Gather at table

[applik]

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[Matty]

Sari, once again outstanding work, fantastic designs and layout on all 3 projects.
keep those chips flying
Matty

[pkunk]

Here is the latest. Its about 7.5 x 32" long. Took about 2 hours to carve and is done on an oak piece we bought at HD. The design is a set of seven oak leaves and one acorn. Then they are just placed and sized to suit the sign. I placed the lettering on top of the leaves for added effect.
This sign is going over a dining room table that is a little over ten feet long. One pic shows the sign the other is a closeup shot.

Shari

Fantastic! Red or white oak? I gathered that oak didn't carve well so I've never tried any Was there alot of clean up, sanding?

[applik]

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[pkunk]

Paul,
I think it's red oak. Not real sure. It does have a slight pink tint to it before it's stained. Would have to go back to homedepot and look. We bought several pieces and they are carving fine. Not anymore cleanup than usual. We normally don't do a lot of sanding on the pieces, just use the little dremel buffing wheels and a wire brush. I like the grain texture in the oak.

So far we've tried pine, fir, poplar, and oak. My favorite is still pine. We found a store in Flagstaff that sells specialty woods so we are going to drive over and take a look. I want to try some alder, but I can't find any on this mountain. Have to go try a different mountain.

I've decided to try just about every piece of wood I can get my hands on. Then I'll know what I like to carve and what seems to look the best.
Whenever I show a project, I'll try and post the wood used. I'd post the stains we use, but we sort of just mix up what we want each time.

I'll be glad when we get some woodworking tools. It would be nice to have some different shapes to these projects.

Anyone have any ideas what to do with all this sawdust? It ought to be good for something.

Shari

Shari, Alder & soft (bigleaf) maple both carve easily but leave lots of 'fuzzies'. I have lots of scraps of both. The true hardwoods like hard maple, hickory(fruitwoods/nutwoods) walnut, ash all carve like real smooth and require almost no cleanup. Also the machine cleans up with just a vacuuming w/ no sticky residue w/ them. Hope this helps.

[RobertP]

I did a few projects in Basswood, it carved very smooth.