STEP 1: MAKE A SANDWICH

I have 33 different types of wood, and my collection grows all the time. I have wood cut in a variety of thicknesses, so I can glue combinations together. I call them sandwiches. Here’s a picture of some I haven’t drilled yet:

I consider several things when making each one. Besides the obvious aesthetic decisions, I like to learn what ancient cultures have believed about trees. Every tree has a mystical story to uncover. (Don’t let the pagan wand-makers scare you off…) Think about what each type of wood means and try to pair complimentary energies. If you read the stories collected on my website and still want more, check out these great books: “The Meaning of Trees: Botany, History, Healing, Lore” and “Whisper from the Woods: The Lore and Magic of Trees.”

I also consider durability. Words like hardwood and softwood are misleading, because they refer to the wood’s cellular biology. Use the Janka hardness rating to determine actual hardness. Wood with a rating of about 800-900 or more is hard. Anything below that should be paired with a harder wood.

For more on sandwich-making, please see this older post–my process hasn’t changed much since then.

STEP 2: DRILL

First a little math. Consult this chart I developed for quick reference. A size 9 ring, for example, measures 0.75″ across the center, so use a 11/16″ forstner bit. Don’t use the 3/4″ bit, because it doesn’t give you any margin for error. (In the next step, you will sand to get an exact fit.) To figure out which size hole saw to use, add: 0.75″ (inner diameter) + 0.4″ (ring thickness) + 0.15″ (buffer) = 1.3″ (hole saw). So choose a 1-5/16″ hole saw for a size 9 ring. My hardware store doesn’t sell 1-5/16″ so I use 1-3/8″ instead. This is slightly big, again to give myself a little wiggle room.

It took a lot of creative problem-solving, but I finally discovered a way to drill the inner and outer hole so they properly align. I made several guide plates out of scrap wood, so I can use the hole saw without a pilot bit. Basically I drilled a hole for each size hole saw I have. Now whenever I want to make a ring I choose one of these guides:

Place the guide over the sandwich, and trace the circle onto your sandwich with a pencil. Either eyeball it or use a ruler to find the dead-center of the circle and mark that with the tip of the forstner bit, digging it in a little to start the hole.

Clamp a piece of scrap wood to protect your table from getting drilled into. Then clamp the guide on top of the sandwich–be sure to line up the guide with your pencil mark. I like this method better than securing the piece in a vise, because you get better control drilling down. I have a De-Walt drill with low rpms and a side handle so I can hold it with two hands. This is a powerful drill with a lot of torque–much better than the cheap Black and Decker I was using last year. I’m very happy with it, and the low rpms are good when using a hole saw.

Start with the forstner bit and drill all the way through, then switch to the hole saw without a pilot bit to complete. If you have a hole saw that requires a bit to operate, just slide the bit down into the barrel. Fair warning: you are about to discover how frustrating hole saws are. If the wood gets stuck in the barrel, try tapping it gently with something blunt through the arbor end. If the arbor seizes up in the hole saw, try a little WD40 and a wrench. Save yourself a lot of hassle and don’t bother with a set of hole saws that use one universal arbor. Buy the single hole saw that comes with it’s own arbor. Master Mechanic brand has the kind you can sink into the chuck without the pilot bit.

Before I had guide plates, I followed this how-to with 50/50 success. The forstner bit would dance around in the pilot hole and had trouble connecting with the wood. Most of the time the holes were off-center, and I was tired of wasting wood. Then one day I read this eHow article and decided to make my own set up guide plates. I still occasionally drill a dud, but overall it’s easier to line up the circles. If I had a drill press I could probably get it perfect. I’m not a machine, so I’ll settle for this:

STEP 3: SAND

In a previous post, I explained how to make a jig to sand evenly through the center of the ring. Since then, I have made one for each increment in size. Basically, I wrapped sandpaper around a dowel and measured with a ring gauge sizer, then labeled them 4-12. Having one for each ring size makes sanding easier. I begin with a low number and move up in size as the ring loosens up. I check the size on a mandrel often as I go.

After that, I sand by hand to smooth the outside of the ring. Sanding by hand is tedious, but it turns out much better than power-sanding, which never comes out even in my experience. I shape the top and bottom to taper. Then progressively sand all over moving up the grits (80, 100, 120, 150, 180, 220, 320, 400, 600).

STEP 4: INLAY

In a previous post, I explained how to do a stone inlay. Since then I’ve learned the secrets of steam bending to create wood inlay. I got a book from my local library called “The Encyclopedia of Wood: a Tree-by-Tree Guide to the World’s Most Versatile Resource” to learn which types of wood work best for steam bending. Some veneer is super thin and doesn’t require any boiling to bend, thicker pieces of veneer have to be boiled. I have had a lot of success with beech veneer. Basically, I carved the ring where I wanted to inlay the beech, then boiled the veneer for 10 minutes and inlaid with medium viscosity CA glue. It took some practice to get the hang of.

STEP 5: FINISH

I have a natural finish on my wedding band–2 coats dissolved shellac flakes in denatured alcohol, then polish with a carnauba wax. But it’s not the right finish for everyone. I understand that taking a ring off several times a day to wash your hands and fearing that you will forget it somewhere is a hassle. So I offer a variety of finishes and let people decide what they want. A polyurethane finish is easy enough, just follow the instructions on the side of the can. For a super glue finish I found this how-to really helpful and amusing. If you want an overview of shellac and some other options, this video is great.

That’s basically it! I hope that if you’re trying to make your own rings, these tips help you out. Otherwise, I hope curiosity didn’t kill you, because this post would be really boring if you’re not a woodworker!

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Originally, Safe Patient Project was a Movable Type website with a long history and archive of material. Redesign of the site using WordPress launched January 2012. Data was migrated to WordPress and organized by state, topic or post type (ie. press release, story, news article, etc.). The website is configured to give our Admin users more control over display, with widget areas on every page so they may add or change sidebars, header and footer in addition to what you might expect to be editable. Each topic page is customizable and distinct in this way. The site also features a SlideDeck slideshow on the homepage and high prominence is given to activists working with us throughout the site.

Targeted actions to state and federal decision-makers and share your story components were built using Convio. Stories are are housed in a database that was built by another member of our team. Hundreds of stories are featured on the site, some as video in a customized YouTube player. TweetNest allows us to stream @CUSafePatient Twitter feed, which is maintained by the campaign team and has a significant following.

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I designed artwork for teeshirts and doorhangers, which were used to educate California voters. Activists could order the materials online at no cost, then distribute to their neighbors. Ultimately, the campaign was a success–Prop 23 was voted down in statewide election by a 23% margin.

After our work in California, the site entered the next phase of development. No longer a California-specific campaign, the name changed to Our Green Energy Future. I reworked the logo and color scheme, and built a custom SlideDeck slideshow for the homepage. Now in addition to the blog, WordPress serves as a fully-functioning content-management system, supporting various content types (ie. press release, news article, documents, etc.), topics and states. The site incorporates Convio-powered components such as petitions and sign-up forms. The toolbar at the top effectively highlights our social media and branding, while the one-click toggle button will collapse the toolbar if the user wishes to minimize it.

I created 8 original illustrations for the book, which include:

• Cover Art: Community in Environmental Crisis
• Negotiation with Opposing Side
• Community Meeting
• Best and Worst Case Scenarios
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Library Research
• Monitoring an Environmental Problem
• Getting an Agreement