's a bear to get off your skin.
I started by painting the underside. It's quicker and a flat surface so its easier to put up on blocks for when its time to flip over the board.
After this dried for a few hours it was time to turn it over and do the front....
In this step you want to make sure to get paint into all the nooks and crannies. as any light color will show up starkly against the black. Additionally make sure as you go that extra paint is not pooling into your cuts. It would suck to get this done and then your bases don't fit because the paint made the holes a bit small.
Now its just a matter of waiting a few days for the paint to cure then I'll varnish it and add a few vinyl decals and blam another board is done, and the Iron Fang Pikeman will still be sitting on my desk.....
