Valentine’s is just around the corner so here’s a super easy project that you can make for mom, grandma, or your girlfriend. The triple bud vase is so easy you can have the kids help you too. This is a very easy simple project is perfect for woodworking for beginners to create something beautiful and homemade.

Tools and Materials

The materials for this bud vase are super simple. You will need a piece of wood that’s about four or five inches wide and a foot long. You can choose your wood species but it would look great in Cherry which is the wood I chose or a Flame Maple. And of course any of the exotics would be excellent.

The piece of cherry that I chose was actually a piece of salvage from a bed headboard from my grandmother. So it has a bit of family history which makes it a bit more important.

With regard to tools, this project is so simple you only need a couple. Really all you need is a drill, a 1” drill bit, a hand saw, and some sandpaper. I of course have other tools so I used a radial arm saw and my table saw along with my router, an eighth inch roundover bit, and of course my orbital Sander. These tools made this job very fast and very easy.

Sketch

The dimension sketch is below. Make sure if you’re going to use this that you measure the diameter and length of the glass tubes you’re going to use as vases and adjust any dimensions as needed to accommodate.

Cutting

The first step for this project for me was to rip the board into two inch wide sections. I took this over to my table saw and made very short work of it. One thing to remember for this project throughout is that the dimensions are not super critical. For instance the 2 inch width could have been 2-1/4” or 1-3/4 or something in between.

Next, I went ahead and cross cut the pieces to the appropriate length. In my case this was 6 inches long for the top and the bottom and 3-1/4 inches long.

Layout

With the pieces cut now it’s time to do all the layout work. OK, the real layout work here is just where do I put the holes. For this I used a dimension sketch and dropped my three holes in the appropriate place. Then I went back and used my scratch all to mark the center points for my drill.

Drilling

At this point I chucked up a one inch Forstner bit and use two face tape to tape both pieces together. This insured that the top hole and the bottom depression matched exactly. The reason I did this is because the tubes are 0.95 inches in diameter so it’s basically a slip fit if the holes don’t line up then you won’t be able to install the tubes. I used a forstner bit for this project but you could use a spade bit too just make sure it has a short point so it doesn’t go through the bottom.

Assembly

This part of the project is why this is a kid friendly project because all you need to do is apply glue to four points and clamp it together. I didn’t bother clamping because I rubbed the joints and then let it sit overnight to make sure the glue was fully cured.

Sanding

After the glue was cured I use 220 grit sandpaper in my orbital Sander and sanded all the surfaces. This leveled everything out and got rid of all the squeeze out. I did not have any squeeze out on the inside but if you experience that you may need to take it small chisel and chisel it out. If your chisel is sharp this should be a very quick process.

Routing

The last major operation for this project was rounding over all the edges. I wanted all the edges to be nice and soft so I took an 1/8 inch roundover bit in my router and routed all the edges including the tops of the holes. Doing this on top of using the 220 grit sandpaper made everything on this project soft to the touch and soft to the eye.

Finishing

For a finish I decided on a spray lacquer. I decided on the lacquer for several reasons first this project isn’t going to be out anywhere and it’s not going to see any kind of weathering and quite frankly it’s only going to be used a few times every year on Valentine’s Day and birthdays and maybe one or two other occasions. So it won’t get a lot of handling and in the finish doesn’t need to be that resilient. I also like the lacquer finish because it gives it a great look. And it goes on fast and easy and dries quick so I can put on four coats in a fairly short time.

Well, I have to say this really is a very short and simple project. It went together fast and with the lacquer I tried quick. Now all I need to do just get a few rose buds for the 14th.