COIN BANK

Every year our Woodworkers Guild makes wooden gifts to hand out to needy children at Christmas time. I always try to come up with ideas that can be welcomed by either boys or girls. This year I decided to make some banks.

I glued two 2x6s together to make the bank 3” deep.

With carbon paper, I traced out the shape I wanted, onto the 2×6.

With a bandsaw, I cut out the shape. I didn’t cut the mouth, out at this time yet.

With a bandsaw again, I then sliced ¼” off the back side. Then I cut out the belly of the whale, and at the same time, cutting the coin slot on the top.

Now you want to do the finish sanding on the inside of the coin compartment, using a spindle sander. Then glue the ¼” slice back on. Don’t attempt to sand the back slice before gluing it back on. If you did, it wouldn’t fit tight, when gluing it back on to the body.

After gluing the back side on, you can now cut out the mouth, then sand it all, run a small roundover router bit on all the edges, and put your favorite finish on it.

To make the coin access under the whale, I used a 1 3/8” forstner bit, on the drill press, drilling it in until I could barely see the center point of the bit poke through the inside. Then I finished out the hole with a 1 1/8” hole saw. This left a 1/8” shoulder to hold the 1 ¼” dowel that I used for a plug. Using a 1 ¼” forstner bit I recessed a hole for some 1” fender washers to hold the plug in place. By slicing off a side of the washer, you don’t have to completely remove the washer in order to remove the plug.

I used the bandsaw to cut the acrylic. Then sanded the edges smooth with a belt sander. When drilling the screw holes in acrylic, don’t push the bit while drilling. Just take your time and let the drill bit melt its way through. Then after a few seconds, when the acrylic cools and hardens again, run the bit through the hole again, to clean the hole out.

I used this project to experiment with different finishes, since they didn’t have to match at all.

#whalebank #woodencoinbank #woodenpiggybank