Timber for scroll saws

[Chippygeoff]

Hi Guys and Girls.

I am counting the days now to when I get my scroll saw and as the days fly past my thoughts turn more and more towards timber and I am sure that most of you have come up against the same problem. Being scrollers you will use a variety of timbers in a variety of thicknesses and the way I look at the situation we would like to have a couple of shelves stacked with lovely hardwoods that are planed on both sides and already to go. Being an ex-chippy and a keen wood turner I have a pile of tools including a band saw and several hand planes and initially I suppose I will do what I can with the various hardwoods that I have but surely there are places out there where we can buy hardwoods that are prepared for scroll sawing. At some point I will buy a thicknesser so I can prepare all my own timber.

I am thinking of wood for children's names along with some intarsia. I had a walk round B and Q today and looked at the laminate flooring, they had a lovely American cherry there on special offer at £10 a pack. I know it is a veneer on top of 1/4 MDF but is this suitable for certain types of scroll work, obviously you can get this flooring in every shade and tree type you can think of. If any of you do use this do you stain the sides so it all looks the same. I often read post where things are made from ply and while I was in B and Q I noticed they do 1/8th and 1/4 ply but it looked so uninteresting so if you use plywood how do you make it presentable when you have made something. I look forward to hearing your comments.

Geoff.

 

[Blister]

A good place to start is with 1/4" Birch ply

Make sure it is Birch ply and not Birch faced ply

Most decent timber suppliers will offer a cutting service so a sheet can be cut to manageable size stock

 

[stevebuk]

it depends on what you want to do Geoff, if its cut names that stand up themselves then you need something with a more substantial thickness than MDf or plywood. You could use pine if you want to paint it, i use piranha pine for some of my stuff, not many knots and harder than normal pine. I also use loads of offcuts of maple, ash, mahogany and oak for names ect.

I have emailed you anyway, so if you need more help, just ask..

PS, yes the laminate flooring is ok to use to, just make sure you take the tongue and groove off the piece before applying pattern and cutting, DAMHIKT