re-carving pine

[Gman_Ind]

I have been away for awhile I bought several pinball machines I am restoring.
I am working on a weird project, my friend's father cut out some Michigan mittens, carved some pine trees on them and now wants me to carve in some text.
Welcome across the bottom and you are here mid state.
I traced the mitten and cutout a special sled with a 1/4" piece formint the bottom.
I don't usually carve pine and the slamm lettering is chipping out insode of the A and R's
Based on what I have read here I picked up some wood hardener (for rotted wood) and it is curing as I post.
I will post photo's once I get back to the shop.
I am hoping the hardener will do the trick to hold the letters together.
the scroll saw work is not too precise so I have to relieve the mitten cutout for each mitten.
It really would have been faster to carve the whole thing out of Maple than futz around with the pre-cit pine.
He has signed the back of the project already, he plans on giving these away during Xmas.

[TCboy]

can't wait to see the final cuts. Im sure they'll turn out great!

[Gman_Ind]

I tested the first 'hardened' pine last nite, no good same chipping.
Next I am going to try to reduce the cut depth of the lettering. the carved piece is a bit thicker than the carrier. the tape build up on the sled is where the tool length is set.
Hard to see in the photo but chipout occurs in the R and A along with the E letters.
the majority of the project is pre made I am just carving text in.

[rjustice]

Mike,
I assume you are using the carving bit for this... You might try a smaller tool in one of the 1/8 bit adapters that i have been selling. This has worked well for me. Did you do the text in Centerline? If not, that would help a lot as well.

Ron

[Kenm810]

Hey Mike,

This is a thought or idea I used some time ago, when I needed to put some text on a few soft wood plaques that kept chipping out. I had to save the one I had already done and didn’t want to mess up any more. So I put the text small rectangles of some nice cherry that complemented the wood of the plaques. It worked out well. Maybe a small disc or arrow made of hard wood might work for your project. Just a thought.

[Gman_Ind]

I am using 1/8" adapter from Ron, with a 60 Vee Dremel bit, it works fine in hardwood.
I noticed that my sled was a tiny bit lower than the part. This made the carving too deep in the pine. I built up the sled with paper shims and taped across the area where the machine finds the surface. This made a shallower cut and a huge difference on the chipout. The shallower cut looks good I am going to run the first ones thru the sander to get rid of the bad lettering and re run them. Notice the gap I created with shims on the edge view.
I like Ken's idea,but the 'customer' is going to wood burn an arrow to the place on the mitten where they are from.
Next I have to carve into what looks like Ohio, dang Buckeye won't fit in my Jig.

[jimnjenny]

Hi Gman, what font are you using on your piece? and what is your depth cut. All my text is turning out really bad and really rough, I am using birch right now just for cost savings and I know its not good wood for quality pieces. Also, do you (actually does everybody) use a dremel to find tune your pieces. I had this dumb idea that the cw did all the work but I have just realized this morning that you have to do some hand sanding. I woke up with that in my brain, this machine is driving me crazy. Thanks, Jenny

btw, I am using best for my resolution.

[Kenm810]

Hey jimnjenny,

Yup we do, often different woods leave us with fuzzys we have to file or sand to clean them up,
even some of the text fonts are not alway up to par,
and need a little TLC to get them to look the way we like.

[rjustice]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for using the Bit adapters that I make and sell, I really appreciate it!... As far as the tool you are using, is it one of the tools that looks more like a carbide burr? If so, it could be that there is simply not enough chip clearance to get them out during the cut, therefore pushing and chipping the wood. I have a single flute engraving tool that i offer that is available in the 1/8 shank, in both the 60 and 90 degree tip. It has worked very well for me.

Ron

[Gman_Ind]

Ron,
Your adapter it first rate quality. A bit expensive but thats what hand made small runs will cost.
I should try your smaller bits, how can I get some to try? The Dremel tool I use has little chip clearance, it sorta burns the hard maple as it cuts, I actually like the effect. BUT in the pine the extra side pressure probably is probably chipping the weaker pine.
I never put birch in my machine but the white Birch I used to have was fairly hard. Not quite sugar Maple or oak nor Hickory but harder than poplar.
BTW I found poplar/aspen is very prone to the Fuzzies, it does not shear as clean as other hardwoods.
I used a simple Arial font, Centerline.