Friday, March 21, 2014

Point Me in the Right Direction


I recenly purchased a Miter saw.
Of course I had to play with it.
Let me just say I'm in love.

Can I really be in love with a power tool?

Maybe.

If you must know, 
I've researched and dreamed about what I could do with one too.
So when I finally got it home and unpacked and set up,
this arrow was the first project.

I love it!

It takes me about the same amount of time start to finish as my regular pallet wood signs,
but I get to play with power tools way more.

Wahoo!

I did have to purchase some plywood for the backing to hold it all together.
But I can get 8 - 11" strips of plywood out of a regular sheet that only cost about $13 dollars.
I had the guy at Home Depot rip the plywood sheet for me.  
Easy peasy.
So with minimal paint, and some screws and wire this is a relatively inexpensive project.
But a miter saw is essential.

So let me show a bit of the process.
First I disassembled a few pallets to get some slats.
Because I'm piecing these together, I'm not sure how many per arrow.
Plus I made 4 of them at the same time.
Assembly line is definitely the way to go for me sometimes.

The plywood strips are 11 inches wide by 4 feet long.
I used the jig saw to cut the point at one end of the plywood,
as well as the center shaft angle.
I haven't figured out how to make the miter saw do those cuts yet.

Everything is really just eyeballed to length and size, except the fletching is 12 inches
from cut to cut.

The arrow point was cut with a 45 degree angle.
The fletching was cut at 22.5 degrees.




I lay out all the pieces and alternate the color and texture of the slats
to make it more random.
Then I paint a few pieces sage green and white.
Trying to make them not be all matchy-matchy.

Lay everything down upside down and lay the plywood on top
making sure it lines up correctly.
Pre-drill the holes and attach screws to securely hold each piece in place.

I added wire for hanging on the top of 2 arrows and the bottom on 2 arrows 
so you can hang them together or separate in which ever direction you want.


Done and ready for the top coat of polyurethane.



I think they turned out so pretty.
My youngest asked if I could make one for him too.
I definitely will do that.
But for now this batch is hanging up over at Twigs and Twine.




This is them hanging up in the store.
I also did the numerology piece below the arrows,
but unfortunately I forgot to take more pictures of the project before delivery,
so that is all I have.

The number 5 is cast metal from Hobby Lobby
and the 7 was made out of wire and screws.
The rest of the numbers are hand painted on.
Another fun piece that let me play with the miter saw and use up my scraps.

Double bonus!!



Have a super day!

I linked up over at Beyond the Picket Fence.
Beyond The Picket Fence



2 comments:

  1. I love this arrow! The look of the pallet wood is awesome! I also love the colors that you chose to paint it. Thank you for linking up to The Creative Exchange!

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  2. Love this Arrow! Thanks so much for linking up to the Creative Exchange I featured you today!
    http://www.avisiontoremember.com/2014/05/the-creative-exchange-link-party_27.html

    ReplyDelete