Pi Pie Stand

To celebrate Pi Day I decided nothing would be better than making a pun! So, I made a Pi stand. I feel like people who are quirky enough to celebrate their love of pie and Pi would get a kick out of this unique twist on the traditional cake stand, and the added strip of walnut inlay gives this Pi stand enough character to make it stand out beneath the pie its holding.

Materials needed:

For the Pi piece

10 inch long x 6 inch wide x 2 inch thick Piece of Maple ( I used maple because it was what I had on had)

For the round plates

Top Plate: 14 Inch long x 10 1/2 wide x 1 inch thick Piece of Maple ( the top and bottom plate will be cut from the same piece of maple)

Bottom Plate: 12 Inch long x 7 inch wide x 1 inch thick Piece of Maple

Walnut Inlay: 10 inch long x 2 inch wide x 1 inch thick ( you will cut you inlays from this one piece)

Tools Needed:

• 220 grit sand paper
• 150 grit sand paper
• Metal Files
• Wood glue
• Nail Gun
• 1 1/4 Brad Nails
• Band Saw
• Jointer
• Planer
• Table Saw
• Disc Sander
• Circular Saw
• Clamps
• Pencil Compass
• String
• Tape Measure
• Pencil
• Oil/Stain/Paint

First ALWAYS REMEMBER SAFETY FIRST! PLEASE WEAR PROPER EYE AND EAR PROTECTION WHEN WORKING WITH DANGEROUS TOOLS!

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Band saw
• Tap measure
• pencil

For this project I used rough cut wood, this will come up later as it will need to be jointed and planed, but first we need to make our cuts!

We will need to cut our walnut for the inlay. The three pieces of inlay will all be cut from the same piece of walnut, I only had a 10 inch piece so that was the max that I could do, but for this project that is perfect.

Cutting Initial Piece

I used my band saw with the fence as a guide to cut all my pieces to the desired width. Before cutting make sure to mark your wood with all the correct measurements.

Cut a piece of walnut down to a strip to 10 L x 2 W x 1 thick. I drew a diagram of this in the pictures for reference.

Cutting Pi Piece

Next is cutting the Pi piece. Once again I adjusted the fence on my bandsaw to help me cut a strip off that measured

10 inch L x 2 inch W x 1/4 inch thick. As stated above, I drew a diagram for reference.

Cutting Plate Pieces

Finally, time to cut the strips for the top bottom and middle pieces. Take the leftover walnut and use it to cut the final two strips for your two plates.

For the bottom plate:

First cut a strip 10 inch L x 1 inch W x 1/4 inch thick

For the top plate:

cut a strip 10in L x 1 W x 1/4 inch thick

Yay! You have now cut your inlays!

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Table saw
• Circular saw
• Tape Measure
• Pencil

Now for this step we will be cutting the maple for the top and bottom plate and for the Pi shape. The top and bottom plates are fairly easy and straight forward since the wood is already the desired thickness of 1 inch so they only need to be cut to length x width.

Top & Bottom Plate

For this cut I used a circular saw because my board was pretty long and it was easier to maneuver the circular saw than maneuver the board around. I clamped the board to my work table and made sure that I had my eye and ear protection on and made first my top cut of

14 in L x 10 1/2 in W x 1 in thick

After this cut, I made my bottom plate cut to

12 in L x 7 in W x 1 in thick

You can use any method you like to cut your wood to your dimensions, such as a compound miter saw, hand saw, or table saw, like I said I just used my circular saw for ease.

Pi Piece

Sometimes things work out well in life and it turns out I already had a piece of maple that was perfectly sized for this project, so I did not need to cut this piece. However, I do know the wood fairies do not visit everyone and bestow perfect pieces of cut wood in their garages so they may need to cut their own.

The dimensions for this piece are:

10 in L x 6 in W x 2 in thick

As stated above you can cut your wood with any type of saw that you feel comfortable using, and for ease you can even buy your wood to the desired thickness at your local home store.

I did include my poor mans diagram because I know I personally like to see diagrams even if they are drawn by a hamster.

