DIY flag complete.

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend! We sure are at my house.

I finished the flag! By my count, this is my eighth flag. I think I'm getting better at making them, but every one has been a little bit different. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the first flag that I've made where I retained the sawmill marks (and recreated some of them). I think it makes the flag more interesting and I plan on doing this a lot in the future.

Today was basically just assembly day. I use one-inch deck screws with a torx (star) head to assemble my flags. The frame behind the flag is made of 3/4-inch plywood (cabinet grade). There is glue holding the whole thing together as well. If you know anything about wood and wood glue, you know that when the proper kind of glue is properly applied, it is stronger than the wood itself, so I'm pretty confident in this construction.

I used four long strips and one rectangular strip. The long strips obviously hold the stripes together and hold the stripes to the union. The big block is there to keep the union aligned with the stripes on the top half of the flag.

After Adding the frame, I added the French cleat and spacer. To make installation of the flag on the wall easier, I have a little trick that I do.

I clamp the flag vertically against my miter saw station fence and use shims to get it perfectly level across the top (checking with a level, of course). Then, I know that if I install the French cleat perfectly level, it'll be parallel to the top of the flag.

Now, to put the flag on the wall, all you have to do is install the other half of the French cleat perfectly level on the wall. It's just a 22-inch section of 3/4-inch plywood that's about 2 inches wide, so it's very easy to handle; MUCH easier to handle than a 40-lb flag. Once the French cleat is installed on the wall, you just hang the flag on it. It's a good strong method for hanging the flag and it's easy to put up.

This is what the French cleat looks like from the side. The small support piece on the bottom just rests against the wall to add stability.

Well, that's it. Done and done. I like how the sapwood on the three bottom white stripes came out.