where is the wood

[Samfire]

I have set up my new scrollsaw and done a few practise cuts, but I can not find any quarter inch thick wood. Where does everybody else get it?

 

[zodiac]

Sand some thicker stuff down ...

ok just kidding. I was wondering this myself actually, will be waiting to see the replies here (solid wood, as opposed to ply which can be bought loads of places in many thick(thin)nesses

 

[Kalimna]

Actually, if you have a power sander, you could just sand to thickness, but wouldn't be terribly accurate. Failing that, get a hand plane and thickness some timber the old fashioned way, but can take a bit of practice to get quick and accurate in dimension.
Or, go to somewhere like http://www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/Woods_ ... xmaker.asp for per-thicknessed timber in a variety of species.

Enjoy,
Adam

 

[Bryan Bennett]

That is a very good question,you should be able to buy 6 mm plywood most places.The only place that I buy 6mm proper wood is a www.alwayshobbies.com they have panels 4in wide and two different lenghs,and some different types of wood.

Bryan

 

[mac1012]

what are you making that you need wood only 6mm thickness ?

That is quite thin and a big ask , I have made work in different woods but that thin it wood be birch ply the popular wood is quality birch plywood and a lot of plans are for 6 ,12mm ,18mm etc


at the moment I am using 20mm pine , Geoff on here makes his stuff from I think 18mm hardwoods , if it needs to be 6mm hardwood then you are going to be limited buying from stock I guess you could use a thicknesser or bandsaw to get that thin

mark

 

[martinka]

slightly off topic, but I wanted some 6mm dowel and as we were near B&Q I nipped in and bought a 900mm piece for about a quid, which I thought was a bit expensive, but easier than turning more old paint brush handles. We then went into the local cheap bookstore and my O/H found a game called 'Pick Up Sticks' which contained 41 x 480mm 6mm diameter rods, Bit cheaper than B&Q at £2.99 for about 18m.

I was also tempted by a paint palette which looked like it might be birch ply, but at the same price I decided it was too much.

Martin.

 

[Samfire]

Thank you all for your suggestions, who would have thought it would be so hard to get some wood. I thinks I will try some wood from Alwayshobbies.com first as per Bryan's suggestion and see how it goes from there. There are so many projects I want to try with my scroll saw, but I will try them all eventually.

Because I do pyrography, I thought I make some boxes first to put some of my designs on. I will post a picture when I complete something that looks half decent.

 

[Chippygeoff]

Hi. You will find that 1/4 inch hardwood will be very unstable, it will cup and warp despite keeping it flat. If you want wood that thin then use ply or MDF but be very careful with MDF and always use a mask and some form of dust extraction. As Mark said, I use 18mm hardwood for most of the things I make and do not have any problems at all, it will be considerably slower cutting thicker material. If you want some exercises in cutting I would suggest getting some nice quality 6mm birch plywood and making Christmas decorations, there are many free patterns available. If you get stuck PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you some patterns.

 

[Samfire]

Hi, thanks for all your replies. Thanks for the offer of some plans Chippygeoff, but I've got 2 books full of them and another on the way. I'm surprised that 6mm is considered thin and unusual because the book I have "Making Boxes With A Scroll Saw" uses quarter inch thick timber in many of its projects. I guess it is easier to get on the other side of the pond and I don't think warping is an issue because the width of the wood is small maximum two inches and once it is made into a box it should be stable. However, I think I'm getting ahead of myself and will start at the beginning with something simple.

Plywood seems to be very popular so I will give it a try if somebody can point me in the right direction.

 

[Kalimna]

Just do a google for 6mm birch ply (or whatever thickness) and go for your nearest supplier. I'm up in Alloa, so not much knowledge of where might be local to Staffs I'm afraid...

Adam

 

[zodiac]

I try to reclaim wood wherever possible. For smaller items it works great, if you make big pieces of furniture then you aren't going to find what you need. I found a guy on ebay who gets pallets from work with plywood screwed to it, sells them for four quid each Also, I keep an eye out on facebook selling groups as well as ebay for anything made of solid wood that I can dismantle, as quite often there are thinner pieces to be gained than can be bought off the shelf ;-)