Easy Bandsaw Project – Bandsaw Scoops

I recently found a box mattress and a headboard leaning up against the dumpster on my way to the shop. As long as it’s not actually in the dumpster I’ll salvage the wood from it. After ripping the bottom off the mattress I found that the entire frame is poplar. And the headboard is either maple or poplar for the rails and has oak posts. So I brought them back to the shop where they sat for about a week before I thought of a project where I could use some of the materials. I decided to make a few bandsaw scoops out of the oak posts on the headboard. I got the idea from Patrick’s Work Shop on YouTube. I’ll post his video at the bottom of this article.

I’m honestly not a huge hand tool kinda guy but sometimes a sharp hand saw is quicker than getting a power tool and extension cord out. I used the bottom of both headboard posts for this project.

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After removing all of the metal the old finish was removed at the table saw

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And the ends were first squared up then cut to length.

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I was left with four 3” x 3” x 6” blocks of oak for this project. Not too bad for wood that would otherwise be rotting in a land fill. I wanted to make each scoop different so I glued two of these blocks side by side as a larger scoop blank.

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For the smaller scoops I went with a traditional circular scoop shape and a square shape. As you can see by the blank on the left, one interior cut is needed and a matching exterior cut is offset by about 1/4″. Any scoop shape will work. I went with one circular and one square shape for the two smaller scoops. I made the larger scoop rectangular.

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And the bandsaw does all the work. I’m still using the same 3/16” 4 tooth per inch skip tooth blade that I purchased to make my cracked bandsaw boxes. Still cuts great!

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The larger scoop is cut the same way.

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To form the scoop you simply slide the interior cutoff to one side and glue it back in place. I made sure that all of mine were glued on by about 3/4” to 1” from the ends. The interior cutoff piece is now a nice chunk of material to shape for the handle.

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After drawing out a rough shape for the handle the remaining few cuts are made. Make sure you hold on to those offcuts. You might want to tape them back on for the lower cut. Also make sure you have enough support between the handle and the bandsaw table. When cutting out the larger scoop I put some scrap wood below the handle to prevent the blade from pulling the handle down. (see video above)

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The front top corners of each scoop were removed to make the scoops a little less “blocky.”

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I did the final shaping of the larger scoop by hand. My homemade sliding moxon vise was AWESOME for this. The vise is something that I should have made a long time ago. You can hold so many objects down with ease and its incredibly easy and cheap to make.

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To reduce the thickness of the scoop in the front I planed a long shallow chamfer with my cheap-o plane.

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Shaping the scoop by hand was a lot of fun but actually took a lot longer than I was planning on. So for the two smaller scoops I used my belt sander platform. The sander actually got so hot during this sanding session that the front wheel locked up. It’s an older sander that doesn’t use any bearings on the front wheel. It’s just a steel rod through what looks to be an aluminum wheel. I dissembled the front wheel, sprayed some white lithium grease, and was back in business. This sander refuses to die.

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I only had a 40 grit belt for the belt sander which left the scoops a little fuzzy. To smooth things out I clamped my random orbital sander in my vise and used it as a benchtop model. I normally would have just held the scoop in one hand and the sander in the other but recently I replaced the hook and loop pad on the sander and since then it has been hard to handle. I’m not sure if the new pad is not as balanced as the stock pad but the vibration from this sander is almost unbearable now.

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If it’s not a project for my wife or my shop I normally just give it away but I wanted to keep the larger scoop for myself to use with dog food. So to offer some protection I just used some mineral oil to finish them.

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In the end I think they turned out GREAT!

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As I said before the inspiration for this project came from Patrick’s Work Shop on YouTube. The cool thing about online woodworking is that it doesn’t matter if it’s your 200th video or your first video every one of us has the opportunity to teach or inspire someone else. That’s an amazing opportunity for all of us. I invite you to pick up a camera (or cell phone) and record your next project. You might just inspire someone to create something beautiful. Better yet, you might just end up changing someone’s life :)

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11 COMMENTS

  1. I would like to see how you cut out the square scoop. Blade size? How did you get a 90 degree turn on the band saw? My saw only allows for 1/8 blade at the smallest which doesn’t allow a 90 degree turn. Is it truly a square or slightly curved? Great videos. Thank you for sharing

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