A while back, I decided for some reason that I wanted to make some wooden coasters (the furniture protectors, not the thrilling ride), even though I never use coasters. Being a big Captain America fan, I thought his conveniently shaped shield would make a good pattern (the round one, not this one).

Below are the steps I used to make them.

I started by cutting a board into a bunch of 4″ squares.

I don’t have a band saw, so I used my scroll saw to cut them into circles. I drilled a 1/4″ hole roughly in the center of the square, then stuck it on a dowel peg that I’d embedded in a block of wood clamped to my scroll saw at the correct distance from the blade. They ended up roughly circular, but I had to do a good bit of sanding so they were shaped more like Cap’s shield and less like a carelessly made pizza. The blade on the scroll saw wandered a lot. In retrospect, it would have been a lot easier to just cut them out with a 4″ hole saw.

To shape the shield, I again used the hole to mount the piece on a dowel peg stuck into the end of a 2×4. Then I could spin it around as I shaped it with my router. You can see the cardboard star template I used for the center near the middle of the picture.

I used a roundover bit to make it vaguely shield-shaped, then cut a shallow groove for the inner red stripe and the blue circle. I made a bunch because I figured I’d mess up at least a couple somewhere along the way. I was correct. I still ended up with several that were usable.

I marked out a star with a pencil and cut it out with the scroll saw.

A closer look at a couple of them after some sanding.

I painted them by mixing paint 50/50 with water so the wood grain would show through better. Then I gave them several coats of spray on spar urethane for water protection.

Here’s a closeup. I didn’t do a great job painting them, but it’s gonna be under a drink anyway so who cares. If you make some yourself, be careful not to eat them because they look like delicious patriotic cookies that your grandma might make for July 4th.