Scrabble Letter Holders

Vaughn McMillan

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
36,054
Location
ABQ NM
Well, this is woodworking related, but it's by no means fine woodworking, so I figured I'd put it in this forum. Mods feel free to move it if you think it's too on-topic for the off-topic forum. :p

LOML has a co-worker who's a serious scrabble player, and she had apparently lost one of the little wooden letter holders that each player uses to hold their letter tiles. Somehow, LOML volunteered me to try to make a replacement for the missing holder, and brought one of the original ones home a few nights ago.

Although I couldn't copy the profile exactly, I came up with a combination of a couple bits on the router table that would come close. Since my revised profile didn't exactly match the original, I figured I should make a set of four new ones. The original was made from maple, but the scrap drawer didn't have any suitable pieces of maple, so I found four padauk cutting board offcuts that were already almost the right size. The grain in these scraps was running width-wise instead of length-wise, which showed it off better anyway. (Not great for strength, but it's not like they're holding up a truck or anything.)

About 15 minutes with the table saw and router table and a couple quick coats of wipe-on poly later, here's what I ended up with. Here's the old vs. the new:

DSC_1132b C 640.jpg

And the set of four new ones, with the original:

DSC_1133 C 640.jpg

And yet one more group shot, to try to show the grain a bit better:

DSC_1128 C 640.jpg

Sorry for the picture quality...I didn't feel like setting up the photo tent just for a few Scrabble letter holders. Although they're not fine woodworking, I was real happy with the way the padauk looked and the profile I ended up with, and the co-worker was completely floored. A few days later she gave LOML a homemade German chocolate cake to bring home for me as payment for the work. (Eating a piece of it as I type.) ;)
 
Those are cool, Vaughn.

I think the Padauk is a nice contrast with the maple letters.

Like Tod said, scrap for cake,,, BRILLIANT!!!
 
Cake for scrap, and German Chocolate at that...I'd say you done good Vaughn! ;)

(I just hope for your sake that LOYL doesn't bring home a request for you to make a full set of letters next! :rolleyes: )

Oh, and I agree that this belonged in General, since it IS woodworking...scrap or not...so I've moved it...

- Marty -
 
If I could just get a piece of German Chocolate cake for every piece of scrap I have lying around, I sure would get fat (er) Nice trade and nice tile racks too.
 
Well, this is woodworking related, but it's by no means fine woodworking, so I figured I'd put it in this forum. Mods feel free to move it if you think it's too on-topic for the off-topic forum. :p

LOML has a co-worker who's a serious scrabble player, and she had apparently lost one of the little wooden letter holders that each player uses to hold their letter tiles. Somehow, LOML volunteered me to try to make a replacement for the missing holder, and brought one of the original ones home a few nights ago.

Although I couldn't copy the profile exactly, I came up with a combination of a couple bits on the router table that would come close. Since my revised profile didn't exactly match the original, I figured I should make a set of four new ones. The original was made from maple, but the scrap drawer didn't have any suitable pieces of maple, so I found four padauk cutting board offcuts that were already almost the right size. The grain in these scraps was running width-wise instead of length-wise, which showed it off better anyway. (Not great for strength, but it's not like they're holding up a truck or anything.)

About 15 minutes with the table saw and router table and a couple quick coats of wipe-on poly later, here's what I ended up with. Here's the old vs. the new:

View attachment 828

And the set of four new ones, with the original:

View attachment 829

And yet one more group shot, to try to show the grain a bit better:

View attachment 830

Sorry for the picture quality...I didn't feel like setting up the photo tent just for a few Scrabble letter holders. Although they're not fine woodworking, I was real happy with the way the padauk looked and the profile I ended up with, and the co-worker was completely floored. A few days later she gave LOML a homemade German chocolate cake to bring home for me as payment for the work. (Eating a piece of it as I type.) ;)
For the novices in the audience, can you describe the router bits you used?
 
For the novices in the audience, can you describe the router bits you used?
I wish I could remember, Harry, but it's been about 16 years since I made these. Heck, I'm not sure I can remember what I had for lunch yesterday, lol. From the look of things, I suspect I used some combination of a cove bit and one or two roundover bits. Maybe some of the others here might be able to offer some suggestions that are a bit more specific.
 
I made a bunch for my Mom and her friends in her retirement home. This is what I did, step by step, if it helps anyone at all. One of the mistakes that I made was to set the tiles up too vertical in their tray. If the table gets bumped they fall off the tray. Laying them back a bit more flat would be a major improvement.
1) rough cut Tamarack from my sawmill, air dried about five years

CB1.jpg

2) cut to rough oversize and left to acclimatise before milling to exact size.

CB2.jpg

3) pencil marks lay out the rough outline for the groove, showing what is removed in two passes across the table saw.

CB3.jpg

4) the rough blank, sawed out

CB4.jpg
CB5.jpg

5) the front rounded over with a beading bit

CB6.jpg

6) all corners were yet to be rounded over with a 1/8" roundover bit, but that could as easy be done with a sanding block by hand. I used a small bullnose/core bit to make a pencil groove.

CB7.jpg

cheers,
 
Top