David Artsmith  -  Beverage coasters protect desks and other pieces of furniture from burns, warping, moisture and spills. They are therefore indispensable accessories for the kitchen, living room or parlor. They help you to keep your coffee table, dining table or drinking surface neat and dry. Coasters can be costly especially if they are made of quality and exotic materials. You can make you own drink coaster if you are on a budget or simply want to try it out as a hobby.

We shall look at a simple way to make drink coasters from discarded materials. The type we are going to do is called a vinyl coaster and as the name suggests, it is made from the vinyl material. These drink coasters are durable, dust proof and easily washable. So you are going to get a lasting coaster that can be reused over and over.

You will need 1 vinyl record, heat, and a drill for the beverage coasters. For the benefit of young readers, a vinyl record is an old type of sound media. It is commonly called a record. They used to be the main way of storing and listening to music, until the invention of cassette tapes and CD’s.

Now, if you look at a vinyl record carefully, you will notice that it has a label part and the grooved part. The label part is in the middle of the record and the grooved section around it. We are going to cut off the grooved part so we can get the middle circular potion for our coaster.

To get the label out, you will need to heat the record lightly. This will make it soft so you can use the drill to cut off the label part. After doing so, you may have rough edges. Use sandpaper to brush the circumference until you have a smooth edge all round.

To complete the effect place a piece of cork over the bottom of the coaster. The purpose of this is to fill in the gap in the records center, as well as to protect surfaces from scratches.

As you can see, its quite easy to make durable drink coasters for your home, without having to worry about elaborate expenses.

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