Chippygeoff
Established Member
I get a few enquiries relating to wood preparation and the best way to tackle a project so I thought I would share the process for the benefit of the newer members. Firstly my wood comes to me planed and I do nothing to it at this stage apart from cutting off pieces to suit the patterns I am going to use.
The next stage is to cover the wood with 2 inch wide masking tape and using stick glue fix the pattern to the wood, ensuring there is enough wood between the outside of the pattern and the edge of the wood and this can be as little as 1/8th of an inch or for the younger members, a few millimetre’s, I always work in the old money.
I then cover the pattern with 2 inch wide clear packing tape, this does several things, it reduces the amount of friction between the blade and the wood which means that the blade will cut faster. Also it helps to reduce the heat on the blade making it last longer. A lot of blades break because they become to hot, they then become brittle and break.
We are now ready to cut the pattern out and I always start by cutting the outside first and there is a very good reason for this. A lot of wood is never completely flat and as a result we get chatter, or if the wood is a bit cupped or warped, bounce and when we get bounce it is a lot more difficult to control the blade as it cuts the wood. I use a belt/disc sander to get the wood as flat as I can. By cutting the outside first we reduce the amount of wood that is in contact with the scroll saw table and thus reducing the chance of any chatter even further.
Once the outside has been cut away we can now drill the pilot holes for the internal cuts. I have an old piece of wood on the pillar drill table and my piece of wood rest on that. Always try and drill the holes close to a point, or where the cut out narrows. The reason for this is that we only have to cut a very short distance, back the blade up and then back it back in facing the other way so we are ready to make the first cut on the line of the cut out, also remember that where we start the cut we will end the cut so we don’t want any ugly nibs when we end the cut, just before you get to the starting point you can clearly see where the cut must end and steer the blade accordingly. For the newbie this will take a bit of practice to get it right, if you get it wrong you can actually use the blade to shave off small amounts of wood, otherwise it is a case of putting things right with needle files.
When all the pilot holes have been drilled sand the back of the wood, this is very important. When we are drilling pilot holes the drill bit will break through the back of the wood and it is not a clean hole, there are little bits of wood sticking out at all angles and if you have drilled a lot of pilot holes the back of the wood will look like bomb craters and when cutting on the scroll saw you will get a lot of chatter so always sand the back of the wood off first before starting to cut.
When all the cut outs have been made we can remove the masking tape, if you start to peel it off at the bottom of the pattern it will peel off in one piece, but if you start at the top you will have to peel off the individual strips of masking tape. Once the pattern has been removed I will sand off both sides of the wood, sanding the back to remove 99 percent of the fuzzies and the front to achieve a smooth surface ready for the finish. Basically the project is now finished apart from what finish we are going to use. Soon after I started scrolling I would look at the thing I had made at the stage we are now at and with certain items I had made they did not look complete, it was the square edge on everything that did not look right, it’s okay of a lot of things like name signs but on others the square edge needed rounding over so I bought a selection of round over bits for the router table.
The end result was amazing, it added another dimension to the work I was doing, for my customers they had so much more appeal, they were more professional looking. Today almost everything I make goes on the router table. Usually rounding over bits, or to give them their proper name, ovolo bits, usually come with two guide rollers. If you use the smaller one you will get a step in the wood and I hate this as it spoils the effect so I always use the larger guide. If the cutter is raised to high in the router table you will get a step on the bottom and again I want to avoid this, so it’s a matter of very fine adjustments and trying it each time on scrap wood until the rounding over is perfect.
When you have gone all round the piece you need to hand sand where the router bit has gone across the grain of the wood, it only takes a few seconds and I use something like 180 grit abrasive to obtain a super smooth finish like a babies bottom. I hope this has been of some help to the newer members, if you have any questions just ask and I will do my best to answer them. Happy scrolling.
The next stage is to cover the wood with 2 inch wide masking tape and using stick glue fix the pattern to the wood, ensuring there is enough wood between the outside of the pattern and the edge of the wood and this can be as little as 1/8th of an inch or for the younger members, a few millimetre’s, I always work in the old money.
I then cover the pattern with 2 inch wide clear packing tape, this does several things, it reduces the amount of friction between the blade and the wood which means that the blade will cut faster. Also it helps to reduce the heat on the blade making it last longer. A lot of blades break because they become to hot, they then become brittle and break.
We are now ready to cut the pattern out and I always start by cutting the outside first and there is a very good reason for this. A lot of wood is never completely flat and as a result we get chatter, or if the wood is a bit cupped or warped, bounce and when we get bounce it is a lot more difficult to control the blade as it cuts the wood. I use a belt/disc sander to get the wood as flat as I can. By cutting the outside first we reduce the amount of wood that is in contact with the scroll saw table and thus reducing the chance of any chatter even further.
Once the outside has been cut away we can now drill the pilot holes for the internal cuts. I have an old piece of wood on the pillar drill table and my piece of wood rest on that. Always try and drill the holes close to a point, or where the cut out narrows. The reason for this is that we only have to cut a very short distance, back the blade up and then back it back in facing the other way so we are ready to make the first cut on the line of the cut out, also remember that where we start the cut we will end the cut so we don’t want any ugly nibs when we end the cut, just before you get to the starting point you can clearly see where the cut must end and steer the blade accordingly. For the newbie this will take a bit of practice to get it right, if you get it wrong you can actually use the blade to shave off small amounts of wood, otherwise it is a case of putting things right with needle files.
When all the pilot holes have been drilled sand the back of the wood, this is very important. When we are drilling pilot holes the drill bit will break through the back of the wood and it is not a clean hole, there are little bits of wood sticking out at all angles and if you have drilled a lot of pilot holes the back of the wood will look like bomb craters and when cutting on the scroll saw you will get a lot of chatter so always sand the back of the wood off first before starting to cut.
When all the cut outs have been made we can remove the masking tape, if you start to peel it off at the bottom of the pattern it will peel off in one piece, but if you start at the top you will have to peel off the individual strips of masking tape. Once the pattern has been removed I will sand off both sides of the wood, sanding the back to remove 99 percent of the fuzzies and the front to achieve a smooth surface ready for the finish. Basically the project is now finished apart from what finish we are going to use. Soon after I started scrolling I would look at the thing I had made at the stage we are now at and with certain items I had made they did not look complete, it was the square edge on everything that did not look right, it’s okay of a lot of things like name signs but on others the square edge needed rounding over so I bought a selection of round over bits for the router table.
The end result was amazing, it added another dimension to the work I was doing, for my customers they had so much more appeal, they were more professional looking. Today almost everything I make goes on the router table. Usually rounding over bits, or to give them their proper name, ovolo bits, usually come with two guide rollers. If you use the smaller one you will get a step in the wood and I hate this as it spoils the effect so I always use the larger guide. If the cutter is raised to high in the router table you will get a step on the bottom and again I want to avoid this, so it’s a matter of very fine adjustments and trying it each time on scrap wood until the rounding over is perfect.
When you have gone all round the piece you need to hand sand where the router bit has gone across the grain of the wood, it only takes a few seconds and I use something like 180 grit abrasive to obtain a super smooth finish like a babies bottom. I hope this has been of some help to the newer members, if you have any questions just ask and I will do my best to answer them. Happy scrolling.
