Framed Blackboards

I find it hard to throw out any pieces of wood in my workshop.  Even small pieces can be used for something, but every so often I do sort through and decide what should be thrown in the woodstove and what I can use up.

I found these pieces of grooved pine that were short end cuts from other projects:

I also had some 1/4" thick hardboard that was already painted with blackboard paint and fit perfectly into the grooves:

These pieces will fit at 90 degrees to each other for the frame for one blackboard:

(I've previously shown how I make the grooves and tenons in this post:     Pallet Blackboard Tutorial )

I put a tenon in the end of the horizontal piece that fits into the groove of the vertical piece:

When fit together they make a nice solid corner and allow the piece of hardboard to fit into the groove.  This way it cannot come out because the blackboard is inside the frame, not nailed to the back of it:

I use glue and clamps and no nails nor screws:

Once it has been sitting for an hour, it's ready to be sanded smooth on all faces and edges.

I decided to make one of the blackboards into a bracket shape that I am seeing a lot of around the internet.  I made a template on cardboard and then traced it onto the glued-together frame:

I cut it out with my jigssaw:

**TIP - when using a jigsaw, cut on the wrong side where possible.  The way the blade cuts on a jigsaw gives a cleaner cut on the side facing down**

I'll show my finished blackboards in the next post.

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My Repurposed Life
aka design