So, I’d seen this clever design floating around pinterest for a coffee cup holder.
I liked it, but wanted something with more character. The large ring reminded me of the drum magazines of the old gangster tommy guns so I decided to make one based on that theme. First I found a picture of a tommy gun and manually traced the shapes I wanted for this design. Then I roughed out the general shapes I’d need to fit together and ended up with a fairly simple design.
The red parts were to be cut from a veneer and which I’d counter sink into the black areas for the wood grips in the etching design. The first try I had the handle way too big so had to scale it down some. Also, I’d cut the slots too big so had to scale them back a bit too so they’d be a tighter fit. The second try worked much better. Here you can see the walnut veneer inset into the plywood.
Once I applied some tung oil it made the walnut pop out a bit more.
I was really happy that using the same lines to etch and to cut the fill ended up in an easy and clean fit when I put the veneer in place. Also, the 3M backed adhesive on the veneer made assembly really easy. The design seems to work OK, but I really should adjust some of the angles to make it fit the cup better (or I should order bigger cups…
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