# Segmented Coffee Mug



## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

Finished my first segmented coffee mug. 72 individual segments: 24 each of Bubinga (brown), Padauk (redish orange), and Osage Orange (yellowish orange), with base of solid Eastern Red Cedar. Finished with OB's Shine Juice. Segmenting will allow me to bring the cost into a price point people are willing to spend. Enjoy!


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

Looks great but I would think all the time spent putting the wood together would run the price up. Doing it for the love of it I would understand completely.


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## owlelope (Jan 29, 2009)

*segmented coffee mugs*

I make a lot of these. He is a picture of my inventory for last craft show. I sell them for $ 25 and do pretty good with them. I hunt around and find mugs that I can use the insert from for $ 3 to $ 4. There be much over $ 5 or $ 6 in the wood. Yes there is a lot of glue up time but I feel that these are at the right price point for my market.


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## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

Gary Beasley said:


> Looks great but I would think all the time spent putting the wood together would run the price up. Doing it for the love of it I would understand completely.


The pricepoint statement was merely from a cost of material standpoint. With segmenting, I can get ~3 mugs for the same cost of wood as I could do 1 with a solid piece of wood. That part aside, it did certainly take me much more time to complete, however, most of that was simply waiting for glue to dry. Actual work time was perhaps around 45 minutes more for the cutting and glue up. I made myself an adjustable segmenting sled for my band saw that made cutting everything go very quick. I was astonished how accurate my new band saw and sled have been right out of the gate: the only sanding/adjusting I needed to do was the joint between the two halves of each ring before they were glued together followed by a short kiss on the disk sander to even out the top and bottom.

I did find that, despite the additional work, turning a segmented mug rather than a solid wood mug was much less stressful since there was no dealing with endgrain tearout. I found that I enjoyed it much more doing it this way.


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## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

owlelope said:


> I make a lot of these. He is a picture of my inventory for last craft show. I sell them for $ 25 and do pretty good with them. I hunt around and find mugs that I can use the insert from for $ 3 to $ 4. There be much over $ 5 or $ 6 in the wood. Yes there is a lot of glue up time but I feel that these are at the right price point for my market.


That is what I do as well. I just had a batch I grabbed from Woodcraft when I went through Salt Lake, UT, since my local Ross and Marshalls did have any more of the mugs with inserts.


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## Buckbuster31 (Oct 28, 2014)

Any tutorial how to make these? Need a lathe?


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## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

Buckbuster31 said:


> Any tutorial how to make these? Need a lathe?


I have a how to on my YouTube channel which covered most everything up to the beginning of hollowing and glueing the insert it. You can find it here:

https://youtu.be/cbseS2eQxOA

I did lose the final bit about outer shaping because my SD card got corrupted but I have a bit of an explanation of how I went about what was lost in those video files.


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## owlelope (Jan 29, 2009)

*segmented coffee mug*

I use 12 segments in my mugs. I made a wedgie sled (http://www.segeasy.com/wedgiesledplan1.pdf) to use on the table saw. This works really great and it is a lot faster than using a miter saw. I don't have a good bandsaw so this method works really great for me. You don't have to buy the wedgies. I made my own for 8,10,12 and 16 piece segments using the miter saw. They work great. I glue mine up using hose clamps in one piece and I don't have any problem with the fit. I make mine using a 4 inch diameter. This is a little oversize but it gives me a margin of error when turning. I use a 2 1/8, 2 1/4 and 2 1/2 inch forstner bit to drill out the inside. I don't have to cut much to get the insert to fit.


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## thenodemaster (Jun 14, 2015)

I made a similar sled for my band saw as this was the best tool I had for doing it. The rings of the mug are 12 segments. I used the Segmented Project Planner which let me know what the length and angle of the segments. As my sled if adjustable, I can vary the angle based on the number of segments and made positive stops for the popular numbers of segments. I have the segments at 1" in width which only needs a slight shave from my forstner bit. I, too, use a 4" diameter as this seems to be the sweet spot for getting this done.

Will work a bit on my technique a bit, but looks to be a good approach for being able to make and sell for a reasonable amount of enjoyment and a few $$$ profit.


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