Wooden YouTube Play Button (mahogany and poplar)

In this video I make a wooden YouTube Play Button, because I hit 20k subs and 100k subs (which is when YouTube will present an official plaque) seems quite far away!

I chose mahogany for two good reasons - firstly, it has a reddish tint and secondly I had some small scraps of it to use up!  These pieces came from some reclaimed wooden hat and coat stands - the pieces I used were the feet that supported the upright piece.

I started by ripping them square on the tablesaw, to remove the tapered face.  

Then I jointed one side and ran the other through the thickness planer.

I glued the pieces together and clamped them with bar clamps

When the glue had set I used a hand plane to clean up the faces of the new block.

Then I trimmed the excess off each end.

I used a pencil to mark up the play icon, and a round object to round over the corners, and then cut the edges on the bandsaw before refining the shape at the belt sander.

Next I drilled a recess in the play icon using a forstner bit on my drill press table before routing out the rest of the icon shape.  I then needed to chisel out the rounded over corners to form the triangle.

I made a rubbing of the shape on a piece of paper, and then stuck that piece of paper to a piece of poplar which came from a pallet collar.  I chose poplar as it is pale in colour and will contrast well with the mahogany.

I cut out the shape on the bandsaw and I could then glue it in to the recess.

I used the bandsaw to trim off the excess material (as the poplar was quite thick).

Then I used the hand plane to get the inlay flush with the mahogany face of the block.

I tilted my tablesaw blade and cut bevels on all 4 front edges of the block and used a hand plane and orbital sander to smooth over the bevels.  

I used teak oil to finish the play button.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.

 

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