Adjustable Trivet

What a great use of scraps. Got to make me one someday.

-- Tyvekboy -- Marietta, GA ………….. one can never be too organized

Hello Lazyman

Nice work and a great use of scraps
I agree with you : a thick of 1/2 or 3/8 will be better

I have to make some one in the future weeks

Thanks for sharing

-- Diggerjack-France ---The only limit is the limit of the mind and the mind has no limit

So damn simple. I was way over complicating it. Adding this to the list of items to be built for the kitchen.

-- Phillip- Measure twice, cut onc.... Hey look, it's rustic.

Total Noob question…Did you use a miter saw to cut? Did you make any jig for it?

Thanks in advance & Congrats for the job, they are great!!

Regards,
macdo

Way kwel

definitely on my bucket list

-- Wood and Glass they kick (well you know) Have a great day - Dug

Macdo- I used a table saw though if your miter saw can cut accurately enough you should be able to use a miter saw too. The hardest part with a miter saw might be ripping the strips to width if you don’t already have them in the right width and thickness. Once you have your stock to thickness and width, It’s eash just to set up a stop block with either a table saw or miter saw to ensure that each piece is exactly the same length. Note that you don’t turn the long stock over between cuts like you would with a picture frame. The 60 degree angles are parallel.

I used a crude jig that I modified from an earlier project just to make it easier to keep things aligned at exactly 60 degrees while the glue dries. I put a piece of wax paper between the wood and the jig to prevent squeeze out from gluing it to my jig. I used the 60 degree square in the picture to align the guides in place before screwing them down. If you look for some of the other postings for this design on LJ, some of them posted pictures of more effective jigs but with care, this worked well enough for gluing 2 pieces together.

Once everything goes together, you’ll want to play with them. It’s like magic the way they slide together though it might take you a minute to figure out exactly how to slide them together.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Great explanation! Thank you so much!!
Can’t wait to try it…

Best regards

After answering macdo’s questions I realized that my sketchup drawing doesn’t reflect how I actually glued them together. Here is a revised image:

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

I enjoy making different trivets and they sell well for me. When I first saw this one on LJ’s I really couldn’t get my mind around it. Thank you for the great pictures showing them a bit more. Question, since you only glue them together, how do you think they will hold up to the opening and closing?

-- Larry in Hawaii,

Hawaiilad – Standard PVA wood glue is pretty tough. In fact in most applications where the glue is applied and clampled properly, the wood will usually fail before the glue joints. I don’t think that you would want to use hide glue for example since heat may make it break down but PVA should stand up just fine. Also, if the angles are right, there is almost no stress on any of these joints when sliding it. Once you get the 3 corner pieces glued up, they slide together so easily you just want to slide them back and forth just to see how they work. The 3 pieces can be pulled apart but are easy enough to put back together. If you sell these at a show or shop where people can play with them, they might become one of your best sellers.

BTW, I did think about putting a dowel in the 2 corners to help make glue up alignment easier and to also add an interesting contrasting detail. This would also make the glue joints completely unbreakable.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Thanks for the good info…one more question. How did you clamp the corners together? I have be using titebond 3 for the go to glue for nearly everything I build these days. It holds very well on the Ring Master bowls I make as well

-- Larry in Hawaii,

That is a novel idea ;-) Nice work.

-- Bob in WW ~ "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

Hawaiilad—Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the build process but I will try to describe it. I used plain Elmers Wood Glue and I put considerable pressure on each triangle while sanding after only 30 minutes of clamp time (for each step below) with no problems.
1) I used the jig posted above to hold 2 pieces together while the glue sets. If you look at the revised sketchup drawing a few comments back. This basically forms a flat “V”. You glue the end of one piece to the side of the other. I pressed them tightly together before clamping them down in the jig. Note that the V shape is flat on the bottom so it doesn’t go into the corner of the jig. I waited about 30 minutes for the glue to set before unclamping the V and moving to the next step.
2) Once you have 2 V’s, you stack them on top of each other to form an overlapping triangle. Note the direction of the points. I clamped them to the edge of my workbench so that it would be stable while aligning and clamping. Simply make sure that the overlapping legs line up perfectly—the glue makes them slippery so tighten slowly and slide them back into alignment as you tighten it down.

That’s it. You repeat this 3 times and then slide the resulting triangles together.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Nice!

Don’t go below 1/2” thick I have tried 3/8” and the results were not great.

-- If you are not willing to learn, No one can help you. If you are determined to learn, No one can stop you.