***Note: You may notice that I have longer maple then I do walnut, I have longer pieces of maple so I can arrange my walnut to wherever I want to get the wood grain I want.***

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Table saw
• Pencil

So this step is easy peasy. I decided I wanted to have my walnut accent offset so it would have the most coverage on the pie piece. So I eyeballed where I wanted it to go on each piece, and drew my lines and cut each piece. I set my blade on my table saw to 1 inch for the plate pieces and about 2 inches for the Pi piece and cut my pieces. My photos above reference me cutting the Pi piece, and the other photo shows the maple with the walnut laid in it.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Jointer

So as stated in the first step, I used rough wood for this project which means the wood needs to be smoothed flat for an easy glue up. So that is where the jointer comes in. I personally just like to make sure that both sides of the wood I am working with are as flat as possible so I run both sides along the jointer. Another way is to flatten one side then use a planer to flatten the other. A handheld jointer (electric or elbow grease powered) can work as well.

First I make sure my fence is perfectly square, and then make sure the depth of my cut is set at 1/32 in. I run each piece of wood I will be using for this project through the jointer, do a minimum of two passes on each side so I can have them perfectly square. Your last pass should cut the whole length of the board.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Wood Glue
• Clamps

This is a pretty simple step. All that needs to be done is for the boards to glued together with wood glue and clamped.

First arrange all your pieces how you would like them to look, as in how you want the grain to be displayed, you can then mark them with a pencil so you don't accidentally glue the wrong sides face up or down. After you have each section arranged then begin spreading wood glue on your newly jointed pieces of wood. You can use your finger to spread the glue or a scrap piece of wood like I did, but just make sure you have an even surface coverage. Once, you have your piece all glued up add 3-5 clamps to make sure your boards are mashed as tight as they can go without buckling the middle. I only had 4 clamps for mine. Make sure to only glue one part at a time, as in glue up all the Pi pieces then clamp them then move onto another piece.

It is ok if your boards are not perfectly flush because the next step is to plain them, and that will make them nice and flat. Also, if you have any excess glue squeeze out you can use a wet rag to wipe it up as best as you can reach it.

Let your pieces sit in their clamps for 12-24 hours before you remove the clamps to make sure the wood is dry and bonded.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Wood planer
• Pencil

Since I used rough wood and since we glued pieces together the wood is not perfectly flat anymore, so it needs to be smoothed. The easiest way to do this is with a wood planer. It can be done with a sander, but for this Instructable I used my wood planer.

Using a wood planer is simple, you feed the board into one end set the planer to remove 1/32 in at a time and continuously feed it through adjusting the planer to take a little more each time until you are satisfied with the results.

So to start I set the height of my planer to work with both of the plate boards since they are the same thickness and I would like them to remain the same thickness. I fed them through the planer changing which side was face up with each pass with both pieces so they both would become smooth and flat. I started with boards that were 1 inch thick and when I finished planing them they were 3/4 in thick.

I repeated the process with the Pi piece. I adjusted the height to match the thickness of the Pi piece and set the planer to remover 1/32 inch at a time. The Pi piece started at 2 inches thick and when I finished planning it was 1 1/2 inch thick. I chose to take a 1/2 off because I wanted to make my Pi piece a lot thinner than I originally intended.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Pencil Compass
• Pencil

For this step I used my pie plate to trace an outline on my large piece of glued maple. After I had a rough outline of the pie plate on the maple I used my compass to make a bigger circle because I want the stand to be slightly bigger than a standard pie plate.

Next I took my compass to my smaller maple plate piece and drew a circle 4 3/4 inches across.

For drawing the Pi piece I printed a Pi symbol off the internet of my desired dimensions, mine were 5 L x 4 W. I then used carbon paper to trace the Pi symbol onto my wood. ( I did not include carbon paper in the items needed because you can accomplish this step by drawing the Pi symbol or by cutting the Pi symbol out then using your cutout as a stencil.)

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Band saw
• Hand rasp

For cutting my Pi, I used my band saw. First you may notice I did cut off the excess at the top. You can use the band saw, table saw, circular saw, compound miter saw, or table saw for this part, it is your freedom to choose.

Next I set my fence on my blade to the height of my wood so their was little clearance. Then making sure I had proper ear and eye protection on I carefully and slowly cut my Pi shape out of the wood. This step can take a little time, so do not rush it. It is easier to make small smoother cuts by pushing the wood slowly than by trying to rush the process.

