Making a dead blow mallet from quality Baltic Birch plywood, using the X-carve. Wooden mallets are extremely handy in a woodshop, so I made a couple different sizes.
Watch exactly how I did it:
15 minutes
You can use my design by downloading the SVG above (you can scale it to whatever size you like), or design your own. Designed mine in sketchup. For the purposes of these instructions, I’ll assume your using my design at 14" long, made from 1/2" plywood.
40 minutes
Cut the parts out of high-quality Baltic Birch plywood. Remember to use tabs.
10 minutes
Glue the two handle pieces together, keeping them as well aligned as you can. When the glue is dry, you can use a flush trim router bit to take care of any misalignment that occurred, then use a rounder bit (3/8" works well) to round over the handle, but stop before you get to the head.
10 minutes
Round over the bottom (the side with the wavy curve) of the head sides, and glue one of them to the handle.
10 minutes
Fill the head about 80% full of BB’s. Then glue on the second head side.
15 minutes
Trim the head layers all flush. Add a roundover to the top of the head, and a smaller roundover (I used 1/8") to the ends. Sand the mallet down, and give it your choice of finish. Now its done and ready to use!
