I made a bunch of trivets one Christmas to give to people. The waffle styles ones were super easy to make. I cut out squares of the whatever 4/4 wood I was going to use and then put a 1/2″ dado stack on the table saw. I then adjust it to be approximately half the height of the squares, maybe 1/16″ over half. Then I got my fence setup at the right distance, cut one side, rotate it 180 degrees, cut another, flip it and rotate 90 degrees, cut one side of the bottom, and finally rotate 180 degrees and cut it again. Then I’d move the fence over a little bit and do the same thing until they pretty much met in the middle.
Finally I made this as a Christmas present for my mother in law as she didn’t want a cutting board. It was a giant pain in the ass because I forgot to sand the slats before gluing them in. This is made from Red Oak and Bubinga. It was finished with mineral oil. The process to make it was fairly simple. I cut many 1/4″ rabbets into the bubinga stand pieces, cut the slats to length, and then slid them into the rabbets with some glue. If I had been more careful with the glue and maybe remember to sand the slats before gluing them in it may have been an easier process.
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