After I had my rough cut of Pi I used my wood files to smooth down the edges that I could not get with the band saw.

***Note: You may notice that the sides of my Pi are burned. That is because my band saw blades need to be sharpened, it did make the process slow and tedious, but I actually am pleased with the rustic look it gave the piece.***

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Band Saw
• Disc Sander

For this step I once again used my band saw. I set my fence to the height of the wood so I would have minimum clearance. Then I began cutting in a circular pattern following the outline than I had drawn. I did this for both plates.

Then I took my plates over to my disc sander. Remember to always work on the downward side of a disc sander because working on the upward side of the spin can push whatever you are working on and cause it to fly up. Working on the downward side are rotating the disc I smoothed out the edges and made them circular within my drawn lines.

Then for a little pizzazz I used the disc sander to round over my edges to give them a little bevel. This can also be done with a router for a cleaner look, but who has time for that.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Sand paper 220 grit
• sand paper 150 grit

So, it's sanding time. Honestly, by this point you really shouldn't have much sanding to do. You've planed and disc sanded so this project is already looking pretty smooth so sanding should be a piece of pie. I hand sanded all of my pieces because is was easier and it only took about 10 mins of elbow grease, if you choose to use an electric sander for all the love of everything holy in this world DO NOT USE IT ON THE Pi PIECE! Hand sand that sucker! It is not worth the risk of breaking. Believe me I was once cocky too, but I learned my lessons the hard way. Hand sand things that are odd shaped.

Start with the 150 Grit sand paper to get the surface areas smooth then finish with the 220 grit to make it as smooth as silk. Easy peasy.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• String
• Ruler/ Taper measure
• Nail gun
• Wood Glue
• Pencil
• Brad Nails 1 1/4 inch
• Clamps
• Wet rag

So first off, geometry and me are not friends, we don't even speak at parties. So to find the center of my circles I used string. I took two pieces of string and tied them vertically and horizontally. Then I measured the length from the cross point of the string on sides to make sure it was even to find the center. I did this on both circles. I then placed my Pi piece on the string at the cross point and traced an outline of where the Pi piece would go, completing the top first as in the picture.

I then clamped the plate to my work bench. I slathered the top of my Pi piece with wood glue, put in on the outline that I drew on the underside of my plate and used my nail gun to carefully nail the Pi piece in place. Make sure your nails do not go through the top of your plate, and make sure before you begin that your nails will not be too long!

Use the wet rag to wipe up all the excess wood glue immediately because that crap is hard to sand away once dry.

After the glue is cleaned up time to attach the bottom. This can be a little tricky. First apply your wood glue to your Pi and place it in your outline, next turn the whole piece over as you will be applying the last four staples through the bottom of the plate up through the Pi. The tricky part of this is that you have to eyeball it. You will have to judge where to staple into the legs of your Pi so you do not punch through the bottom plate.

Once your staples are in you are all set! Wipe off all excess glue again and let the piece dry for a few hours.

***Tip: you can put some table salt on your wood glue to stop it from moving, so say you sprinkle the top of your Pi with with salt after you have put the glue on it will help it stay in the outline you have drawn for it.***

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Sand paper
• Any stain, paint, oil, or varnish

So it's done! Yay! This is the last step and the most creative! You can choose to finish your product however you choose. You can stain it, paint it, or oil it. The sky is the limit!

First though, you do need to lightly sand around your glue area to make sure you do not have any leftover glue residue and this also gets rid of your pencil marks. After that I recommend taking a scrap piece of your cutting and trying different stains or paints on them to see how the wood absorbs them. I was so sure I would stain mine, but I ended up only using Danish Oil to bring out the natural wood. I used three coats applied over a couple hours after each coat had completely dried. Whatever, you choose to do, please try it on the test piece first.

For adding Danish Oil all I needed was a rag. I used an old cut up T shirt, and soaked the oil into it. I applied a liberal amount of oil all over the piece, then wiped the excess off with a dry rag. I repeated the process three times. I let the stand dry for 24 hours, then I brought it inside to enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed this build with me.