Wood Scraps to Door Stops

Intro: Wood Scraps to Door Stops

I ‘collect’ a lot of wood scraps. Well, not really collecting them; I just seem to be unable to throw them out! Why not turn them into pretty door stops. A simple project; and they make nice gifts. So if you have a box of scraps you are using as a door stop, turn them into a bunch of real door stops!

The project shouldn't take more than a couple hours of work plus the gluing, finishing, and drying time.

The scraps I use are from these kinds of prior Instructable projects:

Toy Workbench

Novel Way to Set a Box Lid

Backenzahn

STEP 1: Glue Up a Pretty Wood Block

The first step is to glue up (or laminate) a block from these scraps that is about 8 inches wide by 8 inches long by 2 inches tall. Again, work with what you have and don’t obsess about the dimensions! If your scrap pieces have smooth/clean faces use wood glue; otherwise use epoxy. Arrange the wood colors for a striped look, whatever you like! Clamp really well, and let dry for a few hours or overnight.

STEP 2: Slicing the Wood Block

Now cut off 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch slices from the glued-up block. This will be the width of the door stops. Make the cut perpendicular to the laminations. Be extra careful when you make these cuts on a table saw. You should get about 5 to 8 slices. Then trim each piece so that all surfaces are flat. I ended up cutting 6 pieces that vary from 1-1/2" down to 3/4" in width.

STEP 3: Cut the Door Stop Wedges

Lay these pieces on their side and mark the diagonal with a pencil line. On a bandsaw cut along the diagonal and you get two door stop wedges from each piece. A simple way to make these repeated diagonal cuts cleanly is to make a quick ‘push stick’ jig from a scrap piece of plywood (another use of scraps!) like shown in the pictures. Then use the jig against the bandsaw fence for clean and repeatable diagonal cuts.

STEP 4: Finish!

Sand the door stops and round the tips and heels. Use these handy templates from my prior Instructable to mark the corner rounds. If you wish you can seal the door stops with a clear finish to show off the different woods.

Congratulations, you just turned a box of scrap wood into a bunch of pretty and functional door stops! Give them as gifts or sell them at the local farmer's market or craft fair.

Comments

[charlessenf-gm]

Pretty stops.
But, considering the function - pressed between door and floor under sufficient pressure to restrain a 3/0 door from 'blowing (shut) in the wind' - the grain should run longitudinally, no?

Not faulting your admirable carpentry skills at all - well done on that score - maybe glue them all together for a ciircular end-grain cheese board?

[rschoenm]

You are 100% correct. At the same time it has not been a problem for me in the past. I think that is because the contact between the door and the floor is through only one of the wood segments. As long as the floor is fairly flat (not concave) there should be little stress on the glue joints or the wood segments. If you use just the very tip because the door bottom is very close to the floor the tip might break off; and you should definitely cut a 'long-grain' door stop.
I considered putting in a spline lengthwise along both edges for looks and added strength; maybe next time. Anyways, I like the aesthetics, and if one doorstop breaks I'll make another one :-)
I like the cheese board idea, will put that in my project queue.
Thanks for your interest.