Square frusta

I made some square frusta today. What is that, you may ask? Well (imagine this is Ronald Reagan speaking), "frusta" is the plural of "frustum", which is something like a pyramid with its top cut off.

Why did I make the frusta, then? Because I needed to install some stainless steel light fixtures (see "Home Improvement" page of this blog, July 2011) and thought I was going to embed the frusta in our masonry wall and then drive woodscrews into them. It turned out to be easier to use screw anchors, though, so the frusta will be placed in storage, pending some later escapade.

To start with, I had some three-layer pine stock (the kind used to make Euro-windows) lying around, so using the miter saw I cut four pieces off it.

Then I cleaned them up and marked them for the first slanted cut.

This first slanted cut was also made on the miter saw.

Then I marked out the two final cuts (I'm leaving one side at a right angle to the base). These two would not be safe to cut on the miter saw, so I will cut them with a handsaw.

This picture shows the handsaw cut in progress. The workpiece is held to the bench using an F-clamp. There is a sacrificial board under the workpiece to protect the bench surface from the saw teeth.

The finished product:

Someday they will come in handy.