new member

[Allejo]

Hello everybody. just joined. just started scroll sawing. Just made a mistake with a peice of wood.
I made a little plaque for hanging keys on, which I am very proud of. Then the wood snapped on one of the letters and was likely to snap on others. Did I assume correctly. Have I cut the grain the wrong way.How should I cut it?

[greatdane2]

It sounds like the grain could be the problem. if the break is clean you could use a clear drying glue to fix it. You could also cut a thin 1/8 plywood backer, that is cut a bit smaller so it wont be seen when you hang it on the wall. Just glue it on and you should not have anymore problems.
And wellcome to the crew. Feel free to ask questions, we all started out not knowing what we were doing.

Alan.

[Allejo]

thanks for that Alan. I've glued the culprit together and it's fine but the wood was quite a soft wood so perhaps a backing boarsd sounds like a brill Idea. Is it best to use plywood all the time or is it just as prefferable to use any type of wood.
Allan (with 2 L's)

[greatdane2]

I hardly ever cut a pattern that just has one piece, maybe others can answer that. On intarsia and Segmentation you have to use a backer to hold every thing together.
But the grain and the way the board was milled does affect the strenght of the finished piece.
I allways have a small bottle of good glue handy.

Alan.

[lucky788scroller]

Double L Al, Theres no real rule of thumb to use as to when not to, and when not to use plywood versus regular wood. Grain direction a lot of the time can be oriented to best suit the overall look as well as the strength of a project.Sometimes having fragile areas are unavoidable. For instance, if you were to cut out something like the word ALLAN.(as one word with the letters connected at the bottom).. It would look best with the grain running horizontally, but that makes it so the tops of the L's and the wing on the N would be fragile.If you used vertical grain direction, the fragile part becomes the bottom part of the L's and the slash part of the N , so its a tradeoff. Plywood would be stronger for this, but some things just need to be real wood, so your back to square one.I prefer solid hardwoods for just about everything I cut, but most can be done in plywood too. Also, some patterns dont allow for much wood to actually hold the project together after its cut, so dont be afraid to adjust your pattern a little to strengthen it up.I try to always have minimally 2 points where wood is held together, because just the stresses in the lumber can cause fragile areas to snap once youve cut away the wood around it. A backer is another option to you, but not really a necessity on most projects.

[jim_mex]

Hi Allejo - welcome to the board. As you can see you already have had lots of help and there's plenty more to be found if you ask the questions.

Ref grain v strength - If I can just add a newbie comment.

Its not a bad idea to start off using plywood provided you can get some good quality pieces. By this I mean plywood that has good dense inner layers and is not full of poor quality timber and holes.

Plywood is strong and very forgiving and allows you to concentrate on making a few pieces and getting used to your saw and also to realize where you need help in knowledge and techniques

Soon afterwards you'll probably want to switch to real wood but at least by then you should have gained some knowledge and confidence to tackle wood

And most important to me is that you should be proud of the piece you have already made! - that's the motivation to go one better the next time and even if you do make mistakes along the way - which you will - you can always seek advice and try again. Its all part of the learning curve and you'll find plenty of help and advice here.

Have fun!

[SNAPPER]

Agree with Jim.
Dean

[Allejo]

thanks everybody. I just like what I do so much I don't worry about the odd mistake. I cover it up. Ha Ha Ha. But seriously - thanks everybody for the interest and encouragement, I'll be keeping in touch.
Allan

[KathyRo]

Looks like your getting some good help, so I'll just say WELCOME Allejo
KathyRo