Making 131 Push Sticks To Give Away Workshop Projects

This many push sticks could easily last me a life time, but I’ll be giving these away at an upcoming meet-up in Toronto. A few of us YouTube woodworkers will be getting together at the Duke Of York Pub on the 28th of May. It starts at 6pm and everyone that wants to come is invited.
Since this is my first time doing something like this, I thought it would be interesting to bring along something to give away.

Layout is tricky, since I want to maximize the number of push sticks that I get out of the full 4′ x 8′ sheet. I played around with it a bit, and settled on this arrangement using two of the ones I’d made earlier:

making push sticks

This would allow me to nest them tightly together into strips that are about 15″ wide. To make it earlier to mark them out, I cut the strips using the new circular saw:

making push sticks

making push sticks

Then I could finish the very tedious task of marking the rest out:

making push sticks

To cut them out, I used the band saw, but with that much continuous cutting, a lot of dust was getting into the air. I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to try out the 45 liter wet / dry vac and cut a hole right below the table using a hole saw in the brushless drill:

making push sticks
making push sticks

The hole saw was a bit too small, and I had to sand the hole larger with a drum mounted in the drill.
With the vacuum connected, the airborne dust was massively reduced.

With all of the push sticks cut out, I had one other thing I wanted to do with them. I thought it would be interesting to make a stamp that has my logo on it using the scrollsaw:

making push sticks

It needed to be small enough to fit on the push stick, so I reduced it and pasted it onto a piece of 1/4″ MDF:

making push sticks

Cutting out the logo was probably the most enjoyable part of the project, after the tedium of marking, then cutting out the push sticks.

If cutting the logo was enjoyable, stamping was the most fun. It took some time to get the paint to the right consistency, but after that it was smooth sailing:

making push sticks
making push sticks

The quality of the print the stamp made was perfect – just the look I wanted for this, a very rustic look:

making push sticks

With them all printed, I set them out in the sun to dry and had some fun lining them up:

making push sticks

I also number each one, since I seriously doubt I’ll be making this many push sticks at one time again!

I made a video of the project from start to finish:

Special thanks to Canadian Tire for sending out the tools I used for this project.

Disclaimer: Although I was compensated for my participation, the views and opinions expressed herein represent my own and not those of Canadian Tire corporation or any other party and do not constitute financial, legal or other advise.