Newbie question

[Gary G]

Morning guys

I am new to scroll sawing and have probably made about a dozen pieces some of them have turned out not to bad, and some that have gone to light the fire pit. I’m struggling to get any different types of wood so am using pine and birch ply.

My question is I have come across some oak laminate flooring is this a possibility to cut and what finish can I expect or is it just going to end in more items for the fire pit, and me getting disheartened and another scroll saw ending up in a corner of a workshop collecting dust.

Great forum and some good advice for a newbie to the craft

Gary

 

[Claymore]

Gary why not give it a go, you can scroll allsorts of materials so worth experimenting. I don't actually do scrolling (just Intarsias) but i get 99% of my wood from charity shops/house clearance centres even carboots and have some lovely wood and its usually very cheap.
The flooring should be good for practising on and might look good with some wax on etc..... try giving it a good sanding and rub some wax on.
Have fun and welcome to the forum
Brian

 

[Chippygeoff]

Hi Gary. As Brian said, laminate flooring is okay to practice on but in practical terms it is not much good for anything else because of the hassle involved in getting an acceptable finish on it. On top of that the majority of laminate floring is made from MDF. You can buy solid wood flooring and as the prices of wood goes a pack is not a bad price when you shop around but the drawbacxk with this is that the underside of the solid wood flooring has channels grooved in it so again not really practical unless you want to go to the trouble of planing it down.

Brian has explained where he gets his wood and he has had some bargains. Another way is to contact some joinery shops in your area and ask if you can have a rake round in their skip or buy some off cuts. There are quite a few things you can make from ply and it lends itself quite well to fretwork such as portraits or animals.

 

[ChrisR]

Welcome to the forum Gary.

Brian and Geoff have given sound advice.

Take care.

Chris R

 

[Stooby]

Another option is to look on eBay for a box of offcuts, I have had 2 and they give a great range of woods. The second time I thought to ask and the seller kindly labled the wood with what species it was. I write to them and told them what I was using it for as I don't have a way of splitting or planning thicker wood.
I also have bought some different woods from Slec. They sell about 5 types in strips that are sure enough for some projects. They are very reliable on quality in my experience.

 

[marcros]

you may find that the laminate flooring instantly blunts your blade. I cross cut some on a table saw with a carbide tipped blade, and after a couple of dozen cuts the blade needed resharpening. It wasnt newly sharpened before, but it certainly needed it afterwards.

 

[Gary G]

Thanks for all the info

Marcros you are right it does blunt the blade pretty quick.

I have seen those boxes of off cuts on Ebay so I might give them a try, good idea to ask them to mark up the different types of wood.

 

[nadnerb]

Hi Gary
be very careful of dust ,not only is this mdf, but the finish that is used on laminate boards is HIGHLY toxic, I found this out when i made a stand for a craft fair last year and ended up in the emergency room with a severe allergic reaction, even though I was wearing a good quality dust mask. The doctor told me that the dust is so fine that it can even be absorbed through your skin and eyes I spoke to a carpenter who installs these type of wooden floors and he won't even burn the offcuts in his fire.
Regards
Brendan

 

[Gary G]

Thanks Brendan