Some friends of mine are really, really into all things Disney. They were setting up a new coffee station in their house, and they wanted a large, Mickey Mouse mug holder for the wall, so I made one. Watch the video to see how it was made or follow along to see all of the steps!

Step 1: BACKGROUND

Some of the requirements for this project were as follows:

Be over 3' tall
Butcher block style with different hardwoods
Hold a ton of mugs
Pegs spaced for odd-sized or large mugs also

Step 2: TOOLS & MATERIALS

Miter Saw - http://amzn.to/2ynOXJv

Table Saw - http://amzn.to/2yxWdQr

Bandsaw - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Jigsaw - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Drill & driver - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Brass mallet - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Belt sander - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Random orbit sander - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Files - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Sandpaper

Screws

Wood glue - http://amzn.to/2hNB7a4

Step 3: GATHER MATERIALS & CUT TO ROUGH LENGTH

I started off by getting a bunch of different types of wood and cutting them to rough length on the miter saw. You can see me stacking them up on the bench to see if I have enough.

Step 4: FLATTEN ONE SIDE AT THE JOINTER

Then, I took them to the jointer to get one flat side.

Step 5: ANOTHER STRAIGHT EDGE

After I had one flat side, I used that side referenced against my table saw fence and ripped strips out of each board.

Step 6: ARRANGE

Once I had them arranged in a way that I liked, and all of the edges were flat and parallel, I started one of the most stressful glue-ups I've ever done! There were so many boards, and I wanted a good amount of glue coverage, so there was glue everywhere!

Step 7: QUICK TIP

Quick Tip: if you drip wood glue onto your floor, don't try to wipe it up. That will only smear it into the concrete more. Wait until it dries. Then, you can come back with a scraper and pop the glue spots right off. Ask me how I know this?

Step 8: SCRAPE OFF EXCESS GLUE

After I took the panel out of the clamps, I used some scrapers to remove the excess glue.

Step 9: SAND IT FLAT

Then, I ran it through the drum sander a few times. This thing was so heavy, I had a hard time using the drum sander to flatten it effectively. It CAN be used for this kind of thing, but maybe I don't have the knowledge of how to use it for something so wide and heavy yet.

Step 10: PRINT TEMPLATE

I took the dimensions my friends wanted the final piece to be, and used a site called rasterbator.com to blow it up into a poster. I didn't particularly like how it did it. It was quite hard to assemble and get it to look right.

Then, I sprayed some adhesive on the template, and stuck it temporarily to the board.

Step 11: CUT OUT SHAPE

I took it to the bandsaw to cut off some of the bulk, but it was really to heavy to do much at the bandsaw. I finished cutting out the template with my jigsaw, which was awful. Even as tightly as I could clamp it, I got a lot of vibration. I generally don't like the jigsaw.

Step 12: REFINE EDGE

I refined the shape and edges through a series of belt sanders, files and my random orbit sander.

Step 13: ROUNDOVER

I added a 1/8" roundover to all of the edges with my router.

Step 14: ADDING FINISH

Then, I sprayed on a few coats of clear lacquer, sanding between with 320 grit sandpaper.

Step 15: MARK FOR MUGS

This next part was interesting...I used a few mugs of various sizes to sketch out where all of the pegs needed to be. They wanted to get a lot of mugs on this board, so I had to try to squeeze in as many as I thought looked good. I think it ended up with 40 spots to hang mugs, depending on their sizes.

Step 16: DRILL HOLES

I put together this little jig to help me drill the holes for the pegs at a slight angle. They didn't have to be exact, but since I was using a handheld drill (too large to use on my drill press for many of the holes in the center), I needed something to help me repeat the angle. I drilled a starter hole in a scrap block at the desired angle, and then used that to guide my holes in the piece. This was a lot of drilling! I drilled 40 holes that were 1/2" wide, and at least that deep!