Project advice?

[Calv]

Hi there,

I'm looking at making my own version of what is known in the craft world as an M & F board, a board on which you can mark out and crease a piece of card withing seconds and make it into a card box to suit whatever you want to put in it. Now the actual board looks something like this.....well this is a wooden version of the board....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 08556&rd=1

Now all i'm needing is a piece of wood for the main board and a piece of battening or similar for the edge, what i'm needing to do though is mark the board with the very shallow grooves like in the picture above. They are only about a millimetre deep, just enough to plave a piece of card over them and use a crease tool to score a shallow indentation along the card where you want to fold. What would you say would be the easiest way for me to create these straight and smooth grooves in this way? I have no machines available to me, only very basic tools so if no ideas are available i was going to have to try a stanley knife and a ruler to cut them as shallow as poss.

Any ideas most welcome.

Calv x

 

[thomaskennedy]

Hi,

In my opinion a stanley knife is a bit risky, sometimes it has a tendancy to follow the grain, which will result in a ruined piece if you slip up...If you do go for a stanley, then just take your time...

The other way you could do it is use a saw with a thin blade, such as a coping saw or a dovetail saw...and use a straight edge to keep the saw blade against, to ensure you get a good straight cut...

But i suppose by the time you have bought the materials, then you could have bought one off ebay for the same price :roll:

Anyone got any more ideas?

Hope this helps,

Ta, Tom

 

[Calv]

Yeah that was what i was thinking lol.......could save a lot of time just getting this one instead, but i guess for what is just a bit of board with a few grooves in it, i don't like the thought of being conned lol. Plus i like the idea of seeing if i can do it myself and the end result being all my own work......that make sense?

Thanks for your help....

Calv.

 

[thomaskennedy]

lol, of course that makes sense thats why all of us on here make our own furniture rather than buying it

Ta, Tom

 

[DaveL]

Calv,

You know what you need for making the grooves?


A scratch stock :shock:

 

[Midnight]

Calv

SWMBO is at me to make the exact same thing for her; I figured I'd simplify it by just putting a single groove into the board under the guide fence, and adding a ruler against the bottom stop... measure the card... insert to half way... score the line...

Personally I Wouldn't use a Stanley for the very reason Tom mentioned; for safety / accuracy I'd prefer to use either a router and V groove bit or a scratch stock...

 

[Anonymous]

hi calv,
a quick and easy and cheap way to create a groove in timber is to
mount a screw in a scrap piece of timber , hopefully 'L' shaped,the bottom
portion of the "L" being used has the fence for the workpiece,you can lower the screw every so often to set depth ,or even upgrade to a bigger screw.
cool.

 

[Alf]

A screw?! That's fancy. Heck, a nail would probably do it. :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Terry Smart]

Boy I'm getting addicted to this forum, reading things I don't have a use for or really even know much about...

But I just wanted to say what a fantastically simple but useful idea Bobby has suggested.

I'd never have thought of it... guess my mind is tuned to higher things! :?

Love the idea of 'upgrading' to a bigger screw!

 

[dedee]

Boy I'm getting addicted to this forum

Terry
The only known cure is a job that does not allow web access and a computerless home.

Andy

 

[mudman]

Oops, just reminded men that I have also promised one of these for LOML.

I saw them on QVC and thought that although a really good idea, I would be loathe to shell out that amount for a lump of mdf.


Bobby, I like the screw idea. May just score a few points this weekend with it.

 

[Vormulac]

Bobby, I like the screw idea. May just score a few points this weekend with it.

Oh the puns, the horrible puns...



V.

 

[mudman]

You know, that was completely unintentional!

Not bad though.

I like puns, especially current puns. :roll:

 

[Calv]

K done it now so thanks for all the suggestions....

I did it on very bare materials because i'm impatient lol....

The way i managed it in the end was like this....

1. Get a bit of board for the main base, i used a bit of thin mdf measuring 40cm x 30 cm approx, not sure what the proper size board measures but this one does me anyway.

2. Along the edge of one of the sides goes a thing called a Butt Board.....or just a bit of battening about an inch wide, this acts as something you can push your piece of card up to before you start scoring it. Make sure the battening is flush with the main base so the card won't slide under it when pushed against it.

3. All thats left now is to make the grooves. I'm not sure what the specific measurements are on a real one, so if you could get hold of one to "look at" :wink: and take down a couple of measurements that would be handy. Starting from the Butt Board, i just marked out lines at 1cm apart for about 10cm, there are other grooves on there too but to be quite honest i was'nt too clued up on how to use those but they are there for use with different size boxes. Once the lines are drawn, i got a stanley knife and carefully cut either side of the drawn lines about a mm either side, then cut out the middle of these knife marks giving you a trough/groove the length of the board. I then was able to rest a normal big wood saw on the groove and gently saw a few times so that the groove was about 2mm deep and the width of a saw blade. This only has to be done a few times as you don't want to cut too deep.

4. Lastly it was just a case of sanding and varnishing if wanted.

I got a friend of mine to email me the instructions to her board which she did, to be quite honest they are a bit confusing though. I just went into the nearest craft shop and asked the person there if they could give me a demo of how the box making board worked, from that you can get a
rough idea how to do it. The score lines on the real board are set to the most popular sizes in use today, but for instance i needed a particular size box so i just cut the grooves to suit..

This probably still sounds confusing so when i sort some pics out i'll post them on here k.

Thanks again for the help....

Calv.