Wave Mail Holder

This was a small project I designed as a bandsaw exercise, and I'm very pleased with how it came out. The "wave" is made of red oak with gloss poly and the bottom is poplar, stained with Minwax red oak and finished with gloss poly.

Using 1/4" plywood, I created patterns for each piece of the wave (only three unique ones since two of them are just reflections) and sanded them until I was happy with the shape. I then used these to create the final pieces in oak using my router table and a pattern bit.

Since the poplar I had on hand was not wide enough for what I needed, I ended up dividing the base into four different quadrants and used the opportunity to try some dovetail cuts. The cuts were sloppy and barely fit together, but luckily it's hard to notice on the final piece. And I can't believe how rewarding it was to finally get those four pieces to fit together…

The good news about having four separate pieces for the base was that I could make the dado cuts easily by sliding each piece over my router bit without any plunging or other fancy solutions.

Another great learning experience, and I have already used the patterns to recreate a similar mail holder for my grandparents! (amazing how valuable patterns can be!! definitely going to start making these whenever I can for future projects). I forgot to take a pic before I gave it to them, but maybe I will update this in the future.

Thanks for tuning in!