Making Tricked-out Trivets
After you’ve prepared some snazzy trivet blanks (I tried patterns of contrasting species, glued side-by-side or as two 1/4″-thick face-glued laminations), making the trivets is easy. Set one pair of spacers against the fences so their intersecting ends overlap in the jig’s inside corner. Set your bit depth, and lock your plunge router’s base accordingly. For trivets with stopped router cuts, I drew layout lines 1/4″ in from the edges of the blanks to set the starting and stopping points for each cut. Trivets with separate frames don’t need these lines.
Making your first cuts on the trivet face using a pair of spacers along the jig fences and cutting a little deeper than halfway through the blank in the first slot.
Start the router and make your first cut, milling to final depth in two passes. I used a 1/2” upspiral router bit — but any sharp straight bit should do fine. Swing the router clockwise or counterclockwise — either works fine, but keep the trammel pressed down firmly against the trivet blank to prevent it from shifting.
Continue adding and subtracting spacers and feeding your router clockwise and counterclockwise to make further cuts, but keep the trivet stationary as you pivot the router.
Once you complete the first cut, pull the trivet forward, insert another pair of spacers and repeat for the second, longer “swoop.” Continue adding spacer pairs between subsequent cuts until you reach the other corner of the blank. Now flip the blank over, give it a quarter turn to establish the “X” pattern and repeat the whole routing process. This time remove one pair of spacers after each pass.
Flip the trivet and give it a quarter turn to make an “X” cutting pattern on the second face, continuing to cut them in the reverse of how you made the first side.
In minutes, you’ll have your first trivet knocked out and be on to the second. Sand away any bit burn marks or fuzz, and round over the edges. For trivets with frames around them, I used quick-set epoxy to secure the mitered frame pieces.
Sand away any burns and imperfections and epoxy the pieces together, and the trivet is completed and ready for use or to be given as gifts.
The recipients of your curvy kitchen coasters will no doubt appreciate their delicate look … but secretly you’ll know that the bigger satisfaction — plowing those arching cuts and seeing the pattern develop before your eyes — was really all yours.
