As Makers we see the potential in everything which leads to hoarding. I will admit to hoarding stuff far more than I should and one of those things I kept around longer than I need to was hardwood flooring samples. Such beautiful wood! We can make things out of this beautiful wood! And finally, years later, we did.

All these coasters where made on the big CNC router out of flooring sample boards. You can get these for free or really cheap off the interwebs, the downside is you are constantly emailed and called by flooring salesman in followup. My first attempt was in doing the full AMT logo in a fine cut using a 0.9mm bit. Having such a large machine use such a small bit was funny in that Laurel and Hardy kind of way you expect. I found that I was breaking bits constantly, even when changing around the feeds and speeds. Eventually I gave up and switched over to using just a 1/8″ down cut spiral bit for engraving the top with the logo and for cutting out the coaster when done. These are less fine detailed but do have the advantage of not destroying a ten pack of bits. I used spray adhesive on the back to glue down a shelf liner backing.

That works… sorta and for a short time. Need to come up with a better solution for putting a non-stick backing on these guys. Overall I’m pleased that we still have most of them around AMT, I thought they would be gone in a few weeks but here we are months later and you can always find a coaster  upstairs when you need one.
Now what to do with the box of flooring samples I still have….