Trivet Sticks

In drawn, anodised and knurled aluminium

Luca Perlini · February 21, 2018 · 2 min read

Let's make a trivet designed by the designer Luca Perlini.

It is a home DIY idea: a project that is simple to make but very effective.

We start from simple extruded aluminium tubes. Here we used aluminium anodised in light blue, purple and black, then knurled to give a very interesting decorative effect.

If you cannot find this material, you can use an aluminium tube with a 5 mm internal diameter, which is easy to find anodised in grey.

Cutting

Cut the bars to size: our sticks should be about 22 cm long. Mark the length on the piece and put it in a vice, protecting the bar with paper or a sponge so that the jaws do not scratch it.

Once the first piece is cut, place the second underneath it: you will use the first bar as a guide and get a second piece exactly the same length. It is a simple, precise and quick way to get pieces of equal length without measuring each one.

Cut the third piece in the same way.

Drilling

Mark the position of the hole on the stick, put it in the vice and fix the vice to the table of the pillar drill: the piece will then be centred. This way you can change the sticks to be drilled without marking every hole: just place them in the vice to get precise holes, always in the same spot.

The hole goes about 5 cm from the end of the stick. For a more precise hole, use drill bits of increasing size: first a 2 mm metal bit, then 3 mm and finally, only for the screw seats, 5.5 mm.

Deburring

Once the sticks are drilled, deburr them: remove all the chips and residue left by cutting and drilling with a metal file. Work gently, as aluminium is a soft material.