Last year, the teacher I work with found this (and many like it) scrapwood Christmas tree design on Pinterest.
Since evergreens are hard to find here in Dhaka he made it for his house. His neighbor, another teacher, liked it enough to make his own this year but without the green paint. Another teacher saw his tree and decided to make her own but much bigger!
With the new addition of the laser etcher this year we are able to step up our designs to make them so much more special! If I remember right, we cut the angle of the tree sides at 15 degree using the chop saw. The wood is a variety of red and white oak and plywood. She liked the unfinished look so we didn't do much sanding, just enough for splinters. We glued each piece to a piece of 4"x 3/4" plywood and then used the air nail gun for reinforcement. The shelves are glued the the one below it. We then built a base out of plywood (not pictured). Unfortunately, the base was not tall enough to support the height of the tree. The proud creator and owner of this tree was able to make it work at home by attaching a string from the upper middle of this six foot tall tree to the wall. As she has little kids she felt it was the best solution.
Secret Santa was starting up as the big tree was being finished up and it's become so popular that many more people want the tree. A smaller version made a great secret Santa gift!
With this little tree we "eye ball'd" the angle which turned out to be about 20 degrees. We planed the wood and sanded with a 220 grit with a power sander. We then etched the writing and glued. We felt nails holes, even in the back, would take away from the overall look of the tree and we believe that the pieces are small enough that the wood glue would do it's job well enough. The slats are red oak and the stand in the back is a 1" mahogany triangle. It is quite stable. It's about 2' tall. I was able to convince the creator of this tree that the unfinished look may not be best and it would hold up better if the wood was protected. We chose a wood finishing wax. It really brought out the grain of the wood and she was quite happy with the decision.
The final (so far) tree in this series, I made on my own. It is made almost exactly like the one above. The stand is the opposite side of the mahogany triangle. I used the best pieces of scrap wood I could find so it is a mix of red and white oak and mahogany. I liked the look and feel of the wood wax so I also finished the wood with it. The bottom piece of wood came with small bug holes in it so I felt that the nail holes could be excused especially since the owner of this tree will be moving across the world soon. I filled the nail holes with a mix of sawdust and finishing wax. It's not completely hidden but looks better than the wood putty would have. I believe that the wax will soon dry and perhaps crumble out someday but since I used an air nail it's a tiny hole. I'm not sure, with the finishing I chose, how to cover it any better.
I've had a few requests for more trees so I may make more small ones but perhaps not for this season, as Christmas break is upon us and most of us are leaving Dhaka for the holiday.
