Live Edge Catchall
I spotted this cut off piece of walnut in my shop and it was screaming to be made into something. Because of the natural lines, it seemed like it should be a catchall valet. I decided that I wanted to carved out a dish for all the odds and ends, and also add a place for my phone to charge.
I started with the dish. I love the natural curve of the bark edge and thought the dish should mimic this. Using a piece of paper, I traced the edge of the wood and scanned it to my computer. This gave me a picture that I could modify to make a shape that I cut out with my CNC.
Once that was routed, I made the phone holder. There was a sneaky amount of work with this step because I chose to do it with a handheld router instead of the CNC. The CNC would have been faster, but not as fun! I measured a few phones to get an idea of the size of the channel that I would need. I used a 1/4” router bit and a handheld router to carve a 1/4” deep, 1/2” wide channel for the phone. In the middle of the channel, I routed a groove that plunges all the way through the wood and out the bottom. A little chisel work cleaned things up a bit and squared off the edges.
After flipping over the workpiece, I used a router to cut a shallow groove from the back edge of the wood to the channel that I cut. This allows my phone charger to run from the back of the catchall, up through the wood, and into the bottom of the phone.
To make sure that the phone stands up, I added a piece of brass. Brass always looks great with walnut so it was a logical choice. I used some chisels to cut a mortise to hold the piece of brass. I sanded a round profile on the top of the brass, where it touches the phone. A little hand sanding made the brass shine up nicely. The brass is held securely in the mortise with some CA glue.
To finish up the valet, I sprayed it with several coats of lacquer. The figure in the wood instantly revealed itself, giving the piece a really cool look.
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